Sharing needles

How can people be infected by injections ?

If people inject themselves (or someone injects them) with medicines or drugs using a needle or syringe which has been used by someone else, who might have HIV, they will be at high risk of getting HIV themselves.

Remember that it is not possible to tell if a person has HIV. They might not know it themselves.

It is therefore never safe to share someone else's needles or syringes.

Trained health workers should sterilise needles and syringes before they are used again. You can make sure they are sterilising equipment by asking.

They can protect themselves by:

• Always having the medicines or drugs by mouth rather than by injections, whenever possible;
• Always using a new needle and syringe;
• Always using their own needle or syringe, keeping them clean, and never letting anyone else use them; and
• By making sure that any needles or syringes they use have been properly sterilised.

How can a person sterilise needles and syringes and make them safer to use?

HIV is killed by household bleach, so this can be used to sterilise equipment.

• The needles or syringes should first be thoroughly washed, preferably in hot water containing detergent, and then rinsed in clean cold water;
• They should then be completely covered in a mixture of 1 part strong bleach to 10 parts of clean cold water, and left there for 30 minutes if possible; and
• They must then be rinsed several times with clean water, as bleach and detergent are poisonous, and must never be put in or on the body, or drunk as a medicine.

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