AIDS and Intravenous Drug Use - Mortality

In 1993, 12,587 adults and adolescents died as a direct consequence of AIDS acquired by injecting drug use (IDU), according to figures in the CDC's HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. These deaths exclude deaths indirectly due to IDU such as heterosexual or homosexual contact with a drug user. In 1993 these deaths represented 27.8% of all deaths from AIDS, 51.4% of all female deaths from AIDS, and 24% of male deaths from AIDS. Among females with AIDS in 1993, AIDS acquired by injecting drug use caused the greatest number of deaths; among males, sex between males was the leading cause of infection leading to death.

Since 1993 total deaths due to AIDS have decreased, but the percentage of deaths due to needle-sharing have increased from 27.8 to 34.5% in 2003. The number of women who have died of AIDS acquired by injection of drugs has remained fairly constant for several years. While IDU is the leading cause of infection among women who have died of AIDS cumulatively since 1993, it is, as of 2003, second to heterosexual contact (which may also involve contact with a partner who uses intravenously injected drugs) in the transmission cause of women who die of AIDS. IDU-related deaths among males had increased from 24% in 1993 to 31.6% of all AIDS deaths in 2003, according to the CDC. In the 1999-2003 period, both total AIDS deaths, and IDU AIDS deaths remained fairly constant.