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Research

There is an excellent study called 'bacterial infections and skin cleaning prior to injection among intravenous drug users' by D Vlahov, M Sullivan, J Astemborski and K E Nelson

Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205

Abstract
In a survey of 1,057 active intravenous drug users in Baltimore, MD, who were recruited through extensive community outreach, 12 reported endocarditis and 113 reported subcutaneous abscesses in the 6 months before being interviewed. Of all the persons surveyed, 556 reported cleaning their skin prior to injection at any time and 173 reported cleaning their skin all the time in the 6 months before the interview. The frequency of subcutaneous abscesses was lower among those who reported skin cleaning all the time; a similar trend was noted for frequency of endocarditis. The relatively simple procedure of encouraging intravenous drug users to clean their skin prior to injection will not eliminate but might reduce the frequency of these serious and expensive infectious complications of intravenous drug use.

The full text of this article is available to read online or download here.