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Meth Use Among Gays Worries Health Officials

Public health officials in New York reported last month that they had found an HIV strain resistant to all but one anti-AIDS drug. The man carrying the strain is a gay methamphetamine user who frequently had unprotected sex with multiple partners when he was high on the drug.

That's prompted public health officials to pay closer attention to the connection between methamphetamine and unprotected sex in the gay community.

A recent study from the Medical and Health Research Association in New York found that meth users had more sexual partners than non-users, and that users were about three-and-a-half times more likely to report unprotected anal intercourse than non-users. According to the study, crystal meth users were significantly more likely to be HIV positive than non-users.

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Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things Considered grew at an unprecedented rate, with more people tuning in during a typical quarter-hour than any other program on the radio.