HIV, HCV, HBV Virus Infection Prevalence among Heroin Addicts in Central Region of Saudi Arabia - Article Example

HIV, HCV, HBV virus infection prevalence among heroin addicts in central region of Saudi Arabia. Summary This article summarizes the effects of heroin addiction on the prevalence of HIV, HCV and HBV viruses in the central regions of Saudi Arabia. The article is aimed at calculating and estimating the prevalence of HBV, HCV& HIV infections among inpatient heroin addicts in the central regions of Saudi Arabia and to Study the relationship between these infections and the patients demographic variables. A sample research was conducted so as to unravel the concepts behind heroin taking and the prevalence of the above diseases (Sorrell et al., 2009). This article explains the concepts behind the results obtained from the research study. The research was conducted in an Alamal hospital in Riyadh, which is termed as the only addiction treatment center in the central region of Saudi Arabia and serves more than a fourth of the whole population of the Saudi. All patients admitted were screened for HIV, HBV and HCV viruses. Those who were found positive were subjected further to confirmatory testing in a laboratory run by the ministry of Health. All this was conducted for file records of inpatients between January 2006 and November 2012. Data was collected in terms of age, admission number, education level, marital status, occupation and finally the results of the screening. This article also studies the relationship between the viruses and demographic variables. Introduction The use of Heroin increases the risk of a person getting infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) among other infectious diseases which are brought by contact with infected body fluids such as blood, urine, semen, saliva among others. This may result from the idea of sharing infected syringes when injecting heroin into one’s body as well as having unprotected sex with infected people. Snorting and smoking of the drug do not eliminate or reduce the risk of being infected with the diseases as many people think. This is because people under the influence of the heroine and other related drugs still involve themselves in risky sexual activities and other behaviors that can expose them much to these deadly diseases. Injection drug users (IDUs) are the riskiest group of people for acquiring HCV, HIV, and HBV. They thus continue escalating the epidemics instead of fighting them. Each IDU infected with any or all of the viruses is able is likely to infect other 20 people (Sorrell et al., 2009). Heroin is taken in various ways, such as sniffing, injecting, snorting and smoking, and this depends on the preference of the user and the purity of the drug itself. It can be injected into a muscle or a vein. Also, it can be smoked through a pipe or mixed with a normal cigarette or marijuana joint. Its smoke can be inhaled through a straw whereas its powder can be snorted. Irrespective of the method used, heroine takers are all at a risk of catching the above named blood borne diseases. This is because once it is taken; victims tend to experience a feeling of euphoria and tend to involve themselves in activities that may increase the chances of contracting such viruses. However, injection poses the highest risk due to sharing of contaminated syringes, needles and other devices used in injecting the drug (Sulkowski, Thomas, 2005). The transfer of blood through sharing of contaminated and unsterilized needles, syringes, and similar equipments carries a very high risk of HIV, HBV, and HCV transmission. The illegal nature of accessing such drugs like heroine also creates barriers to access to adequate HIV testing, prevention and treatment services, making the people who use them to be more vulnerable to such diseases and their effects (Abdo et al. 2006). Results obtained A total of 378 inpatient files was analyzed. All patients in these files had a mean age of 40 ranging from ages 13 to 71. Majority age was between 40 and 49. Further analysis showed that most of those people in the 378 files were single (49.9 percent); most of them had intermediate (34.8 percent) and primary (31.6 percent) levels of education. In terms of their occupation, most of them were unemployed, and this was approximated at 69.1 per cent of the whole population. After screening for the viruses, it was revealed that 20.1 per cent did not have the infections at all, 56.6 per cent had single viral infections, and 13.2 per cent had two of the viruses whereas 1.1 per cent of the population was infected with all the 3 viruses. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was found to be more prevalent with a percentage of 77.8, followed by HIV with a percentage of 9.8 and finally Hepatitis B virus (HBV) with a percentage of 7.7. In addition, there was a correlation between HCV and HIV (R = 0.16, p = 0.003). Similarly, there was also a reverse significant correlation between HCV infection and admission numbers (R = -0.34, p Read More