Smoking crack cocaine puts young Americans - particularly women - at high risk of catching the AIDS virus, a new study shows.
Intravenous drug users who share needles are in the most danger, but crack smokers aren't far behind because they're likely to have frequent, unsafe sex under influence of the drug, researchers reported Tuesday."HIV (AIDS virus) prevention programs that target crack smokers, especially women, are needed," said Dr. Brian Edlin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although the majority of AIDS patients still are men, the fatal disease is increasing almost four times as fast among women. And they are passing AIDS to their babies; the CDC recorded a 16.6 percent jump in new cases among infants and toddlers last year.
The CDC is trying to discover why, despite safe-sex education aimed at women, heterosexual contact has overtaken intravenous drug use as the primary cause of infection in women. The crack study shows non-IV drugs are one reason.