HIV-1 antibody reactivity in inner-city alcoholics

To the Editor.— Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in substance abusers is a major public health concern, with intravenous (IV) drug users in urban centers such as New York, NY,1and Newark, NJ,2,3having an estimated prevalence of HIV seropositivity of 50% to 60%. Alcohol abusers, especially in inner-city areas, represent a large secondary at-risk population owing to geographic and social proximity to the primary high-risk groups, compounded by their being less likely than nonabusers to use safe-sex practices. The prevalence of antibody to HIV type 1 in alcoholics who deny the use of other substances has not, to our knowledge, been described. We conducted an anonymous screening for HIV type 1 antibody on discarded samples from routine blood analyses of 99 patients in an inner-city alcohol treatment center. Sixty-eight percent of samples were from patients reporting alcohol use exclusively and 27% were from those with an additional