Health and safety risks associated with public injecting among people who inject drugs in Bangkok, Thailand

Injecting risk behaviours amongst people who inject drugs: A global multi-stage systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Injecting risk behaviour, such as receptive sharing of injecting equipment and/or re-using one's equipment, is associated with bloodborne virus transmission and infections in people who inject drugs (PWID). We aimed to estimate prevalence and correlates of injecting risk behaviours amongst PWID.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to estimate country, regional, and global prevalences of injecting risk behaviours (including sharing or re-using needle/syringe and sharing other injecting equipment). Using meta-regression analyses, we determined associations between study- and country-level characteristics and receptive needle/syringe sharing.

RESULTS

From 61,077 identified papers and reports and 61 studies from expert consutation, evidence on injecting risk behaviours was available for 464 studies from 88 countries. Globally, it is estimated that 17.9% (95%CI: 16.2-19.6%) of PWID engaged in receptive needle/syringe sharing at last injection, 23.9% (95%CI: 21.2-26.5%) in the past month, and 32.8% (95%CI: 28.6-37.0%) in the past 6-12 months. Receptive sharing of other injecting equipment was common. Higher prevalence of receptive needle/syringe sharing in the previous month was associated with samples of PWID with a lower proportion of females, shorter average injecting duration, a higher proportion with ≥daily injecting, and older studies. Countries with lower development index, higher gender inequality and lower NSP coverage had higher proportions reporting receptive needle/syringe sharing.

CONCLUSIONS

High levels of injecting risk behaviours were observed amongst PWID globally, although estimates were only available for half of the countries with evidence of injecting drug use. There is a need for better capturing of injecting risk behaviours in these countries to inform implementation of harm reduction services and evaluate potential impacts of interventions to reduce risk.

Drug use in business bathrooms: An exploratory study of manager encounters in New York City

BACKGROUND

Though public bathroom drug injection has been documented from the perspective of people who inject drugs, no research has explored the experiences of the business managers who oversee their business bathrooms and respond to drug use. These managers, by default, are first-responders in the event of a drug overdose and thus of intrinsic interest during the current epidemic of opioid-related overdoses in the United States. This exploratory study assists in elucidating the experiences that New York City business managers have with people who inject drugs, their paraphernalia, and their overdoses.

METHODS

A survey instrument was designed to collect data on manager encounters with drug use occurring in their business bathrooms. Recruitment was guided by convenience and purposive approaches.

RESULTS

More than half of managers interviewed (58%, n=50/86) encountered drug use in their business bathrooms, more than a third (34%) of these managers also found syringes, and the vast majority (90%) of managers had received no overdose recognition or naloxone training. Seven managers encountered unresponsive individuals who required emergency assistance.

CONCLUSION

The results from this study underscore the need for additional research on the experiences that community stakeholders have with public injection as well as educational outreach efforts among business managers. This research also suggests that there is need for a national dialogue about potential interventions, including expanded overdose recognition and naloxone training and supervised injection facilities (SIF)/drug consumption rooms (DCR), that could reduce public injection and its associated health risks.

"There's nothing here": Deindustrialization as risk environment for overdose

BACKGROUND

Applying the "risk environment" approach proposed by Rhodes (2002, 2009), this study considers the diverse contextual factors contributing to drug overdose in a deindustrialized region of the United States. The Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania, once a global center of steel production, has suffered a mass exodus of jobs, residents, and businesses since a national manufacturing crisis erupted in the early 1980s; more recently, it has seen a dramatic uptick in accidental drug poisoning deaths. Where recent local and national media attention to overdose has focused on suburban areas and middle class victims, this study concentrates instead on the deteriorating mill city of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

METHODS

Eighteen clients of the city's sole drug treatment facility participated in in-depth interviews concerning their direct experience with accidental overdose. Specifically, participants were asked to describe their own most recent overdose event and/or the last overdose they had personally witnessed. They were also asked to speculate upon the roots of the local overdose epidemic, while venturing possible remedies.

RESULTS

In relating their overdose experiences, participants characterized a micro-level risk environment that was hidden behind closed doors, and populated by unprepared, ambivalent overdose "assistants." Tasked with explaining a geographic concentration of overdose in and around McKeesport, interviewees referenced the hopelessness of the area and its lack of opportunity as driving the use of heroin, with many explicitly suggesting the need for jobs and community reinvestment to reduce fatalities.

CONCLUSION

While state and county efforts to ameliorate overdose mortality have focused upon creating an open market in naloxone, this study suggests the need for interventions that address the poverty and social isolation of opiate users in the post-industrial periphery.