MASSACHUSETTS: Crystal Meth Threat Growing; Gays' Use in New England Fueling HIV Fears (Massachusetts)

http://www.aegis.com/news/ads/2005/AD050800.html


Boston Globe (04.24.05) - Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Stephen Smith


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The use of crystal methamphetamine in New England's gay communities, combined with HIV treatment optimism, threaten progress against the epidemic, say AIDS specialists. However, quantifying the region's drug problem and its relation to STDs is difficult, substance abuse and disease specialists point out.
Of 1,000 gay men surveyed by Massachusetts health officials in 2004, one in 10 had experimented with the drug at least once the preceding year, and 2 percent acknowledged smoking, snorting or injecting the drug at least once a week.

"The intersection of this drug with HIV is obviously a major concern for controlling the epidemic," said Dr. Stephen Boswell, executive director of Fenway Community Health, a major AIDS treatment provider in Boston. "I've had tons of patients telling me they've wound up doing things they never would have done if they weren't on the drug."

A slight upturn in Massachusetts HIV cases among gay and bisexual men in 2003-2004 should not be regarded as a trend, nor is it necessarily linked to methamphetamine use, said Kevin Cranston, chief of the state's HIV/AIDS Bureau. "We have ample anecdotal data that crystal meth appears to be increasingly prevalent," he said. "But we need to be careful before we extrapolate from individual reports to a pattern of use and abuse in the community."

In January, drug and disease experts met at CDC in Atlanta to develop better methods for tracking and combating meth use and its related behaviors. In March, health department officials joined AIDS and substance abuse specialists at the Washington offices of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors in discussing meth's potential STD/HIV link. A San Francisco study found gay meth users were twice as likely as nonusers to be HIV-infected, and five times likelier to have syphilis.

"Certainly, there's been regional attention for many years on the West Coast," said Gordon Mansergh, senior behavioral scientist at CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. "Now, there's a critical mass that calls for national attention," he said.