People who inject drugs are disproportionally affected by HIV. People who inject drugs who are living with or at risk of HIV include men, women, people in prisons, and people from other key populations, such as sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, and transgender people. In 2022, the relative risk of acquiring HIV was 14 times higher for people who inject drugs than for people in the overall adult population. Since 2019, only two of 26 reporting countries (Malaysia, Seychelles) have reported achieving the 2025 target of 50% use of opioid agonist maintenance therapy among people who inject drugs. Since 2019, among the 35 countries that reported the number of needles and syringes distributed per person who injects drugs per year by needle–syringe programmes, only three countries reported achieving the recommended more than 200 needles and syringes distributed per person who injects drugs per year. In the same period, only 11 of the 27 reporting countries achieved the 90% target on coverage of safe injecting practices.
