An Overview of AIDS Prevention Efforts Aimed at Intravenous Drug Users Circa 1987

Abstract

AIDS prevention efforts that had been instituted by early 1987 included outreach; AIDS education within drug abuse treatment programs; antibody testing; preventing initiation in IV drug use; collective organization by drug users to confront AIDS; and efforts to change the environment of IV drug use in ways that might reduce HIV transmission. Projects differed in terms of whether they 1) oriented primarily to getting users into treatment or to risk reduction among continuing users (a false dichotomy); 2) used deterrence, skills building, group-identity, or social support to motivate risk reduction; 3) tried to change the environment of drug use, its subculture, or the individual user; and 4) vested control of the project in the hands of professionals or of the users themselves. These models can play different roles in fighting the epidemic, and new approaches need to be developed.