Harmful infections related to heroin use have spiked in Minnesota, with admissions at state hospitals for heart valve infections among drug users more than quadrupling since 2010 — from 18 to at least 81, the Star Tribune reports.
Physicians say they have seen an increase in infection cases where patients need up to six weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy, adding to the growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections recorded by the state's health department, according to the Star Tribune.
Sharing and reusing needles can bring harmful bacteria into the bloodstream, leading to severe infections.
"I have had clients in the hospital for six weeks from … using the same needle over and over again [or] injecting unsafely," said counselor Stephanie Devich, who works at an addiction and mental health treatment clinic in Minnesota.
State and county health officials are strengthening efforts to reduce needle-borne infections by providing drug users with the overdose-reversal drugs, treating wounds linked to needle use and directing users to resources for food, housing and drug treatment.