Injection Drug Use Associated Infections are a Major Determinant of Maternal Morbidity in Pregnant Persons with Opiate Use Disorder

Abstract

Infectious complications of injection drug use constitute a major medical morbidity underrecognized in the setting of the opioid epidemic. Persons who inject drugs are at risk for acquiring invasive bacterial infections and these infections are increasing in parallel to the opioid epidemic. National attention has been drawn to the opioid epidemic in pregnant people and the development of neonatal abstinence syndrome, yet these life-threatening infectious complications have not been characterized.