Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:35:50.758Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intravenous Drug Abusers and HIV Infections: A Consequence of Their Actions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Harold M. Ginzburg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper presents the available epidemiological data on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and AIDS among intravenous (IV) drug abusers, reviews HIV disease among intravenous drug abusers, and focuses on initial research findings that indicate intravenous drug abusers not only are educable but may indeed be altering their lifestyles as a direct consequence of their fear of HIV infection.

Although the initial clinical cases of AIDS were described in 1981, among gay men living in Los Angels, only a short time elapsed before IV drug abusers who shared their drug paraphernalia were identified as another risk group. A reasonable hypothesis, based on reports from the New York metropolitan area, is that there has been a relative increase in the percent of AIDS cases among IV drug abusers as compared to homosexuals. This may be explained by the transition group of sexually active homosexual men who also used intravenous drugs and thereby spread HIV from the gay community to IV drug abusers. In support of this hypothesis, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 8 percent of all reported AIDS cases from New York City have both risk factors.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 14 , Issue 5-6 , December 1986 , pp. 268 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Pneumocystis pneumonia—Los Angeles, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1981, 30: 250–52; Gottlieb, MS et al., Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and mucosal candidiasis in previously healthy men, New England Journal of Medicine 1981, 305: 1425-31; Siegal, FP et al., Severe acquired immunodeficiency in homosexual males manifested by chronic perianal and herpes simplex lesions, New England Journal of Medicine 1981, 305: 1439-44.Google Scholar
Greene, JB et al., Mycobacterium avium-intracellular: A cause of disseminated life-threatening infection in homosexuals and drug abusers, Annals of Internal Medicine 1982, 97: 539–46.Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Weekly Surveillance Report, September 29, 1986.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Unpublished CDC data.Google Scholar
CDC, supra note 3.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, HM, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among intravenous drug users, Public Health Reports 1984, 99: 206–11.Google ScholarPubMed
Louria, DB, Hensle, T, Rose, J, The major complications of heroin addiction, Annals of Internal Medicine 1967, 67: 1–22.Google ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, L, Infective endocarditis—1973, Progress in Cardiovascular Disease 1973, 16: 239–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ginzburg, HM et al., Symptoms associated with HTLV-III seropositivity among parenteral drug users (PDUs), Proceedings, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 1986, 5: 7 [abstract].Google Scholar
Alter, AA, Michael, M Jr., Serum hepatitis in a group of addicts, New England Journal of Medicine 1959, 159: 387–94.Google Scholar
Most, H, Falciparum malaria among drug addicts, epidemiologic studies, American Journal of Public Health 1940, 30: 403–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orangio, GR et al., Soft tissue infections in parenteral drug users, Annals of Surgery 1984, 199: 97–100.Google Scholar
Kotler, DP et al., Enteropathy associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Annals of Internal Medicine 1984, 101: 421–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robert-Guroff, M, Gallo, RC, The family of human T-cell lymphotropic type C retroviruses known as HTLV and their role in human T cell diseases, in Nakamura, RM, O'Sullivan, MB, eds., Clinical laboratory molecular analyses, New York: Grune & Stratton, 1985: 109–27.Google Scholar
Dosik, H et al., Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: A cluster in Brooklyn, a new endemic area? (abstracted), Blood 1985, 66(supp 1): 187a.Google Scholar
Cabral, GA, Lockmuller, JC, Mishkin, EM, Delta-9-tetra-hydro-cannabinol decreases alpha/beta interferon response to herpes simplex type 2 in the B6C3F1 mouse, Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine 1986, 181: 305–11.Google Scholar
