Community Based outreach and intervention strategies will be tested for effectiveness in reducing the spread of AIDS among 300 IV Drug abusers and their sexual partners. This will be accomplished by four primary cooperating agencies that developed and will implement strategies. Using existing clinical, educational/outreach and mental health services in the community, this study proposes to demonstrate that organization of these services into a focused direction can be effective in reducing the spread of AIDS, and at the same time, serve as an outreach and referral mechanism to other agencies (i.e., housing, food, employment, legal). The process of mainstreaming IV drug abusers back into society will be an additional desired outcome as varied degrees of rehabilitation are achieved through the vast community network. An interesting component in this study is that Houston has one of the highest case loads of AIDS in the Country, serves as a major entry point for illegal drugs from Central and South America, and has had no significant funding by the State or Federal agencies to address these problems. To test this hypothesis, in the given environment, the evaluation process of this study will: (1) monitor each aspect of the program and identify the components that produce results, (2) monitor individual records of patients to determine whether a particular intervention by itself caused something to happen or if other factors were involved, (3) make comparisons between current patient information (i.e., clinical, social, drug) and baseline information on the patients, and (4) yield data that will assist the Houston SMSA and NIDA in planning and serving their respective population in the future.
| Zhuo, Z; Williams, M; Bell, D (1994) An evaluation of drug injection behaviors and HIV infection. National AIDS Research Consortium. Int J Addict 29:1499-518 |
| Maddux, J F; Vogtsberger, K N; Prihoda, T J et al. (1994) Illicit drug injectors in three Texas cities. Int J Addict 29:179-94 |
| Williams, M L (1990) HIV seroprevalence among male IVDUs in Houston, Texas. Am J Public Health 80:1507-9 |
