ABSTRACT
With the continuing difficulties in developing either effective treatment or a vaccine for AIDS, there has been increasing emphasis on trying to prevent infections through behavior change of persons at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The response of IV drug users to the threat of AIDS will be critical to the future spread of HIV in the U.S. Intravenous drug users are the second largest group of persons to have developed AIDS and the primary source of heterosexual and perinatal transmission in the United States. There is a commmon stereotype of the “drug addict” in the United States that hinders AIDS prevention efforts in two ways. Like all stereotypes, it is frequently an inaccurate image of the actual behavior of persons addicted to either heroin or cocaine (and more frequently inaccurate for persons injecting these drugs without being addicted), and it does not present the variety of different subgroups among persons injecting illicit drugs. AIDS prevention strategies will be facilitated through targeting different subgroups of IV drug users and designing specific strategies for those different groups.
