Disparities in HIV Prevention Services, Infection Rates
and Mortality:
A Comparison of Drug Users in Puerto Rico and New York
Researchers at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. in New York City and the Universidad Central del Caribe in San Juan, Puerto Rico, have published a new report on HIV and AIDS in Puerto Rico. The report, “Disparities in HIV Prevention Services, Infection Rates and Mortality: A Comparison of Drug Users in Puerto Rico and New York,” presents the main findings of a National Institute on Drug Abuse funded study that compared the HIV-related risk behaviors and infection rates of 800 Puerto Rican drug users in East Harlem, N.Y. with 399 of their counterparts in Bayamon, P.R.
The study found that drug users in Puerto Rico became infected with HIV at a rate almost four times higher than Puerto Rican drug users in New York, and they died at a rate that was more than three times as high. Drug users in Puerto Rico were more likely to engage in injection and sex practices that put them at risk of becoming infected with HIV and had substantially fewer HIV prevention resources available to them than drug users in New York. Moreover, the capacity of drug treatment programs in Puerto Rico declined by over one-third during the study period.
Participants in Puerto Rico who were HIV negative at the start of the study became infected at a higher rate. Mortality was also higher among the participants in Puerto Rico. |
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This research is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
grant no. R01 DA010425.
February, 2005