Vein Care: Maintain your veins
To help prevent vein damage, abscesses, and viral infections like hep C, use new sterile injecting equipment every time and always:

• wash your hands;
• wash the injection site; and
• clean your mixing equipment

before and after every injection.

Clean your skin with hot water and soap.
If you can’t get to a hot tap, use an alcohol swab.

As well as sterile injecting equipment, your local Needle & Syringe Program can give you safer injecting advice and free alcohol swabs.

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Vein Care: Maintain your veins

Putting a needle into your vein damages the vein lining.

You can limit the damage to your veins by not injecting too fast -this can tear the vein and cause leakage. Also avoid jacking back blood and ‘flushing’ after your shot - this doesn’t get more drugs into your system, but it does increase vein damage.

Collapsed veins never recover.
Go slow. Be gentle.
Rotate sites.
Use a new sterile needle and syringe every time.

Look after your veins.

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