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Needle sharing is the practice of intravenous drug-users by which a needle or syringe is shared by multiple individuals to administer intravenous drugs such as heroin, steroids, and hormones. [1] This is a primary vector for blood-borne diseases which can be transmitted through blood (blood-borne pathogens). [ 2 ]
The World Health Organization estimated that in 2000, 66,000 hepatitis B, 16,000 hepatitis C, and 1,000 HIV infections were caused by needlestick injuries. [4] [2] [7] In places with higher rates of blood-borne diseases in the general population, healthcare workers are more susceptible to contracting these diseases from a needlestick injury. [7]
The risk from sharing a needle during drug injection is between 0.63% and 2.4% per act, with an average of 0.8%. [72] The risk of acquiring HIV from a needle stick from an HIV-infected person is estimated as 0.3% (about 1 in 333) per act and the risk following mucous membrane exposure to infected blood as 0.09% (about 1 in 1000) per act. [54]
The symptoms give the disease its name. The first signs of infection that can be seen are yellow and brown spots that develop on the living needles, [7] [8] which soon turn red. This infection starts on the base of the crown on older needles, which then turn a brownish red at the tip, while the rest of the needle remains green. [9]
A blood-borne disease is a disease that can be spread through contamination by blood and other body fluids. Blood can contain pathogens of various types, chief among which are microorganisms , like bacteria and parasites , and non-living infectious agents such as viruses .
The disease only affects about six thousand people in the U.S. It tends to run in Ashkenazi Jewish families like mine (it typically occurs in about 1 in 50,000 people, but occurs in nearly 1 in ...
The transfer of and exposure to bodily fluids, such as blood transfusions and other blood products, sharing injection needles, needle-stick injuries (when medical staff are inadvertently jabbed or pricked with needles during medical procedures), sharing tattoo needles, and childbirth are other avenues of transmission.
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