Why is injecting drugs a risk for HIV?
At the start of every intravenous injection, blood is introduced into needles and syringes. HIV can be found in the blood of a person infected with the virus. The reuse of a blood-contaminated needle or syringe by another drug injector (sometimes called “direct syringe sharing”) carries a high risk of HIV transmission because infected blood can be injected directly into the bloodstream. In addition, sharing drug equipment (or “works”) can be a risk for spreading HIV.
At the start of every intravenous injection, blood is introduced into needles and syringes. HIV can be found in the blood of a person infected with the virus. The reuse of a blood-contaminated needle or syringe by another drug injector (sometimes called ‘direct syringe sharing’) carries a high risk of HIV transmission because infected blood can be injected directly into the bloodstream. In addition, sharing drug equipment (or ‘works’) can be a risk for spreading HIV. Infected blood can be introduced into drug solutions by using blood-contaminated syringes to prepare drugs; reusing water; reusing bottle caps, spoons, or other containers (‘spoons’ and ‘cookers’) used to dissolve drugs in water and to heat drug solutions; or reusing small pieces of cotton or cigarette filters (‘cottons’) used to filter out particles that could block the needle.
