Cocaine Accelerates HIV, Scientists Find

Cocaine speeds the spread of HIV in mice and probably does the same in humans, according to UCLA researchers. Dr. Gayle Baldwin and her colleagues injected cocaine or a placebo into mice with an HIV infection. They reported Thursday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases that the mice who received cocaine had 200 times as many viral particles in their blood as those that received a placebo. After 10 days, they also had twice as many HIV-infected cells. The mice receiving cocaine also had fewer disease-fighting CD4 cells.

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Compiled by Times staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II