HIV infection and risk of overdose: a systematic review and meta-analysis

A new article by Traci Green and colleagues summarizes what we know about why HIV seems to increase risk for overdose. According to their systematic review of the literature, people who use drugs and have HIV have a 74% greater risk of having an overdose than their HIV-negative counterparts. That's a pretty staggering figure.

You can read Green's article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22112599.

I've also posted a blog on the Open Society Foundations website about why people who care about HIV should also care about overdose: http://blog.soros.org/2011/12/preventing-drug-overdose-is-key-in-fight-against-aids/.

With the funding situation the way it is, we need to invest in interventions we know work, like methadone and buprenorphine treatment, highly active antiretroviral therapy, and naloxone distribution.