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AIDS and Behavior, Vol. 10, No. 6, November 2006 ( 2006) DOI: 10.1007/s10461-006-9079-5
New York City Injection Drug Users Memories of Syringe-Sharing Patterns and Changes During the Peak of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Russell Rockwell,1,2 Herman Joseph,1 and Samuel R. Friedman1
Published online: May 18, 2006
In this oral history, 23 injection drug users (IDUs) were interviewed about the mid-1970s to mid-1980s when they could not legally purchase or possess syringes, and the threat of AIDS began to loom large. Several themes emerged, including: abrupt changes in syringe-sharing patterns; the effects of illnesses or deaths of others on their understanding of AIDS; and, racial/ethnic differences in responses to the threat of AIDS. Settings, such as shooting galleries, helped HIV spread rapidly in the earliest stages of the citys AIDS epidemic. HIV entered the drug scene in the mid-1970s, just when IDUs were shifting from sharing homemade works (consisting of steel needles and syringes devised from rubber baby paciers and similar sources) among many IDUs to mass produced and distributed plastic, disposable needle and syringe sets. IDUs remember when they rst became aware of AIDS and began to adjust their behaviors and social assumptions.
KEY WORDS: IDUs; AIDS; syringe-sharing; oral history.
INTRODUCTION
The human immunodeciency virus (HIV) entered the New York City (NYC) injection drug using population in the mid-1970s and spread rapidly from the late 1970s through the early 1980s (Des Jarlais et al., 1989). Descriptions of what happened in this decade, particularly with the perspectives of those who experienced it such as are presented in this paper, provide important context for understanding changes in the worlds largest and oldest HIV/acquired immune deciency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic among injection drug users (IDUs). Clearly this rst decade was unique. HIV spread rapidly before anyone knew what it was; purchasing and possessing syringes was illegal; there were no HIV/AIDS-specic public health programs,
1National Development and Research Institutes Inc., New York, New York.
2Correspondence should be directed to Russell Rockwell, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York 10010; e-mail: [email protected].
and no effective medications. In the second decade (19851995) educational outreach programs, HIV counseling and testing, and syringe exchange programs were implemented and expanded; by the third decade (1996 to present) highly active...