Objective  To examine the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and their influencing factors among drug users in Maanshan city, Anhui province and to provide evidences for developing strategies and evaluating interventions on HIV infection and AIDS.

  Methods  Under the National AIDS Sentinel Surveillance Program, annual surveillance including face-to-face interview and laboratory detection were conducted among at least 400 drug users in the city from 2016 to 2018. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics.

  Results  Totally 1 225 drug users were surveyed during the 3-year period and the majority of the drug users were married men, at ages of 20 – 49 years, being Han nationality, with registered family residence in local province, and with the education of junior high school. The overall awareness rate of AIDS knowledge was 82.3% among the drug users. Of the drug users, 34.4% and 69.7% reported the use of heroin and methamphetamine. No significant between year difference was observed in the awareness rate and type of drugs used among the drug users. Significantly higher rate of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (84.4%) was detected among the drug users with the history of injection drug use than among those without the history (χ² = 802.171, P < 0.05). For the drug users with injection drug use history, the reported proportion of injection drug use during previous one month were 59.3%, 44.0% and 3.6% for the year of 2016 – 2018, respectively, with a significant difference (χ² = 99.203, P < 0.05). For all the drug users, the reported ratio of receiving peer education were 36.5%, 20.9%, and 14.6% for the year of 2016 – 2018 and the yearly variation in the ratio was significant (χ² = 56.522, P < 0.05). The overall positive rate of HIV, syphilis and HCV antibody was 0.2%, 9.4% and 32.0% for all the drug users during the 3-year period.

  Conclusion  For the period of 2016 – 2018 among the drug users in Ma'anshan city, the HIV infection rate was low but the infection rate of syphilis and hepatitis C virus were high; the rate of awareness on AIDS knowledge was also relatively low and the proportion of receiving peer education decreased yearly.