Guidelines for testing HIV, viral hepatitis and other infections in injecting drug users

Infectious diseases are among the most serious health consequences of injecting drug use and can lead to significant healthcare costs. Injecting drug users are vulnerable to a range of infectious and communicable diseases through a variety of risk behaviours, and because of underlying conditions such as poor hygiene, homelessness and poverty. This leads to higher morbidity and mortality in this group as compared with the same age groups in the general population. In addition, IDUs can act as a core group carrying infections that may pose a risk to the general population.

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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies :Out of harm’s way Injecting drug users and harm reduction

Harm reduction refers to a range of pragmatic and evidence-based public health policies and practices aimed at reducing the negative consequences associated with drug use and other related risk factors such as HIV and AIDS. These interventions exemplify human rights in action by seeking to alleviate hazards faced by the injecting drug users, where needed, without distinction and without judgement. The IFRC advocates harm reduction for one very simple reason: It works.

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An overview of the 2010 IDRS: The injecting drug user survey key findings : Australia

The key findings of the 2010 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) injecting drug user (IDU) surveys are presented in this bulletin. The IDRS monitors emerging trends in the use, price, purity and availability of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis. In addition to a survey of regular injecting drug users (IDU), the annual data collection also includes a survey of key experts (KE) who are professionals in the field of illicit drugs and the analysis of existing indicator data on drug related issues.

This is the tenth year that all three components of the IDRS were conducted in every state and territory in Australia.

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Persistence of low drug treatment coverage for injection drug users in large US metropolitan areas

Injection drug users (IDUs) are at high risk for HIV, hepatitis, overdose and other harms. Greater drug treatment availability has been shown to reduce these harms among IDUs. Yet, little is known about changes in drug treatment availability for IDUs in the U.S. This paper investigates change in drug treatment coverage for IDUs in 90 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) during 1993-2002.

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Hunger and associated harms among injection drug users in an urban Canadian setting

Food insufficiency is often associated with health risks and adverse outcomes among marginalized populations. However, little is known about correlates of food insufficiency among injection drug users (IDU). The research suggest that IDU in this setting would likely benefit from interventions that work to improve access to food and social support
services, including addiction treatment programs which may reduce the adverse effect of ongoing drug use on hunger.

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Criminalization of injecting drug users (IDU) fuels HIV epidemic

The criminalisation of illicit drug users is fuelling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. Injection drug use (IDU) is one of the main modes of HIV transmission in parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. “Apart from medical harms associated with drug use, all other harms associated with drug use are a result of a state where government wanted to protect people from drug use and thus had put in place a number of laws that criminalize drug use.

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Risk Factors for Skin and Soft-Tissue Abscesses among Injection Drug Users: A Case-Control Study

Skin and soft-tissue abscesses, a common problem among injection drug users (IDUs), result in serious morbidity for the patient and costly hospitalizations for incision and drainage; however, there has been little etiologic or preventive epidemiologic research on this problem.We performed a case-control study that enrolled 151 IDUs who had been given a new diagnosis of abscess requiring incision and drainage (cases) and 267 IDUs who did not have abscess or other bacterial infection during the previous year and who were stratummatched to cases according to age, sex, and race (controls). Subcutaneous or intramuscular, instead of intravenous, injection is a major risk factor for abscess among IDUs.

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Study Finds Most HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care Efforts Overlook IDUs

A systematic review of HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users (IDUs) throughout the world, published Monday in the journal Lancet, found that international efforts to fight the disease are largely overlooking this population, the Australian Associated Press/Sydney Morning Herald reports (Rose, 3/1).

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Call for urgent action to improve coverage of HIV services for injecting drug users

A review carried out by the 2009 Reference Group to the UN on HIV and Injecting Drug Use for the first time quantifies the scale of coverage of HIV prevention, treatment, and care services for injecting drug users (IDUs) worldwide. The study concludes that with, specific exceptions, worldwide coverage of these services in IDU populations is very low and unlikely to be sufficient to prevent, halt, or turn around HIV epidemics.

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Study Finds Most HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care Efforts Overlook IDUs

A systematic review of HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users (IDUs) throughout the world, published Monday in the journal Lancet, found that international efforts to fight the disease are largely overlooking this population, the Australian Associated Press/Sydney Morning Herald reports .

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