How is HIV transmitted through injecting drug use?
When needles and syringes are used for injecting drug use, blood gets into the injection equipment. If the initial user is infected with HIV and shares the equipment with someone else, the infected blood in the injection equipment will be injected directly into the body of the next person. In addition to HIV, other germs can be transmitted through injecting drug use. Transmission of Hepatitis C, a Hepatitis strain for which there is no vaccine, reliable treatment or care, is another example of a disease that can be passed when needles and syringes are shared for injecting drug use.
Sharing needles is a high risk behavior for HIV since a contaminated syringe can pass blood directly from one person’s bloodstream to another. Blood can enter a syringe when it is placed into the vein. Some of this blood remains in the syringe after use and can enter to bloodstream of others if the needle is shared. Sharing needles is also a high risk for hepatitis transmission. An injection drug user who has never shared syringes or other drug paraphernalia cannot become infected with HIV from clean (sterile) syringes regardless of his or her drug use. The exchange of blood from sharing contaminated syringes causes transmission, not the drug use itself.
