'Millions' infected with HIV

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Data from 61 countries indicates that almost 16 million people may be injecting themselves with heroin and other drugs.

In nine countries, the proportion of HIV-positive injecting drug users (IDUs) among people aged 15 to 64 was more than 40%.

Two countries with exceptionally high rates of HIV-positive injecting drug users were Argentina (49.7%) and Estonia (72.1%).

In the UK, 0.39% of 15 to 64-year-olds injected drugs, of whom 2.3% were reported to be HIV positive.

Dr Bradley Mathers, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues report the findings in an early online edition of The Lancet medical journal.

They wrote: "We estimate that, worldwide, about three million people who inject drugs might be HIV positive."

The researchers conducted a systematic review of around 11,000 documents detailing information about injecting drug use and HIV infection around the world.

Prevalence estimates for drug injecting were available for 61 countries containing 77% of the world's population aged 15 to 64.

The researchers wrote: "Areas of particular concern are countries in south-east Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America, where the prevalence of HIV infection among some sub-populations of people who inject drugs has been reported to be over 40%."