FORMATIVE RESEARCH ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF INJECTING DRUG USE IN KHARTOUM, SUDAN

Abstract

Little is known about the extent and nature of injecting drug use, and the factors that put injecting drug users at risk of acquiring HIV in Sudan. This formative research/pre-surveillance assessment was intended to provide information on the nature and extent of injecting drug use in Khartoum to assist with the implementation of HIV surveillance and intervention programs. For collection of data relevant to assessing the nature and extent of injecting drug use (IDU) in Sudan, face-to-face interviews were conducted utilizing a questionnaire with 19 Tertiary Key Informants (TKI), and another with 11 Primary Key Informant (PKI).Results relevant to the TKI’s confirmed the existence of Persons Who Inject Drugs(PWID’s) in Khartoum, more than half of them (52.63%) believe that their size is small, the IDU’s are upper socioeconomic class (68.42%) and largely of young age (13-30 Yrs.). The PKI’s (among whom there were 4 females) asserted that the IDU’s in Khartoum is large (63.63%), and the majority (54.55%) revealed that Khartoum is the locality which harbors them. It is also to be noted that all of the PKI’s (100%) are aware that injecting drugs is one of the modes of HIV transmission, and that IDU is becoming a public health issue. This research concluded with the assertion that the presence of IDUs in the Sudanese society; with a notable growth in numbers and variety of its victims, is both worrying and alarming. The scarcity of the declared victims is matched by a growing concern that what is revealed represents only the tip of an iceberg.