Introduction
death, opioid dependence, overdose, AIDS-related, initiation and retention
People who inject drugs (PWID) are at higher risk of death compared to their non-drug using peers. The all-cause mortality rate in a global systematic review of cohort studies among PWID was 2.9 per 100 person-years (PY), which is nearly 15 times higher than expected in an age-adjusted population [Widespread scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to a dramatic decline in all-cause mortality among people living with HIV (PLWH) worldwide. Unfortunately, these benefits have not been fully extended to PWID due to multiple structural, psychosocial, and other barriers, including lack of treatment for opioid dependence [Effective treatment of opioid dependence leads to reduction in drug use and increased engagement and adherence to other life-saving treatments, radically reducing overdose and AIDS-related mortality in short- and long-term [Numerous interventions have been developed and tested to improve initiation and retention in HIV care and OAT for PWID. Many were shown to have the desired effect in observational or experimental designs [The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 074 study was designed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an integrated, scalable intervention aimed at improving ART uptake and viral suppression [In this sub-study, we analyze the incidence of death in a variety of demographic and clinical subgroups, summarize the causes of death in this cohort, and explore predictors of mortality among PWID enrolled in the HPTN 074 trial.