Contents:
- Medical Video: Medical Animation: HIV and AIDS
- How can drug consumption cause someone to get HIV?
- Substances and drugs that are often misused
- Alcohol
- Cocaine
- Methamphetamine
- Inhalant (solvent)
Medical Video: Medical Animation: HIV and AIDS
According to the WHO report in 2014, there were around 36.9 million people living with HIV. One of your risk factors for getting HIV is consuming narcotics and illegal drugs, aka drugs.
How can drug consumption cause someone to get HIV?
Consumption of illegal drugs plays a more important role in HIV transmission than using drugs by injection. The reason is that someone who is under the influence of certain drugs is more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as having unprotected sex with an infected person and sharing drugs or syringes with people who have HIV.
In fact, HIV-infected blood can also enter drug solutions in various ways. Among them:
- Using a syringe contaminated with blood to prepare the medicine
- Reuse water to dissolve the drug
- Reuse bottle caps, spoons, or other containers to dissolve the drug in water and to heat the drug solution
- Reuse a small portion of cotton or a cigarette filter to filter out particles that can clog the needle
Drug dealers can repack used syringes and sell them as sterile syringes. For this reason, people who need to inject drugs must get syringes from trusted sources, such as pharmacies or needle exchange official programs.
It is important to know that sharing needles or syringes for any purpose, such as skin popping or injecting steroids, hormones or silicones, can be at risk for HIV and blood-transmitted infections.
In addition, drug abuse and addiction can also worsen HIV symptoms, such as causing nerve injury and cognitive damage. In addition, consuming alcohol or other drugs can affect the immune system and accelerate disease progression.
Treatment for drug abuse can be effective in preventing the spread of disease, due to the strong link between drug abuse and the spread of HIV. Treatments for drug abuse include HIV risk reduction, such as stopping or reducing drug use and risky behavior.
Substances and drugs that are often misused
Alcohol
If you drink a lot of alcohol at once, like at a binge drink, there are several health and social consequences such as free sex without condoms. Because alcohol can greatly obscure the cognitive functions of the brain in making decisions, sex under the influence of alcohol tends to be less condom use, and the number of different sexual partners is carried out. This is why alcohol consumption can be an important risk factor for HIV infection.
Cocaine
Cocaine can consume your energy quickly and so encourage you to do 1001 ways to get the drug back. Cocaine abuse increases the risk of HIV infection with risky behaviors, such as different sexual partners, minimal use of condoms, increased sex drive, and the use of more than one substance.
Methamphetamine
Similar to the two substances above, the abuse of methamphetamine (or meth) also increases the risk of unprotected free sex. In addition, this substance can cause addiction and is used through syringes. Someone who uses meth tends to have dryness in the skin of the penis and mucous tissue in the anus and vagina. Dry genital organs can facilitate the occurrence of injuries and abrasions during sex where the HIV virus can enter the body. Some gay and bisexual men combine meth with strong drugs that are associated with unprotected anal sex.
Inhalant (solvent)
Inhalant nitrite is associated with risky sexual behavior, drug use, and sexually transmitted infections in homosexual and bisexual men. Inhalants are also often used by teenagers, such as to increase sexual satisfaction, help anal sex by increasing sensitivity and relaxing the anal muscles, which causes more unprotected sexual intercourse.
Other drugs are also associated with an increased risk of HIV infection, such as:
- The use of drugs "rape drugs" such as ecstasy, ketamine, and GHB can obscure your logic and decisions about sex and drug use. You will tend to have unprotected or protected sex, or use other drugs, such as injections or meth. This behavior can increase the risk of exposure to HIV. If you have HIV, this can also increase the risk of spreading HIV.
- The use of amyl nitrite (an inhalant known as "poppers") has been linked to the risk of HIV. Poppers, which are sometimes used for anal sex because they relax the anal muscles, have been linked to risky sexual behavior, illegal drug use, and sexually transmitted diseases among gay and bisexual men. The use of these drugs has also recently been associated with increased use in adolescents.
Many people with HIV have infections because of the weakened condition of their immune system. The best way to prevent transmission and spread of HIV is to seek medical care and use HIV drugs as directed.
Hello Health Group does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
