Can I get HIV from any type of injecting?

Some people who inject drugs wrongly believe they are not at risk of HIV if they avoid injecting into a vein (intravenous injecting). You can also get HIV from injecting into the fat under the skin (subcutaneous injecting) and injecting directly into a muscle (intramuscular injection).1

Sharing a needle or syringe for any use, including injecting drugs under the skin (skin popping), steroids, hormones or silicone, can put you at risk of HIV and other infections found in the blood likehepatitis C.2

There are many ways you could get HIV from injecting drugs, including:

• preparing drugs with syringes that contain infected blood
• sharing water used to flush blood out of a needle and syringe
• reusing bottle caps, spoons, or other containers ("cookers") to dissolve drugs into water and to heat drugs solutions
• reusing filters - normally small pieces of cotton or cigarette filters – used to filter out particles that could block the needle
• unsafe disposal of used needles or syringes where infected blood accidently gets into the body of another person.3