Desperate Addicts Inject Others’ Blood

I recently read an article from the New York Times entitled Desperate Addicts Inject Others’ Blood. This article was about people in a few African cities injecting themselves with other addicts' blood after the addicts have taken heroine. This practice is often called flashblood or flushblood and the people do it in order to keep their high or avoid having to go through withdrawal. This is a very dangerous practice and can cause those doing it to get AIDS or hepatitis.The article then continues to discuss the process the people go through in order to get this flashblood and also gives some details about the increase in heroin use.

I chose to blog about this article because I found it to be very shocking. I was amazed at how far people would go just to have access to a drug. I was also very surprised to find that this is becoming more common, even though people know the danger it puts them in.

Another reason I chose to reflect on this article is because I think it really relates to what we are talking about this week in our discussions, HIV and AIDS. By people injecting others' blood into their bodies, it puts them at a much greater risk for contracting the virus.