Chapter 1-- Introduction to HIV/AIDS
Short Contents
|
Full Contents
Other books
@
NCBI
Search
This book All
books
PubMed
Navigation
About this book
SAMHSA/CSAT
Treatment
Improvement
Protocols
37. TIP 37:
Substance Abuse
Treatment for
Persons with HIV/
AIDS
Executive Summary
and
Recommendations
Chapter 1--
Introduction to HIV/
AIDS
Chapter
2
Medical
Assessment and
Treatment
Chapter 3
Mental
Health Treatment
AHCPR Archived reports, Put Prevention Into Practice and Minnesota Health
Technology Advisory Committee
SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement
Protocols
37.
TIP 37: Substance Abuse Treatment for Persons with HIV/AIDS
Chapter 1-- Introduction to HIV/AIDS
The first cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported
in the United States in the spring of 1981. By 1983 the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, had been isolated.
Early in the U.S. HIV/AIDS pandemic, the role of substance abuse in the
spread of AIDS was clearly established. Injection drug use (IDU) was
identified as a direct route of HIV infection and transmission among injection
drug users. The largest group of early AIDS cases comprised gay and bisexual
men (referred to as men who have sex with men(or MSMs). Early cases of
HIV infection that were sexually transmitted often were related to the use of
alcohol and other substances, and the majority of these cases occurred in
urban, educated, white MSMs.
Currently, injection drug users represent the largest HIV-infected substance-
abusing population in the United States. HIV/AIDS prevalence rates among
injection drug users vary by geographic region, with the highest rates in
surveyed substance abuse treatment centers in the Northeast, the South, and
Puerto Rico. From July 1998 through June 1999, 23 percent of all AIDS cases
reported were among men and women who reported IDU (
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention [CDC], 1999b).
IDU practices are quick and efficient vehicles for HIV transmission. The virus
is transmitted primarily through the exchange of blood using needles, syringes,
or other IDU equipment (e.g., cookers, rinse water, cotton) that were
previously used by an HIV-infected person. Lack of knowledge about safer
needle use techniques and the lack of alternatives to needle sharing (e.g.,
available supplies of clean, new needles) contribute to the rise of HIV/AIDS.
Another route of HIV transmission among injection drug users is through
sexual contacts within relatively closed sexual networks, which are
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi.rid=hstat5.section.65001 (1 of 21)23/04/2006 6:22:19 AM
