Assessment of HIV Testing of Urban Injection Drug Users: Implications for Expansion of HIV Testing and Prevention Efforts
Robert Heimer, PhD,
Lauretta E. Grau, PhD,
Erin Curtin, MPH,
Kaveh Khoshnood, PhD and
Merrill Singer, PhD
Robert Heimer is with the Departments of Epidemiology and Public Health and Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn. Lauretta E. Grau and Kaveh Khoshnood are with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine. At the time the study was conducted, Erin Curtin was with the Yale University School of Public Health. Merrill Singer is with the Hispanic Health Council, Hartford, Conn.
FIGURE 1——Proportion of injection drug users (IDUs) who had received an HIV test and had never been informed of an HIV seropositive diagnosis, by years since last HIV test: Hartford, Conn; New Haven, Conn; Oakland, Conn; Springfield, Mass; and Chicago, Ill; 1998–2002.
Note. A total of 1130 IDUs reported being tested and did not report having been told that they were infected with HIV. The cumulative frequency of the percentage of these individuals who reported having been tested within a given number of years is represented.
FIGURE 2——Number of undetected infections among urban intravenous drug users (IDUs) in the United States.
Note. Starting with an estimate for the number of intravenous drug users in the 96 largest urban areas,24 the number of undetected infections among untested and previously tested IDUs is estimated.
