       Document 0523
 DOCN  M9440523
 TI    Drug injecting and HIV infection among the population of drug abusers in
       Asia.
 DT    9404
 AU    Poshyachinda V; Institute of Health Research, Chulalongkorn University,
       Bangkok.
 SO    Bull Narc. 1993;45(1):77-90. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/94138318
 AB    Opium has been produced and consumed since the nineteenth century in the
       areas of Asia currently referred to as the Golden Crescent and the
       Golden Triangle. In the 1970s and 1980s, most countries from Afghanistan
       to Japan experienced a heroin epidemic of varying degrees of severity.
       Opium and heroin abuse appeared to be more severe in countries and areas
       where those drugs were produced, an exception being Hong Kong, which has
       had a large population of heroin abusers for more than two decades. Drug
       injecting was far more common in countries of the Golden Triangle than
       in those of the Golden Crescent. In Myanmar and Thailand, for example,
       up to 90 per cent of chronic heroin abusers practised intravenous
       injection, which appeared to spread to heroin abusers in nearby
       territories such as the State of Manipur in India. Yunnan province in
       China, as well as Malaysia and Viet Nam. Amphetamine abuse was more
       frequent in Japan and the Republic of Korea for a number of years, while
       illicit production and consumption in the Philippines have recently
       shown significant increases. The injection of amphetamines was common
       only in the Republic of Korea. The prevalence of injecting among
       institutionalized methamphetamine abusers was reported at about 90 per
       cent. Most countries in Asia first reported cases of infection with the
       human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the mid-1980s. An extremely rapid
       spead of the epidemic and high prevalence, at rates of from 30 to 90 per
       cent, of HIV infection among the sample of intravenous heroin abusers
       were observed in a few countries with a high prevalence of intravenous
       injecting, such as India (in the State of Manipur), Myanmar and
       Thailand. The rest had either few reported cases or none at all, even
       though needle-sharing was found to be common. Great caution should be
       exercised in interpreting prevalence because of vast differences in
       methods of assessment. Given the vulnerability of intravenous drug
       abusers to rapid transmission of HIV infection, the prevention of drug
       injecting is of paramount importance in arresting the spread of the
       epidemic. Efforts to contain drug abuse, though difficult, are a
       principal means of achieving that end.
 DE    Asia/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Human  HIV
       Infections/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/*ETIOLOGY/PREVENTION & CONTROL/  TRANSMISSION
       *HIV Seroprevalence  *Population Surveillance  Prevalence  Substance
       Abuse/*COMPLICATIONS/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Substance Abuse,
       Intravenous/*COMPLICATIONS/EPIDEMIOLOGY/  PREVENTION & CONTROL  JOURNAL
       ARTICLE  REVIEW  REVIEW LITERATURE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

