Study Confirms Role of Meth in HIV

The results of a new study confirm that crystal methamphetamine use has emerged as the newest risk factor in the U.S. HIV epidemic. People who use crystal methamphetamine are at least three times more likely to be HIV-infected than nonusers, according to research conducted jointly by the University of California-San Francisco AIDS Health Project (UCSF-AHP), CDC, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The drug lowers inhibitions and encourages riskier sexual behavior with multiple partners -- key risks for HIV infection.

The study involved 3,000 San Franciscans who took anonymous HIV tests in 2000 and 2001. Of 300 people in the study who reported using crystal meth, 6 percent were recently infected with HIV. Among people who used the drug during sexual encounters, the infection rate was close to 8 percent. Among people who did not use crystal meth, in contrast, just 2 percent had newly acquired HIV infections.

It is essential to combine drug treatment and prevention programs with STD control efforts, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, San Francisco's director of STD control and senior study author. "It is important to address crystal use to control those epidemics."

"It is a complicated problem requiring a carefully planned response" involving doctors, public health officials, policymakers, and community members, said James Dilley, director of UCSF-AHP.

The report, "Amphetamine Use Is Associated with Increased HIV Incidence Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in San Francisco," was published in AIDS (2005;19(13):1423-1424).

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