Why does injecting drugs put a person at risk for HIV?
HIV is a blood borne virus. Direct blood-to-blood contact through sharing needles is very risky because even small amounts of blood may have enough HIV to be infectious. When a person with HIV shares a needle with another person, the HIV from the infected person goes directly into the next person’s blood stream. HIV can also be present in water, cookers, cottons or other equipment used to prepare injection drugs.
