STUDY CONFIRMS ROLE OF METH IN HIV

Drug Users Three Times More Likely To Acquire Infection

People who use crystal methamphetamine are at least three times more likely
to be infected with HIV than those who don't use the drug, according to a
new government-sponsored study.

"Crystal meth use is the newest and most important threat to the HIV
epidemic in the United States," Dr. James Dilley, director of the UC San
Francisco AIDS Health Project, said in a prepared statement released Monday.

The study was conducted jointly by researchers for the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, UC San Francisco and the San Francisco
Department of Public Health.

The study's findings underscore the red flag health officials have been
raising about crystal meth: People who use it drop their inhibitions and
are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex with
multiple partners, that increase the chance of HIV infection.

First reported in the August issue of the medical journal AIDS, the study
looked at 3,000 San Franciscans who received anonymous HIV tests in 2000
and 2001.

Of the 300 people in the study who voluntarily reported they used crystal
meth, 6 percent had recently been infected with HIV. The infection rate was
close to 8 percent for those who admitted to using crystal meth during
sexual encounters.

Among respondents who said they had not used meth, 2 percent had recently
contracted HIV.

"It is a complicated problem requiring a carefully planned response,"
Dilley said. "Having doctors, public health officials, policymakers and,
most importantly, community members working together is the only means of
success."

To that end, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, San Francisco's director of
Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and senior author of the study, it is
essential to combine drug-treatment and drug-prevention programs with
efforts to curtail HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, such as
syphilis.

"It is important to address crystal use to control those epidemics,"
Klausner said.

A federal study in five U.S. cities early this year found that new HIV
infections among gay and bisexual men in San Francisco were occurring at
about half the rate recorded four years ago.

Among a sample of 365 gay men contacted here in bars and dance clubs, sex
clubs and gyms, on the streets and in parks and shops, the study found they
were becoming infected at a rate of 1.2 percent per year. San Francisco
epidemiologists had previously estimated an infection rate of 2.2 percent.