HIV prevalence remains high among people who inject drugs, with significant disparities by sex and region.

• People who inject drugs face a relatively much higher risk of HIV infection – around 14 times that of the global population aged 15-64 – with particularly elevated risks for women and young people who inject drugs.
• An estimated 1.7 million people who inject drugs were living with HIV in 2024 (nearly 1 in 8 of those who inject drugs), with the highest prevalence of people who inject drugs and were living with HIV in Southern Africa, followed by South-West Asia and Eastern Europe – nearly one in four reside in Eastern Europe.
• Women account for about one quarter of people who inject drugs globally but carry a higher burden of health and social consequences – they are 1.2 times more likely than men to be living with HIV.
• The vulnerability of women stems from conventional gender roles, and power structures and relations may also increase their vulnerability to unsafe sexual and injecting behaviours. Women who inject drugs are likely to have a male intimate partner who initiated them into drug use; they are also likely to ask their male partner to inject them. Women who use drugs, including those who inject drugs, are also vulnerable to gender-based violence and sexual abuse perpetrated both by their intimate partners and other people who use drugs around them, law enforcement officers and drug service providers.