Low versus high dead space syringes: user preferences and attitudes

mc32 · on Nov 27, 2018

While the risk of infection isn’t binary depending on whether there is infected blood or not, they mention transmission is lessened by the diminished amount of blood left in the syringe-needle system but don’t cite and don’t say by how much. I’d be curious how much that reduction is.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi · on Nov 27, 2018

Large CI, but a convincingly high odds-ratio that 'high deadspace' syringes increase transmission: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654245/

Lab testing shows less transmission with less deadspace (up to a point: thick gauge needles were all detectable): https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/aid.2016.0023

This sounds quite substantial (33% vs. 1.4%), but there's room for confounders: http://www.injectingadvice.com/v4/index.php/articles/equipme...

Overall it seems quite effective.

ars · on Nov 27, 2018

Wouldn't they anyway like the low dead space syringes more because it wastes less of whatever they are injecting?

duskwuff · on Nov 27, 2018

They certainly do! This is mentioned in the article:

> “Less waste is obvious isn’t it, no-one wants to waste anything in life, but drugs, since it is our obsession, it’s the most important thing.”