title: The response of state agencies to AIDS, addiction, and alcoholism.
abstract: State agencies have been profoundly impacted by the AIDS epidemic. In the absence of a vaccine that would prevent AIDS or of medicines that would cure it, the primary strategies of such agencies have focused on reducing the spread of AIDS by promoting cessation of high risk behaviors and thus preventing or slowing its transmission. Recent research indicates that the primary route of AIDS transmission into the general heterosexual population is by intravenous (IV) drug abusers, who directly account for about 17% of AIDS cases nationwide. Reducing the spread of AIDS within this group would not only reduce the overall toll of the disease but should limit its spread to the population at large. Infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be minimized by reducing or eliminating certain high-risk activities. In the IV drug using community, the primary intervention strategies include: educating IV drug users about the hazards of AIDS and sharing of needles; enrolling them in treatment programs to reduce drug use; promoting the use of new or sterilized syringes and needles among those who will not abstain from drug use; and discouraging high-risk sexual activity among those who are already infected by HIV. The State of California has already increased the number of treatment slots for IV drug users and, through the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, is scaling up its educational, prevention, and intervention activities, particularly those related to safe sex, promoting the cessation of IV drug use, and improving equipment hygiene by those who continue use.
authors.affiliation: California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, Sacramento 95814.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Veatch
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D014481:United States