- In 2005, there were 336 drug-related deaths in Scotland, down from 356 in 2004. There was also a reduction in the number of deaths of known or suspected habitual drug abusers, from 232 in 2004 to 204 in 2005 (GROS 2006). Chart 1 shows, for 2005, the number of drug related deaths in Scotland by NHS board.
- In 2005/06, 5,015 admissions to acute general hospitals in Scotland with a diagnosis of drug misuse, and in most of these episodes the patients had been admitted as emergencies. (ISD 2006).
- Injecting drug users (IDUs) are vulnerable to a range of bacterial infections as a result of non-sterile injecting or injecting contaminated drugs. Since 2000, clusters of cases of Clostridium novyi, Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium tetani in injecting drug users have emerged, causing considerable morbidity and mortality. Reports of Group A streptococci (GAS) and Staphylococcus aureus causing skin and soft tissue infections, and bacteraemia among IDUs through infection of injecting sites are also being increasingly observed (Health Protection Agency et al (2004)).
- Rates of new reports of HIV infected drug users had fallen over recent years from 38 in 1990, to 18 in 2000 but increased to 25 in 2005. The cumulative total number of HIV infected people who inject drugs stood at 1,330 at December 2004.
- Just over 12,000 people who had previously injected drugs were known to be infected with hepatitis C in 2003 (ISD 2006).
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Chart 1
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