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Teens, drug abuse and AIDS: the deadly connection: teens who abuse drugs face a risk of getting AIDS and (get this!) of passing it on to the friends they love.

Article Excerpt
World AIDS Day takes place every year on December 1. On that day, people all over the planet focus on the challenge of trying both to cure and control its spread.

When you think about what a terrible disease AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is and the huge number of lives it has claimed--a mind-boggling 20 million in 24 years--it seems that every day ought to be World AIDS Day. As a teenager, you might ask, What does this have to do with me? You may not know it, but young people are one of the populations at risk for infection with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS). Between 1998 and 2000--the most recent years for AIDS-related statistics--about one out of every six new HIV infections were in people between the ages of 13 and 25. We'll say it again--between the ages of 13 and 25!

And here's another thing you may not realize--it's a fact that can help keep you and your friends safe from AIDS: According to a 2004 report from NIDA, behavior associated with drug abuse is now the single largest factor in the spread of HIV infection in the U.S. Nearly 300,000 Americans over the age of 12 who were diagnosed with MDS between 1998 and 2002 could attribute it, directly or indirectly, to drug abuse. "Drug abuse is inextricably linked with the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS ... and hepatitis C," says NIDA director Nora D. Volkow, M.D.

How big a problem is AIDS among young people today? In the U.S., about 20,000 individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 become infected with HIV every year. Let's break that down for you: About 55 young people each day contract HIV, a virus that will sap their defenses against illness and possibly take their lives. It's a very big problem. Soon, you'll find out how and why the disease of drug addiction helps set the stage for the disease of AIDS. But first you have to understand exactly what AIDS is and how it spreads.

HEADS UP: THE FACTS ABOUT HIV AND HEPATITIS C

AIDS and hepatitis C, another viral disease associated with drug abuse, are both blood-borne illnesses. That means the disease-causing viruses are spread when blood or bodily fluids from an infected person come into contact with the bloodstream of a healthy person. This can happen when injection drug users share needles or when an infected person has sex with an uninfected person without using a latex condom, which physically stops transmission of viruses.

Once in the body, HIV and hepatitis C begin to cripple and kill cells. The viruses latch on to healthy cells and implant their own genetic material, causing the cells to churn out new copies of HIV or hepatitis C. The cells then die.

HIV attacks cells in the immune system, the body's disease-fighting department. As the illness progresses, patients lose their natural ability to fight off germs, and they fall prey to diseases that are not normally a threat to healthy people. People are considered to have AIDS when the level in their bloodstream of CD4, an immune cell, drops below a certain point. Before that happens, though, a person with HIV can live for years without any symptoms--and can pass the virus to others without realizing it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that a quarter of the 850,000 to 950,000 infected people in the U.S. don't know they...