The Context of HIV Risk Among Drug Users and Their Sexual Partners

In addition, risk-taking behaviors are deemed to be volitional in nature
and account for the majority of morbidity during adolescence.
Although risk-taking behaviors such as initiation of sexual intercourse
and experimentation with alcohol and drugs are thought to be a part of
“normal” adolescent development, often these behaviors have grave
negative health consequences that last well into adulthood. Adolescents
who engage in such risk-taking behaviors are at increased risk for a host
of problems, including acquisition and transmission of HIV and other
STDs.
OUTCOME OF ADOLESCENT RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR:
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
AIDS and HIV Infection
As of June 1993, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
had reported 315,390 cases of AIDS in the United States. While these
numbers are of epidemic proportions, adolescents ages 13 to 19 represent
1,301 or less than 1 percent of the total cases. Adolescent males represent
913 cases (less than 1 percent of all the male cases), and adolescent
females comprise 318 cases (reflecting 1 percent of all the female cases)
(CDC 1993a). The number of AIDS cases may not reflect the actual rate
of HIV infection among adolescents, since the incubation period is long
and varied (Gayle et al. 1989). Therefore, it is probable that many of the
59,617 young adults ages 20 to 29 diagnosed with AIDS (19 percent of
reported cases) acquired HIV during their teen years.
A profile of the currently reported adolescent AIDS cases in the United
States by exposure category reveals that most adolescents with AIDS
were infected as a result of high-risk sexual behavior or injecting drug use
(IDU): 299 (23 percent) are males who reported sex with other males;
143 (11 percent) reported IDU behavior; 42 (3 percent) are males who
reported sex with males and IDU behavior; and 236 (18 percent) reported
heterosexual contact with a person who was HIV-infected or at high risk.
Of the individuals in the last group, 208 (88 percent) are females.
National AIDS surveillance data indicate that minority adolescents are
overrepresented among persons with AIDS relative to their proportion in
the population: whites represent 530 (41 percent) of the adolescent cases;
African Americans total 515 (40 percent) of the cases; Hispanics total
137