Friday, October 27, 2017

Endocarditis - SPECIAL REPORT: London doctors’ simple strategy may stem a deadly toll

SPECIAL REPORT
London doctors’ simple strategy may stem a deadly toll
By Randy Richmond, The London Free Press
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:30:42 EDT AM

At University Hospital, Koivu started to notice more and more endocarditis deaths. When she asked her dying patients what they were using, almost all those who injected drugs said they were using HydromorphContin capsules.

To inject the drug, you first have to crush the capsules in a tiny container, usually a little pan called a cooker – the kind seen in movies and on television used to melt crack cocaine or crystal meth.

Cooking doesn’t dissolve the capsules, so you have to crush them as best as you can in a bit of water.

Then you place a tiny filter, sometimes called a sponge, over the hydro-laced mixture and draw liquid up with your needle.

Koivu theorized that when people drew up the crushed capsules in a syringe, even through a properly used filter, some particles were being drawn up as well.
Those particles scratch the heart valves...

Read the article here......

Of Interest
HIV and Hepatitis C Are No Longer the Most Serious Infectious Threats to People Who Inject Drugs
For whatever reason, endocarditis and other invasive bacterial infections are not nearly as feared as HIV and HCV, despite the fact that the former are far more immediately life threatening and way more difficult to treat.

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