Women Addicts and the Threat of AIDS

Abstract

The response of women addicts to the threat of AIDS is reported in this article. Data were derived from the AIDS section of broad-scale ethnographic interviews with 30 patients in a New York City comprehensive care program and supplemented by interviews with 10 staff members. All of the women were mothers or pregnant. All had been addicted to heroin, with most having been intravenous (IV) users. The fear of AIDSfor themselves and their children was pervasive, as nearly all the women knew at least one person who had died of AIDS. Their past IV use was considered a risk by some women; the present risk was curtailed by being on a program that administered methadone. Strategies used by the women to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infection included assessing whether a potential male partner used IV drugs, a reduction in the number of sexual partners, monogamy or celibacy, and condom use. Most male partners refused to use condoms, and many of the women acceded to this. About half the women were tested for HIV, and in this regard, the responses described by Weitz's 1989 study-vigilance and avoidance-were manifest.