[The organization of the work to determine antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus in the Republic of Byelarus].
The study revealed that the method of mass screening for the detection of antibodies to HIV antigen, carried out in the Republic till 1993, proved to be economically and diagnostically unjustified. Starting from 1993, the work on the step-by-step reduction of groups to be tested for the presence of antibodies to HIV began. At the same time from 1997 the proportion of tested donors of blood, organs and tissues, as well as persons belonging to high risk groups, increased in comparison with 1993 (from 23.3% to 40% and from 5.3% to 21% respectively). Voluntary and anonymous testing for the presence of HIV infection was organized and legally introduced. In comparison with 1991, in 1997 the number of persons who voluntarily underwent testing increased 3.7 times. The period of transition from mass screening to selective one was noted to have no effect on the detection of HIV-infected persons. Since 1995 the method of "patrol" epidemiological surveillance was also used. 2,118 persons underwent testing, the results of screening were negative. During the period of 3 years the testing of 12,547 young people called up for military service revealed 28 seropositive persons in the region where an outbreak of HIV infection had been registered among addicts using drugs intravenously.
Meleshko
L A
LA
Center for Prophylaxis of AIDS, Minsk, Belarus.
D015492:AIDS Serodiagnosis; D001782:Blood Donors; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D009934:Organization and Administration; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D002094:Republic of Belarus / Q000453:epidemiology
D015483:HIV Antibodies