Health - Can one get an infection from insufflation

[AceOvArts]

SWIM stupidly used 3 lines of brown over the weekend. His first and last time venture into Heroin use. But the night after SWIM insufflated he got a swollen knee joint which he has put down to a bout of gout, SWIM suffers from gout because of blood pressure tablets ha has to take. Anyhow, the tell tale signs of gout were there. SWIM went to his GP yesterday and the Doc told him it could possibly be infected and prescribes penecillin as well as anti inflamitories. In SWIMs mind he doesnt think it is infected but...

Can a person contract a virus, or get a blood infection through insufflation ?

Thanks for any thoughts.

[Ilsa]

my cat did read an article somewhere that there was at least one strain of potentially pthogenic bacteria in a mg of heroin over 15 or so samples. another route of infection is irritation of the mucous membranes in the nasal passage, compromising them as a physical barrier and making one susceptible to infection by bacteria that come in contact with the irritated membrane. in either case, bacteria and/or viruses can gain access to the body, and while not likely to cause sepsis (where infection spreads to the bloodstream--bad bad bad), it can cause various illnesses depending on the pathogen.

[AceOvArts]

This morning SWIMs mind was further put at rest when his wife started to suffer the same virus symptoms as he had. This means the fever is virus related not in anyway linked to the insufflated powder. Though he still has a painful knee joint he guesses this is just plain old gout.
SWIM finds it odd that throughout his substance experimentation he recalls many times where he has become ill after a new substance was tried.
SWIM thinks this is due to the lowering of SWIMs immune system, these substances cause SWIM to become run down, all interesting stuff.

[Junkhead23]

It is possible to contract Pneumonia through insufflated heroin. happened to SWIM. Also Botulism too :S

[dyingtomorrow]

When SWIM was only snorting heroin, after about 6 months he developed a serious lung problem (not sure what it was). He could literally only take about 10 steps without running out of breath. This lasted on and off for the better part of a month. This also happened to SWIM's brother, but not as serious.

I'm not sure what a "good" solution is for the problem, but SWIM solved it by just switching to injecting.

[Junkhead23]

If heroin is infected with Botulism (this happens when it's been buried for a while) if injected (if some gets in surrounding tissue) or snorted SWIY will become infected but if smoked SWIY won't.