Seven measures of injection risk behavior were included in this analysis: relative frequency of sharing syringes, cookers, cotton filters, and rinse water, frequency of using a new sterile syringe to divide drugs, frequency of cleaning needles with bleach, and the number of people sharing a syringe with the respondent.
The majority (64%) of HCV infections were ascribed to elicit injection drug use of caffeine and sodium benzoate (CNB) using shared syringes in the 1980s.
Similarly, respondents (n = 43) were asked about the reasons for no perceived risk of HIV infection, and a significant number of respondents provided reasons such as regular use of lubricants (50.8%), regular use of condoms (58.7%), had not shared syringes (17.5%), did not have many sex partners (30.2%), had infrequent anal sex (14.3%), and perception that partners were healthy (23.8%) (Table 3).
This might be related to the special cultural traditions of the Yi ethnic group and the low proportion of the Yi injecting drug use or sharing syringes compared to the Han.
During this time we used to clean old used syringes and re-use them or share syringes among ourselves".
Participants in the high-risk group shared equipment frequently, shared syringes at least some of time, and were more likely to share syringes frequently.
The high-risk class was characterized by high frequency of sharing equipment, and low or high frequency of syringe sharing with a majority not cleaning shared syringes with bleach.
Among those who reported a history of incarceration, 59 (29.9%) reported injection drug use in prison, and 48 (81.4%) of these individuals reported sharing syringes in prison.
An unexpected finding of our study was that not sharing syringes is associated with HCV prevalence.
Among IDU, there are several known associations with new HCV infection, including older age, new onset of injection drug use, sharing of syringes, engaging in risky sexual behavior or prostitution, and frequent injection of cocaine [ 2, 4].
