SANDY — The rise in methamphetamine use is fueling HIV cases, a doctor said Saturday at the 20th annual Living With AIDS Conference.

The event, sponsored by the People With AIDS Coalition of Utah, took place at Salt Lake Community College's Miller Campus in Sandy. The seminar is meant for people living with HIV, their families, friends, caregivers and AIDS service providers. A few dozen people attended.

Just as cocaine users helped HIV explode in the 1980s, meth users today are engaging in high-risk sexual practices — including having multiple partners or not using condoms — that lead to the spread of HIV, said Dr. Harry Rosado-Santos, who specializes in the disease.

"Meth is cheaper and easier to get," said Rosado-Santos, who's also an associate professor at the University of Utah's School of Medicine. "We need to be careful."

Minority populations are especially susceptible since they have a higher rate of meth use, he said.

Conference participants said they attended the event to keep up on new medication issues, as well as to keep contact with others. Richard Wilson, 57, of Salt Lake City, says medical and community support has increased greatly over the past couple decades. Wilson said he was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, and he recalls being quite isolated.

The conference addressed myriad issues specific to AIDS, including government funding.

The Ryan White Care Grant, federal money to help AIDS patients in their state, has been funded at the same level for years. The grant funding is used for labs, medical visits and medication.

"Even though we are seeing more and more new infections, this state has not received more money to treat patients with HIV and AIDS," said Dana Smith, a physician assistant at the University of Utah Medical Center.

Approximately 2,300 people in Utah have been diagnosed with HIV, according to health officials.

Toni Johnson, director of the Utah coalition, said the organization is going to be asking the Legislature this year for funding to supplement Utah's AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

"We are going to be up on the Hillhill," Johnson said. "We're going to be calling our senators and representatives and meeting with them."

There is still no cure for AIDS.

"It's a disease anyone can get," Rosado-Santos said. "This disease is in every community in America. If we try to talk about it, this will help decrease the incidence of HIV."

In general, the ways a person can contract HIV are unprotected sex with a woman or a man, IV drug users sharing needles and pregnant mothers passing the infection to her baby.