title: Racial and ethnic disparities and implications for the prevention of HIV among persons who inject drugs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There are now an estimated 16 million people who inject drugs (PWID) throughout the world, 3 million of whom are estimated to be infected with HIV. In many countries, substantial proportions of PWID belong to racial/ethnic/nationality minority groups, and are at increased likelihood of being infected with HIV. This article reviews current evidence on ethnic disparities in HIV infection among PWID and assesses the issues that would need to be addressed to reduce these disparities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An ongoing systematic review of ethnic disparities has found that, in a pooled weighted odds ratio, ethnic minority PWID are twice as likely to be HIV seropositive than ethnic majority, PWID from the same geographic area. If implemented with sufficient quality and coverage, current HIV prevention programs probably have the capability of ending HIV transmission among both ethnic majority and minority PWID. Large-scale, evidence-based prevention programs need to be implemented in the contexts of patterns of injecting drug use that continue to evolve-with injecting practices spreading to new areas, changes in drugs injected, and some transitions from injecting to noninjecting drug use. Lack of financial resources and policies against evidence-based programming are increasingly important problems that are likely to have particularly adverse effects on ethnic minority PWID.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Racial/ethnic/nationality disparities in HIV infection are quite common among PWID. Addressing these disparities will be a fundamental challenge within a human rights approach to public health.
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Don C D
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Jarlais
authors.forename: Hannah L F
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bramson
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deren
authors.forename: Angelos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hatzakis
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hagan
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods; D005006:Ethnicity; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D044469:Racial Groups; D012307:Risk Factors; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications*