The series explores a little-understood aspect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Baltimore, the role that sextrading drug addicts play in spreading the virus. The main articles and a sidebar tell the story ofthree women who were introduced to drugs and prostitution as teenagers and have spent many years trading sex for drugs, housing and other needs -often with men who refuse to wear condoms. These women and hundreds of others like them in Baltimore also have long histories of sexually transmitted diseases that made them more susceptive to contracting HIV and transmitting it to others.
Even though epidemiologists consider prostitutes to be “core transmitters” ofthe virus, public health authorities have largely ignored the problem. The series examines why, finding in part that this omission stems from the fact that prostitutes aren’t an officially-recognized risk group. (The CDC recognizes drug injectors, heterosexuals, men who have sex with men and gay men who inject drugs). Federal prevention grants are generally directed toward the four risk categories. In effect, sex-trading addicts get lost in the epidemiology.