An HIV positive Soweto youth died after seeking an escape in the highly addictive drug nyaope.

Now experts warn that nyaope addiction could further endanger the lives of HIV positive people.

A relative of the 23-year-old youth said her nephew stopped taking his medication when he became addicted to nyaope.

She said the youth, who died in April, had been born with the virus.

"He was under a lot of stress because of the virus. He was unemployed and things were not going well for him. He was alright before [nyaope]," she said.

"His system was already fragile because of the virus. When he started smoking the drug, he did not drink water or eat his food. Nyaope robbed us of our child," she said.

The woman said the family only realised the damage the drug had done when her nephew was in hospital.

"He got very sick and we took him to Helen Joseph Hospital. He promised to stop smoking the drug but he never made it out of the hospital. His body was shattered. Doctors said there was nothing they could do for him. Had it not been for nyaope, he would still be alive."

Anti-Drug Alliance of SA's chief executive Quintin van Kerken said the problem with nyaope was that the concoction contained heroin which is highly addictive.

Van Kerken said addicts dependent on heroin did not get enough nutrition.

"If an addict does not eat, it leads to malnutrition and the immune system goes down and for someone who is HIV positive it would affect them negatively. If an addict is HIV positive, he will not eat or take medication and this is going to cause damage," Van Kerken said.

He said nyaope made addicts promiscuous which could lead to the spread of HIV.

Senior lecturer in the department of social work and criminology at the University of Pretoria, Stephan Geyer said: "The effects of nyaope increase pulse or blood pressure, euphoria and could make a person vulnerable to HIV. For example, having unprotected sex, nyaope can interfere with the functioning of the ARV (anti-retroviral treatment) should a person be on ARVs. The poison and pool cleaner (added to the concoction) in the drug should be toxic and could cause death."

He said heroin caused cardiac arrest while dagga caused euphoria.

A clinical psychologist at the University of Pretoria, Anne Gloria Moleko, said her research on young addicts showed that families were emotionally and financially destabilised when one of them was addicted to drugs.