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Harry W. Haverkos,¹ Andrea N. Kopstein,¹ Hank Wilson,² and Peter Drotman³

¹National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, MD 20857, USA
²Committee to Monitor Poppers, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
³National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333 USA

Abstract
Nitrite inhalants have been commonly abused substances in the United States. Nitrite inhalants and AIDS was a popular topic in the early 1980s, when the cause of AIDS was not known. With the discovery of HIV, concern about nitrite use in the USA waned. However, nitrite inhalant use is associated with behavioral relapse and HIV transmission among gay men, with decreased lymphocyte counts and natural killer cell activity in a few laboratory studies, and it remains a candidate cofactor in the pathogenesis of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. Discouraging nitrite use continues to be a worthwhile public health goal. Key words: AIDS, HIV infection, immunosuppression, Kaposi's sarcoma, nitrite inhalants, sexual behavior. Environ Health Perspect 102:858-861 (1994)

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1994/102-10/haverkos.html

Address correspondence to H. W. Haverkos, Room 10A-38, NIDA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857 USA.

We thank Peter Delany, William Grace, and Vincent Smeriglio for reviewing the paper and providing helpful comments.

Received 2 June 1994 ; accepted 25 July 1994.