People who use illegal drugs have significantly higher mortality and hospital admission rates for various diseases than those who do not take drugs, a study by National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed.
The two institutions cooperated in a project to collect data on illegal drug use from the Ministry of the Interior and compared it with National Health Insurance data in a bid to understand the health risks people who use illegal drugs face.
“We can see that [people who use illegal drugs] are admitted to hospital 10 times as often as those who do not use drugs, with the majority of cases being because of infectious diseases,” College of Public Health dean Chen Wei-jen (陳為堅) said.
He said that hospital admission rates for HIV/AIDS and drug-induced psychosis in people aged 40 to 49 who use illegal drugs are respectively about 55 times and 101 times greater than people in the same age group who do not use drugs.
For people aged from 20 to 24, hospital admission rates for cystitis (bladder inflammation), sexually transmitted diseases (including gonorrhea and syphilis), orchitis and epididymitis among those who use illegal drugs are respectively about 59 times, 20 times and 12 times greater than for people who do not use drugs, Chen said.
He said the statistics showed that illegal drugs such as ketamine not only damage the bladder, but also affect the reproductive system, especially in men.
He said that through the analysis of big data, illegal drug use and abuse was shown to cause general damage to the body, including increased risks of infectious diseases, mental diseases, infective endocarditis, orchitis and epididymitis, as well as inflammation of several organs.
The FDA said the data could be used as reference to formulate drug prevention policies.
The FDA said it encourages people to always be aware of illegal drug use by others and to say no to drugs, because curiosity can lead addiction and serious harm to the body.
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