title: Seroprevalence of HIV in orthopaedic patients in Zimbabwe.
abstract: The prevalence of HIV infection in East Africa has increased rapidly in recent years. We made a prospective study of the incidence of HIV-seropositivity in patients undergoing orthopaedic procedures in a large district hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. One of our aims was to determine whether a clinically-based screening programme, derived from the Centre for Disease Control classification of HIV infection, could identify high-risk individuals before surgery. During a 3-month period, 76 patients were tested, and 12 were HIV-positive (16%). Only two of these patients (17%) had clinical features associated with HIV infection; ten (83%) were entirely asymptomatic. Our results indicate that preoperative clinical screening is unlikely to be successful in identifying seropositive patients before routine surgery.
authors.affiliation: Mpilo Hospital, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piscioneri
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Candido
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Rankin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009985:Orthopedics; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D015030:Zimbabwe / Q000453:epidemiology