The sharing of injecting paraphernalia by intravenous drug users (IDUs) within a Worcestershire cohort, with specific reference to water and filters.

Britain continues to have a drug misuse health strategy that is HIV led. Because of this, little attention has been paid to other blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis. Moreover, while the provision of needle exchange schemes has been particularly successful in containing the spread of HIV, they have had less impact on the prevalence of hepatitis within IDU cohorts. Thus, it is necessary to understand more about the potential pathways through which the hepatitis viruses can be transmitted. One way of achieving this is to assess the propensity of IDUs to share other items of injecting paraphernalia such as water and filters. In addition, it is useful to gauge the level of opinion with respect to health hazards associated with sharing such items, amongst injecting drug users. This study reports on a small pilot project initiated to assess the degree of sharing of filters and water among 40 needle exchange service users in Worcestershire. Results based on questionnaires show that sharing of water and filters is very high within the sample group. Indeed, only 10% of clients reported never sharing either water or filters. The study also demonstrates that although injectors are aware of the health risks associated with sharing (including hepatitis transmission), they continue to participate in high risk sharing activities. Moreover, the majority of IDUs questioned have a mis-conception with respect to the most hygienic sources of water for injecting. For example, only 10% consider sterile water to be the most hygienic source for injecting, with >70% considering tap water in one form or another to be safe. The study is important because it highlights the value of providing sterile water and filters to IDUs to meet their basic and fundamental needs. It is hoped that the findings from this small project will have a wider transferability to other IDU cohorts throughout the UK and beyond.