Tehran University of Medical Sciences Acta Medica Iranica 0044-6025 49 1 2011 01 15 59 63 EN Hassan Tofigi Department of Legal Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mazaher Ghorbani Department of Legal Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Mitra Akhlaghi Department of Legal Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Asadollah Yaghmaei Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran. Babak Mostafazadeh Department of Legal Medicine, Loghman Hospital, Shahid Beheshti of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Esmaeel Farzaneh Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran. Ali Reza Mohaghegh Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran. 2015 09 28 Injection drug use has been the most growing rout of drug abuse in Iran in the past decade and it has been responsible for the transmission of HIV virus in more than two third of cases. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis B in a group of IDU cadavers and to compare the results to a group of cadavers of the normal population. In a case-control study the blood samples of the cadavers of 400 randomly chosen IDUS and 400 other cadavers as control group were checked for HBS antigen and Anti HIV antibody in the forensic medicine center of Tehran. The prevalence of HIV and HBV infection was compared in two groups according to their demographic characteristics. The number of HIV and HBV positive cadavers was significantly higher in the IDU group than the controls (6.25% vs 0.5%, P<0.001, 27.5% vs 3%, P<0.001). The risk of getting infected by HIV virus was 13.27 times greater in the IDU group and the risk of HBV infection was 12.26 times greater in this group as compared to the control group. The age distribution of IDU cadavers indicated that the percentage of IDU cadavers in the reproductive (21-40 years old) age was 80%. The greater prevalence of the HIV and HBV infection especially in the reproductive age of IDUS indicates a greater concern to the authorities for more attention to prevention and harm reduction programs. https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/3693 https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/download/3693/3668