Introduction Opioid use disorder (OUD) can lead to injection drug use, which is an important risk factor for blood-borne viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), among other…
HIV prevention in people who inject drugs According to the CDC, 9% of incident HIV cases in the United States are directly attributable to injection drug use [ ]. Among…
Introduction All societies that have had access to psychoactive drugs have used them. There are multiple positive aspects of psychoactive drug use, from creating positive mood states, to stress and…
Infectious disease (ID) physicians have long treated the common complications of opioid use disorder (OUD) and injection drug use. Such complications encountered in patients with OUD include HIV, viral hepatitis…
Introduction Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection affects over 240 million individuals worldwide [ ]. Detection of the disease is dependent on active surveillance and testing by healthcare providers. Due…
Introduction Infections are a common cause of hospitalization for patients with opioid use disorders (OUDs). In 2012, there were 530,000 OUD-related hospitalizations with a total estimated healthcare cost of $15…
Opioid use disorder and endocarditis The increasing use of opioids over the past decade has resulted in a crisis of overdose and death in the United States that has also…
Introduction Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a significant impact on the healthcare system in the United States and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the number…
Injection drug use is an important HIV risk factor Transmission among People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) early in the HIV epidemic Soon after the identification of acquired immune deficiency syndrome…
Background The syndemic of injection drug use (IDU) and HIV infection has been well recognized since the origin of the HIV epidemic. Although transmission in persons who inject drugs (PWID)…
