       Document 0528
 DOCN  M9440528
 TI    HIV infection among drug abusers in the Belgrade area.
 DT    9404
 AU    Kilibarda M; Institute on Addictions, Belgrade.
 SO    Bull Narc. 1993;45(1):135-46. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/94138313
 AB    The abuse of heroin and other opiates by intravenous injection is
       identified as the major risk for the spread of infection by the human
       immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
       (AIDS) to the population at large. From 1980 to 1992, 2,712
       opiate-addicted intravenous drug users with severe complications and
       behavioural problems were treated at the Institute on Addictions,
       Belgrade; 2,090 of them were from the Belgrade area and 622 from other
       urban areas. All of them had used heroin by intravenous injection during
       a certain period of their addiction careers. A majority of the patients
       had started using heroin by the age of 20, and begun treatment after six
       or more years of addiction. An informal survey of heroin-addicted
       intravenous drug users newly admitted for treatment showed that every
       respondent knew from 10 to 20 other heroin users who had not sought
       treatment. It was estimated that a majority of intravenous drug users
       may not have been known to the authorities. Of 551
       intravenous-opiate-addicted patients from the Belgrade area tested
       between 1987 and 1992, 43.7 per cent were HIV-seropositive, or 47.9 per
       cent of HIV-seropositive males and 32.9 per cent of females, while for
       the same period, of 366 tested patients from other urban areas, 4.6 per
       cent were HIV-seropositive, 5.2 per cent of them males and 1.8 per cent
       females. The distribution by sex of the intravenous-opiate-addicted
       patients indicated that the percentage of females who started using
       heroin earlier in their lives and the percentage of those who sought
       treatment late--after six or more years of addiction--were higher than
       the corresponding percentages of males. Also, female patients tended to
       become infected with HIV earlier in their lives than male patients.
 DE    Adolescence  Adult  Age Factors  *Diacetylmorphine  Female  Human  HIV
       Seropositivity/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/*TRANSMISSION  Male  *Narcotics
       *Population Surveillance  Risk Factors  Sex Distribution  Substance
       Abuse Treatment Centers  Substance Abuse,
       Intravenous/*COMPLICATIONS/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/THERAPY  Urban Population
       Yugoslavia/EPIDEMIOLOGY  JOURNAL ARTICLE

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

