Research Projects

Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS)

Status: Active

Project Lead: Kanna Hayashi, Cristy Zonneveld, Research Coordinator

Other: Kora DeBeck

The Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS) is one of the longest-running community-recruited prospective cohort studies of people who inject drugs (PWID) in the world. Since 1996 VIDUS has enrolled more than 2,700 PWID and currently follows more than 1,000 HIV-negative PWID in Vancouver. VIDUS is a valuable data resource for a wide range of scientific research that aims to understand the natural history of injection drug use and inform the development of public health policies and interventions to reduce harms associated with injection drug use. VIDUS has contributed to a number of policy developments, including the expansion of needle exchange and distribution services and the evaluation of Insite, Vancouver's first medically supervised injecting site.