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Significant health disparities in the rates of HIV infection primarily affect African American women. Although research has demonstrated that for some individuals HIV is connected to preventable high-risk behaviors related to substance use, a further examination of how these risks are perceived by the individuals involved in these activities is warranted. This study prevents the results of 11 focus groups with 89 African American women who use crack cocaine in which respondents shared their perceptions of HIV risk behaviors. The results of this study suggest that women crack cocaine users in Nashville, Tennessee, are not injecting the drug. There appeared to be high levels of perceived sexual risks associated with the use of crack cocaine by some users; however, this was not universal, as many active users have internalized HIV prevention messages. The results of this study are significant in that further understanding of the means by which individuals experience their risk behaviors will enable more effective targeting of potential interventions to reduce the spread of HIV. KEY WORDS: crack cocaine; HIV risk; substance abuse [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses African Americans, their being representative of one-third of all cumulative AIDS cases in the U. S., and how prevention and treatment have continued to be problematic because of a general distrust of mainstream social services. Traditional middle class European American intervention treatment models do not consider the barriers to prevention and intervention facing African Americans. Research has emphasized the need for promoting prosocial motives, including re-entry into a moral community, renewed spirituality, self-esteem, and establishment of one's role in the family.

The article presents information on the efforts of a organization in AIDS control. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the Xchange Point is a nonprofit community-based AIDS services organization founded in 1996 as a street-based outreach and SEP. Trained community health outreach workers have conducted street-based, roving outreach in four areas of Cleveland on a weekly basis since the program's inception. A substance abuse services has been the rise of the harm-reduction model and non- abstinence-based services. Harm reduction is based on the suppositions that drug use will continue to exist for most users and that safer use is always possible. The first syringe exchange program (SEP) was established in the U.S. in 1988 in Tacoma, Washington. There is strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of SEPs with regard to decreased HIV- infection rates, decreased incidence of sharing of injection equipment, and increased frequency of the disinfection of injection equipment.

The threat of HIV/AIDS to African American's health has become the focus of much concern. This study investigated the potential differences between African Americans' and white college students' current and future sexual behaviors and safer sex behaviors with HIV/AIDS awareness, condom use self-efficacy, and safer sex attitudes. A convenience sample of 156 college students from three public universities was used. Of those who were sexually active, more African American than white respondents reported they used condoms frequently, and more African Americans indicated they would use condoms regularly in the future. No racial differences were found in intentions for future casual sex, condom use self-efficacy, or attitudes toward safer sex practices. Although the results suggest that for this sample African American college students appear to have internalized safer sex messages to a greater degree, both groups reported a lack of consistent safe-sex practices, which may put them at risk of HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]