[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/opioid-drugs-57-people-who-inject-opioi... ]
Dear Kamran and all,
"The simple answer to your question [Do we know why there are so many people who inject drugs in these countries?] is the US, China and Russia are countries with high population. If you look at the prevalence of people who inject drugs, its 1.4 per cent of the population in US, 0.2 per cent of the population in China, and 1.3 percent for Russia."
Thank you, if I have done my sums right this translates to about:
4.7 million people who inject drugs in the US
2.8 million PWIDs in China
1.9 million PWIDs in Russia
The prevalence (but not absolute number) of people who inject drugs is even higher in parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11904-010-0043-7?utm_source=c... )
I asked ChatGPT: "why does the United States have a lot of people who inject drugs as compared with other countries?"
It listed several factors, the first of which was:
"A major driver is the long-running Opioid epidemic in the United States. For years, opioid painkillers were widely prescribed. When regulations tightened, many dependent users shifted to illicit opioids like heroin or fentanyl.
Injection became more common because it’s:
more efficient (stronger effect from smaller amounts)
cheaper for people with tolerance"
This was new to me. I had assumed people who became addicted to prescribed opioid drugs would continue to take them orally. It is alarming that many of them become opioid injectors. This suggests that pharmaceutical companies have been responsible not only for opioid dependence but also for some of the harms (HIV, hepatitis B, overdose) associated with opioid injection.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org