HIV Prevalence and Injection Drug Use in Greece

"According to KEELPNO [Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention] (2012), throughout the recent years no more than 20 cases which had IDU as a probable source of transmission were reported annually in Greece (Figure 6.1). IDUs never represented more than 2–3% of all total reported cases (Figure 6.2). In 2011, a total of 256 HIV cases were attributed to injecting drug use, with this route of transmission representing 26.8% of all reported cases that year (Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2). Between January 1st and August 31st 2012, 768 HIV cases have already been recorded in KEELPNO’s surveillance system, 314 of which (40.8%) were reported as IDU cases (Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2) (Nikolopoulos 2012).
"Among the 2011 IDU cases, four in every 5 (about 80%) were males, one in every 2 (about 55%) aged between 25-34 years and four in every 5 (about 80%) Greek nationals (Table 6.1) (note that as between January 1st and August 31st 2012 a significant increase has been observed in the number of non-Greek IDU cases an increase which also reflects changes in testing policy)."