PSU Magazine Fall 1988

will discourage needle sharing and drug use in general and help slow the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a strong link to AIDS. And unlike the relatively self-contained male homosexual population , the IV drug user population cuts more boldly across the social fabric, thus putting at risk not only fellow users but also sexual partners and the unborn . The need to think of AIDS and IV drug use in tandem was driven home for Out– side In staff last year when several of their clients tested positively for HIV. Two were young pregnant women, one of them in her third trimester. "It was really devastating to have our clients making all these changes in their Jives, starting new families and getting excited about it, only to find out they 'll probably die," said Oliver. W hile attending an international conference on AIDS, Oliver made contact with two authorities on the spread of AIDS through intravenous drug use - Don DesJarlais and Sam Friedman of Narcotic and Drug Research , Inc. in New York . The pair were instrumental in getting the AmFAR grant for Outside In. Outside In, a 20-year-old storefront agency that offers medical clinics, counseling and emergency services for inner-city low income adults and street youth , is a logical place to base the proj– ect. Staff have been providing condoms, bleach for sterilizing needles, educational materials and counseling to their IV drug using clients for some time. "What's new is the needle exchange and the tracking of participants," explained Oliver. The Portland study will involve two samples: IV drug users and non- IV drug users. Maynard and Oliver hope to track 125 individuals in each group for a year. Serving as control groups will be IV drug users in Houston and Baltimore, where data are available from an ongoing National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) survey, and non-IV users in New York City. Desirous of a more "symmetrical " research design , Maynard and Oliver have applied for a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in New Jersey to add two control groups from Seattle, a city that is culturally similar to Portland . PSU 18 PSU professor Hugo Maynard and Outside In director Kathy Oliver expect to slow the spread of AIDS among Portland's IV drug users through an experimental needle ex– change program.