Have you overdosed in the past? Do you have Narcan? Do you know how to use it? Go on an adventure into unexpected corners of the health and science world each week with award-winning host Maiken Scott.
In , 83 Philadelphians were newly diagnosed with HIV through injection drug use — compared to just 33 in The figures for are due soon. New study looks at medication assisted drug treatment after Medicaid expansion. Even as more people get treatment overall, people with criminal justice involvement still remain less likely to get medication for opioid use disorder.
How the first lockdown saw more opioid-related overdoses among Black Philadelphians. Research by the city, Penn, and VA Medical Center found fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses rose dramatically among Black Philadelphians in spring Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Skip to content Health Addiction Medicine.
Bamford sees a lot of wounds here. The wound, he says, is painful, but it used to be a lot worse. Infectious Disease doctor Laura Bamford. The importance of trust Sheila Dhand, the nurse, says tending to any of this first requires trust. He says hospital staff have talked down to him.
This spring, the van is expanding, traveling to more places, more days a week. She takes appointments and walk-ins. Dhand says doing so can also help begin to address the deeper wounds of addiction. If you experience these symptoms, seek medical attention. Bacteremiacan be fatal! Endocarditis is an infection of the heart valves that is caused by bacteria, fungi, and other infection-causing microbes that enter the bloodstream during injection and build up around the valves of the heart, weakening them as well as other parts of the heart muscle.
Endocarditis can eventually cause a heart murmur, as well as fever, chest pains, fainting spells, shortness of breath, and heart palpitations as well as congestive heart failure. Early signs include flu-like symptoms. Endocarditis can be fatal if it goes untreated. Tetanus is a bacterial infection that occurs when tetanus spores enter a wound and release tetanus bacteria, usually after a scab has already formed. Tetanus is fatal if not treated.
Tetanus spores live in the soil and on rust, which is why a tetanus shot is recommended if you step on an old nail or other rusty object. Most local health departments offer free tetanus boosters, which will protect you from tetanus for five years, so you should r get one. If your needle, syringe, or other injection equipment is contaminated with tetanus spores due to dirt or rust, you could infect yourself.
Skin-poppers and muscle- poppers are particularly susceptible to tetanus infection and should always use new, sterile equipment. Symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis include increasing redness and swelling and extreme pain at the wound or injection site accompanied by a fever.
This may look a few different ways, the flesh around the site of infection will be very red, swollen, with severe pain, and possible fever. Over the course of days the skin can turn from red-purple to blue-gray and the skin could break down within days. Since this infection is fatal, early treatment with antibiotics is crucial to survival, although even appropriate therapy does not prevent death in all cases. Wounds must be kept impeccably clean.
Always using new, sterile injection equipment; never sharing injection equipment; thoroughly washing your hands and clean- ing the skin prior to injection; and preparing your drugs on a clean surface will all help prevent necrotizing fasciitis infections.
Wound botulism is caused by a bacteria that produces a toxin on the skin where a puncture wound is made and that eventually stops your breathing by paralyzing your muscles. The source of the botulism could be the drug itself, a cut in the drug, dirty injection equipment, or contamination during the preparation process.
Wound botulism can be prevented in the same ways as necrotizing fasciitis—by following excellent sterile technique when preparing and injecting your drugs. Symptoms of wound botulism include droopy eyelids, blurred or double vision, and a dry, sore throat which may progress into difficulty speaking and swallowing, a weakness of the neck, arms, and legs, and difficulty breathing. If untreated, wound botulism will cause death by paralyzing the muscles used for breathing.
Early treatment for wound botulism is essential. If you experience any of the symptoms listed above, seek medical attention immediately. Treatment usually involves an antibiotic regimen and the draining of any abscesses or infected wounds. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that can be caused by certain toxic drugs, alcohol, or street drugs iatrogenic or chemically-induced hepatitis ; or that is the result of infection with a hepatitis virus viral hepatitis.
While there are numerous types of hepatitis viruses, hepatitis-B and hepatitis-C are the two that most frequently affect people who inject drugs, with hepatitis-A coming in third. General symptoms of hepatitis include fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, mild fever, and muscle aches, and if you smoke cigarettes, you may notice that they taste unpleasant.
More severe symptoms of hepatitis include dark tea-colored urine, light-colored stools, and jaundice a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes.
There have also been outbreaks in places like encampments where people may not have access to running water for handwashing. Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A is not transmitted by blood-to- blood contact that occurs when needles or other drug injection equipment is shared, and is not generally spread through sexual contact unless rimming oral-anal contact is involved.
Hepatitis A illness resembles the flu and can last from four to six weeks. It causes an acute short-term infection only and never develops into a chronic condition like hepatitis B or C. After injecting, remove the needle, keep your arm straight, and apply pressure to the injection site for a couple of minutes using a cotton ball, tissue or toilet paper.
Don't use a swab to stop the bleeding, it may in fact stop the blood clotting. Even if you are disposing of your fit, rinse it with clean cold tap water, straight after your hit. This will remove most of the blood, prevent if from blocking and help reduce the likelihood of dirty hits if you have to use the fit again. Dispose of the rinsing water immediately, so no one else can use it and contaminate their equipment with your blood.
Dispose of your fit in a disposal container or a puncture proof, childproof container and return the container to your NSP.
Don't recap other people's fits. Wipe down the area where you have mixed up your fix with soapy detergent water. Where there is a possibility of skin contact, the area should be wiped with household bleach. Don't re-use swabs, filters, or open water ampules - they can become contaminated once opened. When you have cleaned up, wash your hands and arms with warm soapy water. If this is impossible, use single wipes with new swabs instead. Store all your equipment in a clean, safe place.
Injecting is the greatest risk factor for contracting Hep C. There is no way of completely eliminating the risk of viral transmission from used syringes. Use new injecting equipment every time you inject including new needles, sterile water, new swabs, a clean spoon, tourniquet, filter, a clean injecting space and clean hands.
Even if you are already Hep C positive, cleaning is important, as you can be re-infected with a different or even the same strain of Hep C. Equipment: You will need three separate containers: 1. One filled with clean, cold tap water for rinsing blood out of your own fit. Soapy detergent water is best.
Use water from the cold tap. If the water is too hot or too cold it can cause any blood in the fit to congeal and stick inside the needle where it can shed microscopic particles into your mix 2. One filled with full strength bleach at least 5.
You will also need a clean work space and a safe area to get rid of fluids - like a sink, bin or drain or whatever. Cleaning process There are three steps to the cleaning process: rinsing, bleaching and flushing. If you are injecting, it is safer to do it yourself if you can. You then have power over of the situation.
You can include safer injecting practices like being hygiene aware, and can stop if you feel something is wrong. People who inject, or who are injected by someone else with drugs, are especially at risk if sharing or re-using injecting equipment. Hep C is the most common of the possible infections among people who inject drugs, with an extremely high percentage of people who inject likely to be exposed to a new infection and at risk of chronic long term infection.
Be blood aware and take care. Safer using means understanding the risks associated with injecting drugs and making sure you protect yourself and others from these risks in any way you can. Stimulants such as tobacco, cocaine, chocolate, coffee and black tea send your body into action mode. They make your heart work harder by causing your veins to tighten and shrink, squeezing more blood towards the heart.
When veins shrink, they are harder to find to inject. Published by Elsevier B. All rights reserved.
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