November 6, 2007

A Look at Baltimore’s Risky Sex Trade

Baltimore has the nation’s highest rate of HIV/AIDS diagnoses outside of Miami, owed to the prevalence of selling sex for drug money, experts say (baltimoresun.com, 11/4).

Baltimore’s infection rates are three times the national average, with AIDS being the leading cause of death among its adults ages 35 to 44. In addition, crack cocaine use has remained prevalent in the city since the early ’90s.

“[Female addicts] have a lot of partners to sustain their habits,” says Dr. Jacques Normand, chief of the AIDS program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “There is no question in this country that there’s a substantial epidemiological relationship between crack and HIV transmission. It all comes down to the trading of sex and drugs.”