Sexual Behaviour, Intravenous Drug Use, and Perceived Susceptibility to HIV/AIDS: A Study among Drug Users in Manipur, India

Gurumurthy Rangaiyan, Population Council
Latashori Kethlapam, Independent Consultant

Research to prevent HIV transmission among injection drug user (IDU)populations have traditionally focused on the risk of HIV infection associated with the drug use itself. Little is known about the sexual behaviour of injection drug users and about the sexual transmission of HIV between IDUs and their sexual partners. An attempt has been made in this study to understand the drug use, sexual behaviour pattern, among 500 IDUs in Manipur India. It was found that more than 40 per cent of the drug users involved in multi partner sex and condom use was very low. The perceived susceptibility to HIV/AIDS was very low. Knowledge about various STI were almost negligible. An attempt has been made in this study to find out the context of sexual behaviour pattern and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between various factors with sexual behaviour