This report presents findings from the ethnographic study of injecting drug users (IDU) in Dharan, Nepal. The objectives of this qualitative study were to:

• List out the current locations where IDUs gather for drug injecting purposes and estimate the number of IDUs there
• Examine patterns and behaviors of drug use and needle sharing and network relations in order to understand the relative degrees of risk related to the spread of HIV infections

The study leaders arrived at an estimate of 901 IDUs in Dharan. Of these, 879 were male and 22 were female IDUs. During the mapping process, the research team met with 143 male and three female IDUs and also saw 159 male and one female IDU during the mapping exercise at the drug dealing and injecting locations.

The study was conducted by the Center for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA) in collaboration with the National Centre for STD and AIDS Control (NCASC) with technical assistance from FHI/Nepal and financial support from the United States Agency for International Development.