Munson, AE, Holsapple, MP, Overview of the immunotoxicity of marihuana, in Harvey, DJ, ed., Marijuana '84: 3rd satellite symposium on cannabis, Oxford, U.K.: IRL Press Ltd, 1985: 419–30.Google Scholar
Palmer, DL, Alcohol consumption and cellular immunocompetence, Laryngoscope 1978, 88: 1–7; Lundy, J et al., The acute and chronic effects of alcohol in the human immune system, Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics 1975, 141: 212-18.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, SM et al., Immunological dysfunction in heroin addicts, Archives of Internal Medicine 1974, 134: 1001–6.Google Scholar
Haverkos, HW et al., Disease manifestation among homosexual men with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: A possible role of nitrites in Kaposi's sarcoma, Sexually Transmitted Diseases 1985, 12: 203–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Pearce, R, Intestinal protozoal infections in AIDS, Lancet 1983, ii: 51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedland, GH et al., Intravenous drug abusers and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): Demographic, drug use, and needle-sharing patterns, Archives of Internal Medicine 1985, 145: 837–40.Google ScholarPubMed
Update: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)—United States, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1982, 32: 389–91; Gallo, RC et al., Frequent detection and isolation of cytopathic retroviruses (HTLV-III) from patients with AIDS and at risk for AIDS, Science 1984, 224: 500-503; Barré-Sinoussi, F et al., Isolation of a T-lymphocytic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Science 1983, 220: 868-71.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, HM, Gostin, L, Legal and ethical issues associated with HTLV-III diseases, Psychiatric Annals 1986, 16: 180–85.Google Scholar
Harris, C et al., Immunodeficiency in female sexual partners of men with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, New England Journal of Medicine 1984, 310: 69–75; Plot, P et al., Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in a heterosexual population in Zaire, Lancet 1984, ii: 65-69.Google Scholar
Robertson, JR et al., Epidemic of AIDS related virus (HTLV-III/LAV) infection among intravenous drug users, British Medical Journal 1986, 292: 527–30.Google Scholar
De Rossi, A et al., HTLV-III and HTLV-I infection in populations at risk in the Veneto region of Italy, European Journal of Cancer Clinical Oncology 1986, 22: 411–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hengster, P et al., [HTLV-III in persons with intravenous drug abuse: Correlation of antibodies against HTLV-III with neopterin and TH/TS], Deutsch Medecin Wochenscher 1986, 111:453–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): Memorandum from a WHO meeting, Bulletin of the World Health Organization 1985, 63: 667–72.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, A et al., Acquired immunodeficiency with reverse T4/T8 ratios in infants born to promiscuous and drug-addicted mothers, Journal of the American Medical Association 1983, 249: 2350–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, et al., Screening test for HTLV-III (AIDS agent) antibodies: Specificity, sensitivity, and applications, Journal of the American Medical Association 1985, 253: 221–25.Google ScholarPubMed
Coolfont Report: A PHS Plan for Prevention and Control of AIDS and the AIDS Virus, Public Health Reports 1986, 101: 341–48.Google Scholar
Client oriented data acquisition process, SMSA statistics 1980, series E, number 23, NIDA, ADAMHA, PHS, Rockville, Maryland, 1981.Google Scholar
Sells, SB, ed., The effectiveness of drug abuse treatment: Evaluation of treatment, vol. 1, Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1974; Simpson, DD et al., Addiction careers: Etiology, treatment, and 12-year follow-up outcomes, Journal of Drug Issues 1986, 16: 107-21.Google Scholar
DesJarlais, DC, Friedman, SR, Hopkins, W, Risk reduction of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome among intravenous drug users, Annals of Internal Medicine 1985, 103: 755–59; Craddock, SG, Bray, RM, Hubbard, RL, Drug use before and during drug abuse treatment: 1979–1981 TOPS admission cohorts, Research Triangle Park, N.C., Research Triangle Institute, 1983.Google Scholar
Craddock, , Bray, and Hubbard, , supra note 37.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, HM et al., Health education and knowledge assessment of HTLV-III diseases among intravenous drug users, Health Education Quarterly (in press), Winter 1986.Google Scholar
Craddock, , Bray, and Hubbard, , supra note 37.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar