HIV amongst the DRUG users



Injection drug users acquire human immunodeficiency virus by sharing drug equipment with HIV infected persons and by engaging in risky sexual behavior. Injection drug use is the second most frequent risk factor for HIV infection after sexual contact with an infected person. However, since the peak of the HIV epidemic in the early and late 90s, HIV incidence among them has decreased by over 80%. Despite this, injection drug users continue to represent a substantial proportion of persons with new HIV diagnosis, they also engage in risky sexual behaviors such as having unprotected sex.
According to research injection drug users mostly affected are black races since they frequently inject themselves more then whites who might rarely inject themselves. It is found that the injection drug users tend to start the HIV diagnosis while they are about to develop or already develop AIDS, this is because they engage in these risky behaviors everyday hence they notice it when they fall sick or develop symptoms of AIDS. With this they tend to miss opportunities for counselling, education and substance abuse treatment.
HIV affected the country’s development and this caused the government to intervene by educating people on HIV and other ways of combating it. Contaminated infection equipment, in which HIV can remain viable for several weeks, quickly became the focus of early efforts to prevent HIV transmission among injection drug users. There was an alternative to use bleach disinfection which effectively inactivates the HIV virus. But later research showed that only few of the injection drug users would abide by the rule while some would see it as time wasting.
Thereafter there was a program by the health sector to provide sterile syringes to injection drug users who cannot or willing to cease injecting drugs, but this program was only offered in mid Asia and western Europe. In Africa the provision of the sterile injections is not provided since most of the drugs are illegal and the legal once are though oral intake. This leads to a high number of people getting infected by the HIV virus. While the provision would lead to decrease in infections it would also encourage the use of drugs amongst the society.
The other strategy that was used is the education of the injection drug users to refrain from sharing injections with other people which would create awareness and reduce risk behaviors among them at the level of the individual and the society.

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