The presentation of fever in an intravenous drug user prompts diagnostic testing targeted at identifying infectious etiologies. However, an alternate diagnosis exists in "cotton fever." While few reports describe this phenomenon in the peer-reviewed literature, the diagnosis is well recognized among the intravenous drug user community. Although its etiology is not well understood, cotton fever ...

Burkholderia cepacia, previously known as Pseudomonas cepacia, has been implicated in vertebral osteomyelitis in patients who are intravenous drug abusers. We report a case of acute vertebral osteomyelitis in a non-intravenous drug user, following an elective rhinoplasty.

Safe and effective HIV prevention strategies are needed for transwomen. Transwomen in the US have a 34 times greater odds of being infected with HIV than all adults age 15-49, and in San Francisco, California 42.4% of transwomen are estimated to be infected with HIV. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the first biomedical intervention with promise for reducing HIV acquisition in transwomen. How...

Endogenous endophthalmitis is a rare but feared infectious ocular complication of injection drug use (IDU). The recent opioid epidemic in the United States threatens to increase the incidence of this disease. We report the first case of endogenous endophthalmitis in the United States caused by the emerging fungal pathogen Rhodotorula in an injection drug user which led to no light perception vi...

This study examines the prevalence of public injecting and willingness to use drug consumption rooms (DCRs) among UK needle exchange programme (NEP) attendees. Three hundred and one injecting drug users (IDUs) were surveyed using a brief questionnaire across five NEPs in London and Leeds between April and June 2005. Injection in a public place in the past week was reported by 55% of the sample ...