One in
Four Heroin Injectors Infected With Hepatitis C
12-14-2000
http://www.prn.org/prn_nb_cntnt/oldcaps/cap12-14-00.02.htm
A new
report in the Journal of Infectious Diseases
(2000;182:1588-1594) indicates that approximately 25 percent
of Chicago-area injection drug users are infected with the
hepatitis C virus (Hepatitis C Virus). Researchers found that the risk of
contracting the disease is greater the longer and more
frequent a person uses injection drugs. The study of 700 drug
users, primarily heroin addicts, between the ages of 18 and 30
revealed that individuals who had been using drugs for one to
four years had three times the likelihood of being infected as
people who had used for under 12 months; the risk of infection
was even higher for drug users of more than four years. The
researchers determined that 27 percent of the subjects had Hepatitis C Virus,
and most of the users were not familiar with the risks of the
virus.
Source:
Reuters Health
Information Services (12/13/00); Courtesy of the CDC
National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention.
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