AIDS prevention for women at risk: Experience from a national demonstration research program

This paper discusses data from a national research program working with large numbers of women at risk for HIV. Important similarities between injection drug using (IDU) women and the non-injecting partners of IDU men have been shown. High levels of non-injection drug use are common to both groups, as is crack use and the trading of sex for crack. Despite considerable knowledge about AIDS, risky sex and drug injection behaviors are the rule. A number of important principles for outreach and intervention with women have also emerged, including the need for simultaneously aggressive and sensitive out-reach strategies and for interventions that take into account the full context of these women's lives.