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Sniffing, Snorting Drugs May Raise HCV Risk
by Theresa Waldron
Reuters Health 4 Jul. 2003
Source: Journal of Medical Virology. 2003;70:387-390.
People who snort or sniff heroin in combination with cocaine may be at increased risk of developing the liver infection hepatitis C, according to a new study.
Thomas Kresina, a spokesman for the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland, which funded the study, said in an interview that any of the drugs might actually cause bleeding in the nose. HCV can be transmitted when
objects such as straws used to sniff or snort drugs are shared. “Obviously, the
more drugs you put in intranasally, the more you're going to irritate your
(nasal) vascular wall, and that's going to result in a little bleeding in the
nose,” he explained. “Then that blood goes on the instrument you use (to sniff or snort), and you transfer that to the next person. That's where the risk
occurs.”
In the study of 276 people who had ever smoked crack or who sniffed or snorted cocaine or heroin, 4.7% were infected with HCV. Participants who sniffed or snorted heroin and cocaine together were most likely to be infected with HCV. The reason for the increased risk of HCV infection among those participants
may be related to the combined damaging effects of the drugs on the delicate
nasal mucosal lining.
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