Sub-Saharan Africa - Regional Overview
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV. The majority of new HIV infections occur through heterosexual sex, but recent epidemiological evidence attributes an increasingly significant role to injecting and non-injecting drug use in driving many national epidemics.
Mauritius remains the only country in the region with established needle and syringe programmes. Opioid substitution therapy is also available in Mauritius and to a lesser extent in South Africa, Senegal, Kenya and most recently, Tanzania. There is potential for injecting drug use to exacerbate epidemics in countries where HIV prevalence is already high and to expand epidemics rapidly in countries that have remained relatively less affected.
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| Country/territory with reported injecting drug use | People who inject drugs | Adult HIV prevalence amongst people who inject drugs | Harm reduction response | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSP | OST | |||
| Cote D’Ivoire | nk | nk | N | N |
| Dijibouti | nk | nk | N | N |
| Gabon | nk | nk | N | N |
| Ghana | nk | nk | N | N |
| Kenya | 130,748 | 42.90% | N(P) | Y(M,O) |
| Malawi | nk | nk | N(P) | N |
| Mauritius | 17,500 | 9.80% | Y(39)(P) | Y(14)(M,O) |
| Nigeria | nk | 5.50% | N | N |
| Senegal | nk | nk | N | Y(B,O) |
| Sierra Leone | nk | nk | N | N |
| South Africa | 262,975 | 12.40% | N(P) | Y(6)(M,B) |
| Uganda | nk | nk | N | N |
| Tanzania | nk | nk | N(P) | Y |
| Zambia | nk | nk | N | N |
