ABSTRACT
Since first reported in 1981, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection and its late manifestation, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), have become epidemic in the United States and other parts of the world. Worldwide, some 40 million people are living with HIV/ AIDS (1). In the United States, it is estimated that more than 800,000 people have been diagnosed with AIDS (2). Men who have sex with men and injection drug users (IDUs) have been the predominant HIV risk groups. Of men living with AIDS in 2001, 32% were IDUs or men who have sex with men and who were also IDUs (2). Women, ethnic minority groups, and children have been particularly hard-hit by injection drug-related and heterosexual transmission of HIV. Since the epidemic began, 57% of AIDS cases among women have been attributed to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. Of new AIDS cases reported in 2000, AIDS associated with IDU accounted for 26% of cases among African American and 31% among Hispanic adults and adolescents, compared with 19% of all cases among Caucasians (2).
