Ascending infection rates related to the opioid crisis

The United States is facing a converging public health crisis as the opioid epidemic in the country is fueling rising rates of some infectious diseases, including HIV / AIDS, hepatitis, and heart disease. infections of the skin and soft tissues. Professionals in infectious diseases and substance use disorders must work together to stem the growing threat to public health, according to a new commentary published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. This article was written in collaboration with officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Institute of Human Virology Faculty of Medicine. Medicine from the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Since 1999, nearly 400,000 people in the United States have had a fatal overdose of opioid-containing drugs, with 47,600 deaths in 2017 alone. Many people with opioid consumption disorder (OUD), who had initially been prescribed oral medications to treat pain, are now injecting prescribed or illegal opioids. High-risk injection practices such as needle sharing are causing an upsurge in infectious diseases. In addition, risky badual behaviors badociated with injection drug use have contributed to the spread of badually transmitted infections.

Health professionals with infectious diseases can play an important role in solving the problem not only by treating injecting drug use, but also by connecting the patient for the treatment of their underlying VUD. , write the authors. For example, the combination of an opioid-agonist treatment, such as methadone, with a treatment for HIV or hepatitis C, can prevent the subsequent transmission of these viruses and reduce the risk of infection. Use of opioids. According to the authors, complete treatment will lead to better results for the underlying infectious disease and VUD.

Conversely, health care providers related to substance use disorders should search their patients for unrecognized infectious diseases and consult their infectious disease colleagues about a comprehensive treatment plan. Professionals dealing with addiction – related disorders should also be aware of needle and syringe programs and direct them towards them, which can reduce the risk of injection and provide the opportunity to provide additional information. other services.

New federal resources made available to address the growing epidemic of opioids can help health professionals improve and implement coordinated, evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat HIV / AIDS. opioid and OUD infections. According to the commentary, these efforts will be the key to curbing and ultimately ending the inextricable problem of LCV and infectious diseases.

This article has been republished from material provided by the National Institutes of Health. Note: Content may have changed for length and content. For more information, please contact the cited source.

Reference
TA Schwetz et al. Opioids and infectious diseases: a converging public health crisis. DOI Journal of Infectious Diseases: 10.1093 / infdis / jiz133 (2019).