HIV Prevalence Among IDUs in Selected Developing Countries. Zheng, et al. Singapore 0.2 U.S. Bureau of the Census 1995 Taiwan 0.1 U.S. Bureau of the Census 1995 Role of IDU-HIV Infection in Specific Epidemics . Injecting drug use is important in the HIV epidemic in developing countries in both Asia and South America. The proportion of HIV cases attributed to IDUs is also substantial in Brazil at 27 percent, and in the Southern cone countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay at 30 percent.
Important trends are also evident in India.
However, while the states of Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland account for less than 1 percent of the total population in the country, they contribute nearly 16 percent of the total number of HIV positive individuals. The first cases of HIV among IDUs were identified in Bangkok in 1987, with subsequent rapid spread in this city in 1988. Eight months later, the pattern was repeated in southern Thailand near the Malaysian border and in northern Malaysia. Also within eight months, HIV among IDU spread to northern Thailand. To the south, the first cases of HIV among IDU were identified in Singapore two years later in 1990.