Background and Objective: Injection Drug Users (IDUs) include more than 69.9% of known HIV/AIDS cases in Iran. The most important causes of HIV among them are syringe sharing and high risk behaviours such as sexual practice with different partners. Since IDUs are hard to reach and there is little information about them, this behavioural survey conducted to explore Zanjan district’s injection drug users in relation to HIV/AIDS.
Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-cross sectional study, 61 IDUs, inhabitants of Zanjan, were selected in non-random sampling by referring to the most probable sites and places of their presence. Data was collected using a standard Family Health Behavioral Surveillance Survey (BSS) questionnaire designed especially for IDUs.
Results: Mean duration of non injected and injected drug use was 12.1±5 and 4.5±3.5 years respectively, and age of the first injection was 24±5.4 years. The most frequently injected drug was Heroin (96.7%) and the most non-injected one was Cannabis (85.2). 55.7% of IDUs injected 4 or more times per day, and 32.8% reported needle sharing. 100% of the subjects knew the role of used syringe in HIV transmitting. 44.3% had taken an HIV test, and 70.4% knew about their HIV status.
Conclusion: The early age of starting drug injection, needle sharing, coverage of voluntary HIV testing in less than 25%, and unawareness of 1/3 of them about their HIV test status indicate the significance of priority and service delivery to this most high risk group.

Background and Objective: The prevalence of AIDS/HIV is dramatically increasing worldwide.  Iran and other Middle East countries are no exception in this regard.  The main aim of this study was to assess the effects of communication skills program and AIDS education on Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs among the health volunteers in Zanjan.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a quasi-experimental trial.  Eighty health volunteers were divided into two equal groups. The interventional group participated in two educational programs on communication skills and AIDS, compared to the control group that participated in AIDS education program only. Data collection was done both prior to and 20 weeks after the intervention using a self-report type questionnaire.
Results: The results of this study show that combining AIDS education program and communication skills training had a significant effect on susceptibility, (P<0.01) severity (P<0.003) and perceived barrier (P<0.0001) constructs of AIDS in the test group. By contrast, only the perceived barrier construct (P<0.0001) showed a significant change in the control group. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor within the HBM.
Conclusion: Findings of this study indicate that a combination of communication skills training and AIDS education program could have a better effect on Health Belief Model constructs on AIDS in health volunteers than the AIDS education program by itself. 

Background and Objective: CCR5 is known as a main co-receptor in HIV infection. Many studies demonstrated that 32bp deletion in both CCR5 alleles provide natural resistance to HIV infection, so new treatment approaches are based on inducing this resistance by means of gene and cell therapies. This projects aim was the discovery of suitable candidates for new therapeutic strategies in addition to determining the CCR5 Δ32 mutation frequency in healthy individuals in Zanjan province for the first time.

Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 200 healthy individuals in EDTA pre-coated tubes. Genomic DNA was extracted and analyzed for CCR5 Δ32 mutation by GAP-PCR. The allele frequency was calculated using the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE).

Results: Our findings showed 1 healthy individual had CCR5 Δ32/Δ32 mutation and the allele frequency of CCR5Δ32 was calculated to be 0.5%.

Conclusion: Results of this study proved previous reports that Iranian populations are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS compared to the European population. Different climate-geographical conditions, migration and positive natural selection could explain various distribution of Δ32 allele frequency in European countries compared to Iran. Consequently, Iranians require more effective and novel therapeutic approaches for HIV infection therapy and could benefit from reducing retro-viral drug restrictions.