According to the latest Health Protection Agency (HPA) annual report ‘Shooting Up’, people who inject drugs (PWID) are at an increased risk of developing bacterial infections such as wound botulism and tetanus.

Prior to 2000, no cases of wound botulism had been associated with PWID in the UK, but in the past decade, 163 suspected cases have been reported to the Agency. Tetanus infections show a similar trend, very rarely reported among PWID before 2003, with 34 cases having been reported since. The report also found that a range of other bacterial infections, including MRSA, and viral infections, such as HIV and hepatitis C, are continuing to occur among people who inject drugs.