Rates of Drug Use-Associated Infective Endocarditis Declined From 2020 to 2022

TUESDAY, Nov. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hospitalizations for drug use-associated infective endocarditis (DUA-IE) are declining, driven by a decrease in opioid-associated cases, according to a study published online Oct. 27 in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Paul J. Christine, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, and colleagues examined national trends in DUA-IE. The analysis included a representative sample of U.S. hospitalizations from 2016 to 2022.

The researchers identified an estimated 118,190 DUA-IE hospitalizations, which peaked in 2020 (18,735) and subsequently declined annually through 2022 (15,345). Opioid-only hospitalizations decreased from 49.4 percent in 2016 to 39.9 percent in 2022, while there were increases in co-use of opioids and stimulants (22.6 to 28.6 percent) and stimulant-only hospitalizations (14.7 to 18.3 percent). There was regional variation in trends. The probability of stimulant-involved DUA-IE was highest in Western divisions (0.59 in the Pacific region versus 0.34 in New England). 

“With opioid injection historically accounting for a large share of these infections, we wanted to understand whether greater availability to addiction treatments and harm reduction services, along with changes in how people use drugs, may have influenced hospitalization trends nationwide,” Christine said in a statement.

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