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IDU & HIV Transmission: How?With injections, blood is introduced into needles and syringes.
The reuse of a needle or syringe with HIV–infected blood by another drug injector carries a high risk of HIV transmission because infected blood can be injected directly into the blood stream.
IDU: What does it mean?
IDU = Injecting Drug User
People who inject drugs into their veins in order to get high.
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| Injecting Drug User | ||
Sharing Equipment – The Risk
Infected blood can be introduced into drug solutions by using blood contaminated syringes to prepare drugs, reusing water, bottle caps, spoons, cookers or other containers used to dissolve drugs in water and to heat drug solutions, reusing small pieces of cotton or cigarette filters used to filter out particles that could block the needle.
HIV: Not the Only Risk
HIV is just one of the adverse health consequences related to IDU and equipment sharing, others include
- Abscesses in superficial veins, subcutaneous tissues and muscles.
- Septicaemia.
- Hepatitis B.
- Hepatitis C.
- Depression, anxiety, memory loss.
- Poor sexual performance.
- Coughs, difficulty breathing.
- HIV infection among IDUs has become a worldwide public health problem.
- By 1999 Drug injection had been reported in 136 countries and HIV infection among drug injectors in over 114 of these countries.
- There is an estimated 13.2 million IDUs in the world with over 10 million from developing countries.
