Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a study published on Lancet
Global Health indicated that the rapid increase of PWID in the U.S. is
largely associated with the abuse of prescription opioids (CDC, 2019a;
Degenhardt et al., 2017). The data from the National Survey on Drug
Use and Health (2007) showed that between 2002 and 2005, there were
an average of 424,000 PWID in the U.S. However, in 2018, the CDC
(2019a) indicated that the number of PWID had already increased to
775,000. The actual number of PWID may be much greater than these
numbers, since some PWID may not report their injection behavior due
to their drug use being illicit or due to the stigma of such drug use. The
use of injection drugs is also a risk factor correlated with unstable
housing and homelessness. In some cities in the United States, such as
Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, there is a big
proportion of injection drug users who are homeless or in unstable
housing (HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Unit, Public Health –Seattle & King
County and the Infectious Disease Assessment Unit, & Washington
State Department of Health, 2019; Quinn, Chu, Wenger, Bluthenthal, &
Kral, 2014; Mirzazadeh et al., 2018; Larson, Padron, Mason, &
Bogaczyk, 2017). Clearly, the issue of intravenous drug misuse among
PWID is serious. Not only are the people from this group at high health
risks, but also their families and communities.