HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse: Are you at risk?

by Olga Bennett

By now, people are aware that AIDS is sexually transmitted, but not everyone recognizes the connection between HIV and substance use disorders. HIV is sneaky. As many as 280,000 Americans are living with the virus but don't know it. Of the new infections, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 30-40 percent of them result from injection drug use.

Although sharing used needles provides a high-risk for HIV transmission, the dangers go far beyond the issue of needles. People who abuse alcohol, speed, crack cocaine, poppers or other non-injected drugs are more likely than non-substance users to be HIV positive. People with a history of non-injection substance abuse are also more likely to engage in high-risk sexual activities.

The choice of substances affects the risk of acquiring HIV. For example, crack abusers may have different social behaviors than alcohol abusers. Among substance abusers who do not use injections, HIV infection is not caused by drug use but by unsafe sexual behavior.

It is often believed that having unprotected sex while under the influence of drugs or alcohol accounts for a high HIV risk among many substance abusers. However, sexual networks and sexual mixing might better explain risk. Many people who are in treatment for using drugs or alcohol tend say they tended to select their sexual partners from social networks of people like themselves. Their networks might include people who have used needles, traded sex for money or drugs, been victims of trauma or been incarcerated. All of these populations may have higher rates of HIV infection, making transmission more likely.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may also account for high sexual risk-taking activities among female crack users due to the traumas they encounter, whether violent (assault, rape) or nonviolent (homelessness, loss of children, a serious accident).

In the state of Florida, 102,287 HIV cases were reported starting from July 1997 to April 2006, with 21,553 of those cases attributed to injection drug use and male-to-male contact.

If you have been involved in risky behaviors—or even if you think your partner may have been—you can gain considerable peace of mind by getting yourself tested. It’s free from and it’s anonymous.

For more information on substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and testing, you can call Manatee Glens

782-4169.