BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA recently in Chinhoyi
While the country has been praised for successful HIV interventions, a scourge is threatening to derail such efforts as people looking for a quick way to get intoxicated, have resorted to injecting themselves with blood from other drug users.
Known as bluetoothing or flash-blooding, the dangerous practice which according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information is when “blood is withdrawn from one individual who has recently injected a drug and directly injected intravenously unto another person.”
While this practice was said to have been more common in neighbouring South Africa, a recent media workshop organised by the National Aids Council (NAC) heard that our own people have joined the bandwagon, with the trend now in most ghettos.
Speaking on the sidelines of the workshop, Tendai Phillip Daka, Programmes Manager at Mubatirapamwe, revealed that it was sad that while the country was striving towards epidemic control, practices like bluetoothing are hampering efforts being made.
“Now we have a practice of drug use which is common in South Africa and it is characterized by the use of nyaope drug which is a mixture of heroin, marijuana, ARVs (anti retrovirals) and rat poison.
“So this bluetoothing came about because some people will be facing difficulties to buy drugs so from our understanding, they draw blood from someone who would have injected themselves with drugs.
“It can even be from someone who would have taken crystal meth, so they draw blood from that person so as to also get intoxicated.
“Sadly some people are now seeing it as a business avenue because when they inject the drugs, they then withdraw their blood and package into small plastics or sachets and sell,” revealed Daka.
He revealed that several parents have revealed to them that they are finding sachets of blood in their children’s rooms.
“What we are really not sure yet about is how they (drug users) preserve the blood, but many parents have been revealing seeing this.
“Some parents reveal finding sachets with strong smells and even syringes in their children’s rooms.
“Also known as hotspoting, this practice is increasing the spread of diseases through these transfusions, leading to the transmission of diseases like hepatitis B, C as well as HIV.
“So while efforts are being made to fight HIV, we need to have other interventions to help with the scourge of drug use, failure of which, will lead to losing the HIV fight,” added Daka.
In a separate interview with this reporter, a drug activist who preferred anonymity said sadly bluetoothing has led to increasing cases of new HIV infections and hepatitis B, because of the sharing of needles.
“The first person to inject themselves could be HIV negative but then from the time the syringe gets to be used by the last person, who knows. Maybe someone in between could be HIV positive.
“The worst scenario is if the first person who injects themselves with drugs is HIV positive, then all the other users get the blood from him or her.
“In Zimbabwe it seems the measures to contain this are really difficult because the only thing that people can do is go for an HIV test or if you say someone should take PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), but then it (PrEP) will only block HIV, it doesn’t stop other infections or complications.
“So now there is something called Harm Reduction which has a programme called Needle and Syringe Programme (NSP), but from last I checked, that programme has not yet started here in Zimbabwe.
“This is a programme whereby people who inject drugs will be coming in to get clean equipment to use, like needles, syringes, alcohol swabs and other items, so there is a whole bunch of things provided in NSP,” added the source.
The source further added, “then there are also needle disposal sites so that people don’t just get rid of their needles or syringes willy nilly.”
While a total of 1,3 million people are living with HIV in Zimbabwe, it was revealed that the country is recording a decline in the prevalence and incidence owing to several interventions.
However one hopes that the emergence of practices like bluetoothing, will not hamper the successes which the country is registering in fighting HIV.
