AIDS, HIV infection, and illicit drug use within inner-city families and social networks

Abstract

Objectives: Drug use is commonly depicted and treated as an individual problem. This study describes the extent of drug use, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) among drug users' sexual partners and family and household members in order to broaden considerations of risk.

Methods: Social network charts and structured interviews were administered to 126 women (predominantly African American and Latino) enrolled in methadone treatment. The charts elicited the prevalence of drug use and HIV infection among subjects' family and household members.

Results: Drug use and HIV/AIDS permeated subjects' sexual, familial, and household relationships. More than half of the women who resided with a sexual partner reported that their partners currently used drugs. Almost one third of the subjects' siblings were drug users. Of the 715 total siblings (all subjects plus their siblings), 69 (9.7%) were known to be HIV positive or to have an AIDS diagnosis.

Conclusions: The sexual, familial, and household expressions of drug use underscore the notion that drug use and attendant risks, including but not limited to HIV infection, might be usefully viewed and treated as an inter- and intracommunity problem rather than as an exclusively individual one.