The Epidemic of
Drug-Related AIDS

OHIO

Each year the injection-related AIDS epidemic in Ohio affects more people. In order to slow the spread of AIDS among persons who inject drugs in Ohio and elsewhere, the Clinton Administration urgently needs to end the federal ban on funding clean needle programs.

Health Emergency in Ohio

Through the end of 1996, some 1,700 Ohio residents age 13 and over had
injection-related AIDS or had died from it.
About 20 percent of all AIDS cases in Ohio are injection-related.

The crisis among African Americans and Latinos

Through the end of 1996, some 880 African Americans and 160 Latinos living in
Ohio had injection-related AIDS or had died from it.
The rate of injection-related AIDS cases among blacks in Ohio is 11 times higher
than the rate for whites. The rate for Latinos is 18 times higher than the rate for whites.

The future: thousands of all races at risk in Ohio

For Ohio's major metropolitan areas, Dr. Scott Holmberg of the Centers for Disease Control estimates that the number of uninfected persons who inject drugs and who thus are at risk of getting HIV as follows:

Akron	2,800	Dayton	3,900
Cincinnati	6,900	Toledo	2,900
Cleveland	11,500	Youngstown	1,600
Columbus	7,300	TOTAL	36,900

Saving lives and saving tax dollars

Each AIDS illness and death exacts an uncountable cost in human pain and suffering. Each AIDS illness and death has a very countable cost in dollars. Using sophisticated mathematical models, a University of California team of investigators estimates that it costs between $4,000 and $12,000 in clean needle program expenses for each HIV infection averted over a five-year period. This is, of course, far lower than the estimated $119,000 lifetime cost of treating an HIV-infected person.

Lifting the ban on federal funding of clean needle programs will permit communities in Ohio to save many lives that will otherwise be lost. Nationally, ending the ban will save billions of federal health care dollars.

Prepared by the Dogwood Center, PO Box 187, Princeton, NJ. Tel: 609-924-4797. Fax: 609-252-1464. email: [email protected] The information on population and on injection-related AIDS cases for persons age 13 and over is from special tabulations from the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control. Injection-related AIDS cases include AIDS cases among the following risk groups: heterosexual persons who inject drugs; men who have sex with men and inject drugs; and the heterosexual sexual partners of persons who inject drugs.

Web presentation co-sponsored by the Dogwood Center, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, and Safe Works AIDS Project.

The Epidemic of Drug-Related AIDS

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