New York, NY (AHN)-According to researchers in the U.S. and South Africa, many women in the United States who are injection drug users and are also infected with HIV, do not routinely use condoms with their uninfected regular partners or with casual sex partners.

Lead investigator Dr. Mary H. Latka tells Reuters Health, "Forty percent of the HIV-positive women in our sample were having sex with at-risk male partners, and more than half of the time, condoms were not used consistently."

The study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, examined 426 women who were HIV-positive injection drug users living in Baltimore, Miami, New York or San Francisco.

Among the 370 sexually active women, 144 had sex with a steady partner and 148 had sex with casual partners who were either uninfected or their HIV status was unknown. Overall, 60 percent of the women inconsistently used condoms with their regular partner and with 53 percent of their casual partners.

But author Latka points out that "men who were aware that their close female partner was HIV-positive were much more likely to use a condom."

In addition, the team found that inconsistent condom use was associated with greater drug and alcohol use during sex, negative beliefs about condoms and a lower sense of personal responsibility to protect others.

Latka writes, "HIV-positive women may need structural interventions such as better access to drug treatment," adding that, "Curbing illicit drug use would not only benefit HIV-positive women, it may also play an important role in reducing the continued spread of HIV from infected women to others."