Sexual behaviours of men who inject drugs in northeast India.

Background: Promoting safer sex behaviours among people who inject drugs is important as drug-using populations with high HIV prevalence can contribute to transition from a concentrated to a generalised epidemic. This study describes the sexual behaviours of men who inject drugs in two Northeast Indian states (Manipur and Nagaland) where HIV prevalence is high, with a focus on the HIV risks for their regular female sexual partners.

Methods: Data were obtained from two cross-sectional surveys combined (N = 3,362)-both conducted in 2009 using respondent-driven sampling to recruit men who injected drugs.

Injecting drug use in Manipur and Nagaland, Northeast India: injecting and sexual risk behaviours across age groups.

Background: There is an HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Manipur and Nagaland, Northeast India. Approximately one-third of PWID across these two states are aged below 25 years, yet until now there has been no systematic investigation of the differences between the younger and older PWID. We sought to profile differences in drug use and sexual practices across age groups and to examine whether age is associated with injecting and sexual risk behaviours.

HIV risk behaviors of male injecting drug users and associated non-condom use with regular female sexual partners in north-east India.

Background: In the context of increasing HIV prevalence among women in regular sexual partnerships, this paper examines the relationship between male injecting drug users' (IDUs) risky injecting practices and sexual risk behaviors with casual partners and inconsistent condom use with regular partners.

Methods: Data were drawn from the behavioral tracking survey, conducted in 2009 with 1,712 male IDUs in two districts each of Manipur and Nagaland states, in north-east India. IDUs' risky behaviors were determined using two measures: ever shared needles/syringes and engaged in unprotected sex with casual paid/unpaid female partners in the past 12 months.

Understanding the association between injecting and sexual risk behaviors of injecting drug users in Manipur and Nagaland, India.

Background: In India, as in rest of the world, HIV prevention programs have focused on HIV transmission through unsafe injecting practices with less attention on sexual risk behaviors among injecting drug users (IDUs). This study examines the sexual risk taking behaviors of IDUs associated with their pattern of drug use in India.

Methods: Data were obtained from the behavioral tracking survey conducted in 2009 among 1712 IDUs in two districts each of Manipur and Nagaland states in Northeastern part of India.

HIV risk behaviours among injecting drug users in Northeast India following scale-up of a targeted HIV prevention programme.

Background: In the Northeast Indian states of Manipur and Nagaland there has been an ongoing HIV epidemic among injecting drug users (IDUs) since the mid-1990s. Project ORCHID is an Avahan-funded HIV prevention project that has been working in selected districts of Manipur and Nagaland since 2004. It supports local partner non-government organisations (NGOs) to deliver a range of harm reduction interventions, and currently reaches approximately 14,500 IDUs across the two states.