Demand surges for addiction treatment during pregnancy
As soon as the home pregnancy test strip turned blue, Susan Bellone packed a few things and headed straight for Boston Medical Center's emergency room. She'd been using heroin and knew she needed...
View ArticleIncreasing use of internet to buy and sell drugs
Findings from the latest Illicit Drug Monitoring System (IDMS) study show 72 per cent of frequent drug users report increased buying and selling drugs via social media and encrypted websites.
View ArticleHIV PrEP currently too pricey to justify use in people who inject drugs
HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has individual and population health benefits, but the intervention is currently too expensive to implement in in people who inject drugs. The findings are published...
View ArticleAustin, Indiana—the HIV capital of small-town America
Jessica and Darren McIntosh were too busy to see me when I arrived at their house one Sunday morning. When I returned later, I learned what they'd been busy with: arguing with a family member, also an...
View ArticleUN plan to end AIDS by 2030 faces Russian resistance
UN member-states agreed on Wednesday to fast-track their response to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030 despite a last-minute bid by Russia to dilute efforts to focus on drug users and gay men.
View ArticleBoxing offers Indonesian drug users way out of addiction
Indonesia's national featherweight champion Jundullah Muhammad Fauzan is clear eyed and focused when squaring off against opponents, but it's outside the ring this young athlete fights his toughest...
View ArticleResearchers study the use of e-cigarettes for illicit drugs
In a Department of Forensic Science lab at Virginia Commonwealth University, a contraption mechanically puffs on an e-cigarette loaded with methamphetamine, testing how much of the illegal drug is...
View ArticleCarrots and sticks fail to change behaviour in cocaine addiction
People who are addicted to cocaine are particularly prone to developing habits that render their behaviour resistant to change, regardless of the potentially devastating consequences, suggests new...
View ArticleUruguay to sign up smokers to buy state marijuana
Uruguay will this month start signing up smokers to buy marijuana from pharmacies in the world's first scheme for state-production and sale of the drug, an official source said Wednesday.
View ArticlePrisoners worldwide bear higher burdens of HIV and other infections
Prisoners and detainees worldwide have higher burdens of HIV, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis than the communities from which they come, and the regular cycling of infected people in and out of...
View ArticleMass imprisonment of drug users driving global epidemics of HIV, hepatitis,...
The War on Drugs, mass incarceration of drug users, and the failure to provide proven harm reduction and treatment strategies has led to high levels of HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and C...
View ArticlePrisons need better drug treatment programs to control infectious diseases
Worldwide, around 30 million people enter and leave prison each year. Of these people, around 4.5 million have hepatitis C, almost 1 million have HIV and 1.5 million have hepatitis B infections.
View ArticleChronic low back pain linked to higher rates of illicit drug use
People living with chronic low back pain (cLBP) are more likely to use illicit drugs—including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine—compared to those without back pain, reports a study in...
View ArticleResearch supports removing drug use as a restriction for receiving highly...
Hep C patients being treated for opioid addiction achieved high rates of sustained virologic response after 12 weeks of therapy with elbasvir-grazoprevir compared to those taking placebo for 12 weeks...
View ArticleFDA wants an app to match opioid overdose victims with rescue drug
Hoping to reduce the death toll in the nation's epidemic of opioid drug use, the Food and Drug Administration is calling for the development of a cellphone app that could quickly bring lifesaving...
View ArticleRecord numbers accessing hepatitis C treatment, but who is missing out?
A mistrust of the health system and ongoing stigma from health workers against injecting drug users are two significant barriers that could prevent people living with hepatitis C from accessing and...
View ArticleFirst month after infection is key time to tackle drug-related HIV spread
Data from the mid-1990s AIDS epidemic in Russia and Ukraine shows that the first month after infection is the key period to control the spread of the virus in drug-using populations, according to a new...
View ArticleFlakka is a dangerous drug, but it doesn't turn you into a zombie
Stories of horrific crimes resulting from drug use have been propagated by the media for over a century. Such stories began with cocaine in 1914 and were followed by "reefer madness" stories in the...
View ArticleHIV toll tops one million in Russia and keeps climbing
Russia's HIV infection rate is growing 10 percent a year and over one million Russian have been diagnosed with the disease in nearly three decades, the country's top AIDS expert said Tuesday.
View ArticleDrug epidemic stalls HIV decline in whites who shoot up
The long decline in HIV infections among white people who inject drugs has stalled, another grim side effect of the nation's drug abuse epidemic.
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