As a part of harm reduction, it is important to educate users about safe injection practices and possible outcomes of injection. Even if a user is trying to quit, many go through a series of relapses before finally quitting. By keeping safe injection practices in use, the user minimizes the risk of damage to self, and to others as a result of injection. As a forenote, I would briefly like to list a number of harm reduction websites, as well as injection guides that are particularly useful, as a lot of the information presented here was drawn from these sources:
http://www.saferinjecting.info/
There is a ton of information found at these websites and I urge users to browse through them.
The first topic that we need to cover is safer injection practices. This will be followed by a guide to the most common problems associated with injecting.
First and foremost, the safest way to inject is to not do it at all. If it all possible try to administer the drug by a different route, such as orally or intranasally. Rectally administering the drug is also an option, it increases the bioavailability of the drug (more gets into your bloodstream, useful if you already have an IV addiction), as well as lengthens the duration of the effects. If IV administeration must be performed, it is in your best interest to minimize the following risks with safe injection practices (source: saferinjection.info):
1. Catching viral infections such as hepatitis or HIV
2. Overdose
3. Vein damage
4. Infection from bacteria that get into the blood
5. Passing any infection you may have to others.
1. Avoiding viral infection
A virus is a tiny organism that can live within body cells. If enough blood cells containing a viral infection pass into your bloodstream then you will become infected.
You can only avoid this by preparing and giving the injection carefully, making sure that when the needle goes into your vein, nothing you are using or injecting could possibly have been contaminated with anyone else’s blood (even an amount that is too small to see).
This means the needle and syringe must not have been used by anyone else AND neither the drugs nor injecting equipment have been in contact with anyone else’s:
* Needle or syringe
* Mixing water
* Spoon
* Filter.The best protection is to have your own spoon and ampoules of sterile water (and never let anyone else use them). Wash the spoon before and after use in hot soapy water.
Getting someone else to press on your injecting site to help stop the bleeding could put you at risk of hepatitis C. The risk lies in the fact that if they have pressed on their own bleeding injecting site there could be enough blood on the skin of their fingers to infect you.
It might also be possible for enough of their blood to end up on your hands (if you touch a door handle / kettle / cup /chair etc. after them) to give yourself a viral infection if you then handle the needle or touch a bleeding injection site.
To prevent all risk of transmission in this way, wash your hands before and after injecting and don’t let other people inject you, or stop you bleeding.
To be completely safe from viral transmission you can do the above and always inject within your own ‘protected space’ – possibly marked out with newspaper – into which no one else is allowed.
It is important to remember that even if you are HIV or hep C positive protecting yourself from other types of the viruses can make a big difference to your health.