Abstract Background Patients with injection drug use (IDU) have increased risk of developing infective endocarditis (IE). Previous studies reported recurrent IE, duration hospital stay, poor adherence and compliance as well higher mortality worse outcomes after surgery in the IDU-IE patient group. Further are needed to provide a basis for optimized care prevention readmissions this population. ...

Sex partnerships with injection drug users (IDU) are an understudied network-level risk factor for heterosexual HIV infection. Heterosexuals with no history of injection were recruited from high-risk areas in New York City through respondent-driven sampling. We examined the prevalence of IDU sex partnerships among these non-IDU, the factors associated with having a past year IDU partner, and th...

In 2005, 60 health care workers were recruited through services that attract injecting drug users (IDUs) and asked to complete attitude measures regarding IDU clients. Mediation analyses indicated that conservative health care workers displayed more negative attitudes toward their IDU clients because they believe that injecting drug use is within the control of the IDU. Negative attitudes towar...

Male-to-male sex and illicit injection drug use are important transmission routes for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Of all new HIV infections in 2010, 80% were among men, of which 78% were among men who have sex with men (MSM), 6% among male injection drug users (IDU), and 4% among men who have sex with men and inject drugs (MSM/IDU). MSM/IDU might have different prevention need...

BACKGROUND HIV-infected individuals with a history of transmission through injection drug use (IDU) have poorer survival than other risk groups. The extent to which higher rates of hepatitis C (HCV) infection in IDU explain survival differences is unclear. METHODS Adults who started antiretroviral therapy between 2000 and 2009 in 16 European and North American cohorts with >70% complete data ...

BACKGROUND Injection drug use (IDU) is important in the epidemiology of blood-borne pathogens. Herein, trends in IDU from 1979 to 2002 are analyzed. METHODS The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is an ongoing survey of drug use among the US population 12 years and older. Participants were chosen using a multistage sampling design and interviewed by written questionnaire (1979-1998) or a...

The aim of this systematic review was to identify, assess and summarize studies about potentially inappropriate drug use (IDU) in cognitive impairment and dementia and to present findings about whether cognitive impairment and dementia are associated with IDU. The search was made in Medline/PubMed using free terms in the title or abstract. The inclusion criteria were: English language, publishe...

BACKGROUND Directly administered antiretroviral therapy (DAART) in methadone clinics has the potential to improve treatment outcomes for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected injection drug users (IDUs). METHODS DAART was provided at 3 urban methadone clinics. Eighty-two participants who were initiating or reinitiating highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) received supervised dos...

OBJECTIVE To estimate access, activity and coverage of needle and syringe programmes (NSP) in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. METHODS Two data sets ('regional' and 'high-coverage sites') were used to estimate NSP provision (availability/number of sites), NSP utilization (syringes distributed/year), needle and syringe distribution (needles/syringes distributed/IDU/year), IDU reach...

ObjectiveInjection drug use (IDU) is prevalent in North America and associated with presentations infective endocarditis. Supporting patients who present endocarditis related to IDU through harm reduction, a pragmatic approach reduce secondary harms of health behavior, helps address the underlying IDU. We share case exemplar how one acute care facility integrated harm-reduction practices into d...