Injecting drug use

Injecting drug use features

• Crystal meth and London gay men – examining the evidence

  Last month the medical journal The Lancet published a news feature, describing an increasing number of London gay men who take methamphetamine (crystal meth), including a significant...

  From:  News

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  Harm reduction and human rights

  Harm reduction for injecting drug users, including clean needles and syringes and opiate substitution therapy, is extremely limited in some regions of the world. Harm reduction...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Injecting drug use news from aidsmap

• Elevated prevalence of HIV and viral hepatitis in men injecting anabolic steroids

  Addressing a topic that has received remarkably little research attention over the years, Dr Vivian Hope of Public Health England told the British HIV Association conference yesterday that injection of image- and performance-enhancing drugs is rising in England and ...

  18 April 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Crystal meth and London gay men – examining the evidence

  Last month the medical journal The Lancet published a news feature, describing an increasing number of London gay men who take methamphetamine (crystal meth), including a significant number who inject it, often at 'chill-outs' and sex parties. There are ...

  11 February 2013 | Roger Pebody

• Sharing drug preparation equipment a potential source of hepatitis C transmission

  Drug users who share injecting equipment such as water, filters and water containers are potentially putting themselves at risk of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to German research published in the online edition of the Journal of Infectious ...

  27 November 2012 | Michael Carter

• Opiate substitution therapy halves HIV risk for people who inject drugs

  Opiate substitution therapy reduces the risk of HIV infection by half for individuals who inject drugs, according to the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal. “There is evidence from published and unpublished observational ...

  15 October 2012 | Michael Carter

• Combination prevention approach could have a big impact on HIV epidemic in China

  Increasing rates of HIV testing or expanding the use of antiretroviral therapy will not be enough to eliminate new HIV transmissions in China, according to a mathematical model published in the online edition of AIDS. However, a “combination prevention” approach ...

  07 August 2012 | Michael Carter

• Which interventions are best to reduce HIV infections among drug users?

  HIV infections among drug users currently make up 30% of new infections globally. Their social marginalisation makes them an especially difficult group to target for public health and HIV interventions. Yet researchers, civil society, and drug user organisations are considering ...

  01 August 2012 | Mara Kardas-Nelson

• International AIDS Conference hears how drugs, sex and HIV interlock

  Two sessions at the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington looked at the way injecting drug use, recreational drug use and unsafe sex interlock to multiply HIV risk, and how new outbreaks of injecting drug use ...

  25 July 2012 | Gus Cairns

• Syringe exchange expansion in United States would be cost-saving

  According to a mathematical analysis presented at the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, DC, providing clean syringes to reduce HIV transmission among Americans who inject drugs is considerably less expensive than treating the new cases of HIV ...

  24 July 2012 | Kelly Safreed-Harmon

• Gay and bisexual men who inject drugs more likely to have HIV than other men who inject drugs

  HIV prevalence is four times higher in gay and bisexual men who inject drugs, compared to heterosexual, male, injecting drug users, UK investigators report in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The study also showed that prevalence of infection with the hepatitis ...

  30 May 2012 | Michael Carter

• Professional tattooing in sterile environment not associated with risk of hepatitis C

  Tattooing or body piercing in professional parlours is not associated with an increased risk of infection with hepatitis C virus, a literature review published in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases shows. However, the authors did find evidence that ...

  08 February 2012 | Michael Carter

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Injecting drug use news selected from other sources

• Moving Beyond That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named: Alternatives to Syringe Exchange

  In the face of resistance to syringe exchange programmes, some states might want to steer clear of that-which-must-not-be-named and consider alternative means to syringe access and disease reduction, such as changes in syringe Acquisition, Enforcement, and Disposal.

  4 hours ago | Huffington Post

• Injecting Rooms: Have we progressed since the 1970’s?

  As the debate heats up in Brighton over the introduction of injecting rooms, there is a feeling of déjà vu at Blenheim and our long history documents similar debates in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

  20 May 2013 | Blenheim CDP

• Russia has 'no anti-AIDS strategy': official

  There is no government strategy to fight the spread of AIDS in Russia, where the number of deaths caused by the disease continues to grow, a senior healthcare official said on Thursday.

  17 May 2013 | AFP

• The World's Best Drug Laws

  What are the best and worst countries to live in if you're a drug user? What is a really good set of drug laws, anyway? One man's view: as provocative and contentious as you'd expect.

  03 May 2013 | The Fix

• More Treatment, Less War: The White House Drug Policy Reform

  Many people who want substance abuse treatment can’t get it. The White House wants to fix this. Can they do it, and will it help?

  29 April 2013 | PLoS Blogs

• Rethinking Policing in the Age of AIDS

  Good drug policy is good AIDS policy. Drug users and sex workers benefit more from services than from beatings and prison. And as law enforcement officials committed to protecting the public, we can support public health.

  26 April 2013 | Huffington Post

• Obama Reveals New Drug Control Strategy

  Despite its "kinder and gentler face," critics say that US drug policy "remains in the Dark Ages."

  25 April 2013 | The Fix

• Brighton plans safe rooms for addicts to inject drugs

  Brighton is set to be the first British city to offer official "drug consumption rooms" where addicts can use heroin, crack and cocaine under supervision without fear of prosecution. The city's public health leaders will meet this summer to "give serious consideration" to the plan in order to save lives.

  15 April 2013 | The Guardian

• Ukraine's HIV battle

  Twelve years ago Lucy Ash investigated Ukraine's fight against HIV infection, which was mainly caused by injecting drug users. After the Orange Revolution in late 2004, the government promised to do everything it could to fight the disease and the situation seemed to improve. But now Ukraine has the second highest infection rate in Europe, surpassed only by Russia.

  11 April 2013 | BBC Radio 4 (audio)

• Big Pharma Company Jacks Up Price of Overdose Live Saver by 1100%: Now, More People Will Die

  Naloxone is key to fighting overdose deaths, but sky-high prices threaten community distribution programs.

  09 April 2013 | AlterNet

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