Intravenous Street Drug Use

Intravenous Drug Use
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Intravenous Drug Use
Drug abusers use diverse techniques for consuming substances, with intravenous injection being a convenient method for directly introducing the drugs into the bloodstream. Public health providers in the U.S. have flagged intravenous drug use in the street as a concerning behavior associated with diverse healthcare complications that are sometimes life-threatening. Levitt et al. (2020) raise concern about the emerging health burdens due to the practice. The consequence is that it leads to increased injection drug use (IDU)-associated HIV outbreaks, chronic tissue contagions, and overdose among the abusers.
Despite the recent national programs’ efforts to combat HIV, intravenous street drug use has been rescinding the achieved milestones by increasing the rate of infections. The unsafe use of needles and syringes and sharing among different users increases the likelihood of spreading this disease. For instance, recent statistics in the U.S. have uncovered HIV outbreaks related to IDU in states such as Oregon, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati since 2016 (Levitt et al., 2020). Between 2012 and 2017, infection rates increased by up to 4% annually, with individuals under 30 abusing drugs through injections having the highest prevalence. CDC (2021) further reveals that the infection rate is high because of HIV’s ability to remain infective for approximately 42 days in these syringes. Abusing drugs also increases the probability of risky behavior, such as unprotected sexual intercourse or intimacy with multiple partners. Such practices are counterproductive to HIV prevention initiatives.
Chronic soft tissue contagions are commonplace among intravenous street drug users. McRae et al. (2022) rank these infections as the third leading cause of hospitalization, demonstrating their severity. The authors reveal that non-compliance with aseptic methods results from complications since these users have no clinical training. They reuse or lick the needles during the application, use the wrong angle, and practice repeated site injections. Such practices damage deep tissues and the skin, creating routes for infections by staphylococcus aureus and other disease-causing agents (McRae et al., 2022). Robertson et al. (2020) add that the damaged subcutaneous fascia and blood vessels can also trigger severe infection...