Intravenous Drug Users Injected Blood of Stoned Compatriots?

As heroin addiction starts gaining a toe hold on the African continent, researchers are reporting a new — albeit rare — behavior. Drug users, sharing their needles, are actually injecting each others'  blood into themselves, reports the New York Times.

Researchers admit the activity, called Flashblood or flushblood, is not wide spread. Here's how the Times says this works. Intravenous drugs users usually draw a flash of blood into their syringe to make sure they have hit a vein. Once they have that, they then inject their drug of choice — generally heroin — then draw more blood into the syringe, and flush it out. This is repeated three or four times, to completely drain out the drug.

But what researchers say they are seeing with the new practice is one user injecting the drug into their system, drawing their blood into the syringe and passing it to the next person, who then injects it into themselves. Researchers say they are not sure the practice actually leads to a person getting high, or if it is entirely a placebo effect. They do note that because the syringe is not flushed several times, it is possible trace amounts of the drug remain.

Researchers say the practice is exceedingly rare, but it has been documented in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the island of Zanzibar and in Mombasa, Kenya.

Add to this that researchers say the small number of people engaged in the practice are sex workers, and you have a potential for some serious disease sharing going on.

“Injecting yourself with fresh blood is a crazy practice — it’s the most effective way of infecting yourself with H.I.V.,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, according to the New York Times article.

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