“ব্লুটুথ” কী? বমি বমি ভাব নতুন প্রবণতা মারাত্মক রোগের একটি তরঙ্গকে বাড়িয়ে তুলছে
Drug users have found a dangerous and cheap way to get high, leading to a surge in HIV diagnoses. The practice, known as “blootoothing,” involves injecting oneself with the blood of another addict in an effort to share highs. Already common in Fiji, this practice has led to an 11-fold increase in HIV cases on the Pacific island in just one decade. And in South Africa, where an estimated 18% of drug users engage in it, it has also been linked to a high number of HIV cases among drug users.
Now there are fears that this practice, also known as “flashblooding,” could spread across the United States, where the rate of new HIV diagnoses has decreased by 12% in the past four years. Dr. Brian Zanni, an addiction specialist at Emory University, warned: “In settings of dire poverty, it’s a cheap method of getting high with lots of consequences.”
‘A dose for the price of one’: Last month, an estimated 47.7 million Americans aged 12 or older used illicit drugs, equivalent to about 17% of the population. Meanwhile, 1.13 million Americans are living with HIV.
A campaigner speaks with addicts in Philadelphia in 2023 as Good Samaritans distribute food and warm clothes to those afflicted by the drug epidemic and homelessness (file image) Your browser does not support iframes.
The drug epidemic in the US has slowed in recent months, however, due to the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug trafficking. Overdose deaths have fallen by almost 24% in the 12 months to April 2025, the latest available, to an estimated 76,516 deaths, compared to an estimated 101,363 deaths the year before.
It is not clear whether blootoothing is already widespread in the US, but some experts warn that it may not be dissuaded to addicts. They say one reason the practice may not become more widespread is that it offers users a diminished effect. It is often unclear how much effect those who infect themselves with the blood of another addict actually experience, and it is likely not distinct from the placebo effect.
Katharine Cook, Executive Director of UK-based nonprofit Harm Reduction International, told the New York Times: “That’s the perfect way to spread HIV. This is a wake-up call for health systems and governments in terms of how you can end up with a huge spike in infections because of the efficiency of transmission.”
In Fiji, in 2014, the country had fewer than 500 people living with HIV, but by 2024 that number had risen to almost 5,900. In the same year, the Pacific island nation recorded 1,583 new HIV cases, equivalent to a 13-fold increase on its five-year average. Almost half of all newly infected patients reported that they shared needles.
The above image shows overdose deaths year after year in the US. The above image shows the percentage change in overdose deaths from April 2024 to April 2025.
Kalesi Volatabu, the Executive Director of the non-profit Drug Free Fiji, described to the BBC the moment she witnessed blootoothing firsthand. “I saw the needle with blood, it was right in front of me,” she said. “This young lady, she’s already been injected and is taking the blood, and then they’re going to let the other girls, the other adults, get injected with this thing already.”
She added: “You’re not just sharing needles, you’re sharing blood.”
Estimates suggest that approximately 33.5 percent of users in the US have also injected drugs, which also poses a risk of HIV transmission, with other diseases, such as hepatitis, being transmitted if another person uses an infected person’s needle, HIV, which has been declared a pandemic, meaning new diagnoses are increasing, there were 39,201 new HIV diagnoses in the US in 2023, up from 37,721 available in 2020.
While there has long been a treatment available that can slow the replication of the virus, the practice of blootoothing was first recorded in Tanzania, where it is surging in Zanzibar, and has also been recorded in Lesotho, a small African nation bordering South Africa, and Pakistan, where people have been selling bloodied half-used syringes (t)health (t)south africa (t)new york times.
প্রকাশিত: 2025-10-14 07:50:00
উৎস: www.dailymail.co.uk
