Shared Drug Snorting Straws May Transmit Hepatitis C Virus

CDC
According to Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Kentucky had the highest incidence of acute hepatitis C infections from 2011 through 2014 with the rate of infants born to women diagnosed with hepatitis C increasing 124 percent.

Shared Drug Snorting Straws May Transmit Hepatitis C Virus
Sharing snorting straws for noninjection drug use may be a source for hepatitis C virus transmission, according to research published in the August issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Last Updated: July 22, 2016.

Here is the report : Sharing of snorting straws and hepatitis C virus infection in pregnant women

FRIDAY, July 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Sharing snorting straws for noninjection drug use may be a source for hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission, according to research published in the August issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Noelle Fernandez, M.D., from University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, and colleagues anonymously surveyed 189 HCV-infected pregnant women seen at an obstetric high-risk clinic. The survey assessed modes of potential HCV transmission, including intravenous drug use, blood transfusion, organ transplant, sexual contact, tattoos, and snorting drugs with a straw.

The researchers found that 72 percent of the respondents admitted to intravenous drug use, of whom nearly two-thirds (65 percent) reported sharing needles. The majority of women (94 percent) admitted snorting drugs, nearly all of whom (92 percent) reported sharing straws. Fifteen percent of patients reported snorting drugs and sharing straws but denied any other risk factor except sexual contact. Fifty-four straws were confiscated by law enforcement authorities and nearly one-quarter of the straws (24 percent) tested positive for the presence of human blood.

"Sharing snorting utensils (straws) in noninjection drug use may be an additional risk factor for HCV and other virus transmission," the authors write.
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Knoxville News Sentinel
Study: Snorting straws spread hepatitis C
By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Hepatitis C, the most common chronic bloodborne infection in the United States, can be transmitted by sharing straws when snorting drugs, says a newly published study out of Knoxville.

Public health officials have long known intravenous drug users are at high risk for the hepatitis C virus, spread through blood. But new research found it can be spread by sharing utensils used to snort drug powder such as cocaine or, more common in this area, crushed prescription painkillers, said Dr. Craig Towers, lead physician on a study published in the August 2016 issue of the medical journal "Obstetrics and Gynecology."

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