This report is based on data provided by countries for reporting on the Dublin Declaration (including Ireland) and summarises key issues related to HIV and people who inject drugs (PWID) in Europe and Central Asia. It also identifies priority options for action to improve the HIV response for this population.

HIV disproportionally affects people who inject drugs (PWID) on a global basis. HIV and other blood borne viruses can be transmitted through the sharing of injecting equipment including needles, syringes and other paraphernalia. Injecting drug use is a significant mode of HIV transmission in the European Region (Figure 2). In 2017, 13% of all new HIV diagnoses in the European Region were among PWID. The majority of people diagnosed with HIV who had a history of injecting drugs were from the East sub-region, and 24% of the new diagnoses in this sub-region in 2017 were attributed to injecting drug use (compared with 2.7 % in both West and Centre sub-regions).