[Study of cases of HIV infection in Castile-Leon prisons].
OBJECTIVE
To study the HIV infection cases among inmates in Castile-León prisons and the therapy status and clinical follow-up. MATERIALS Y METHODS: The socio-demographic, clinical and virological parameters were studied of all seropositive inmates of seven out of eight prisons in Castile-León. A personal survey and a review of the medical records were conducted.


RESULTS
A total of 413 HIV infected inmates were detected (12.05% out of 3,426 inmates); 98.6% were males, mostly of them caucasians. Parenteral drug abuse accounted for most infections (94.9%). Co-infection with hepatitis C virus was present in 81.4%, whereas the presence of surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus was detected in 12.6%. The median of CD4 lymphocyte count was 426.5 (interquartile range: 264.25 to 598.50) and of viral load 3.69 logs of particles/ml (interquartile range: 2.18 to 4.45). A total of 171 individuals are on anti-retroviral therapy, most of them with triple therapy; 40.4% of them had a viral load below 400 copies/ml. Over one third of seropositive individuals (37.3%) required therapy and are not on therapy, either because they have not initiated therapy or because of non-compliance.


CONCLUSIONS
A highly representative study of the area which reveals a low number of identified seropositive individuals, mainly in association with drug abuse. The therapeutic guidelines are the standards but there is a high percentage of individuals requiring therapy. Co-infection with hepatitis C virus is extremely high, which will undoubtedly pose new therapeutic approaches.
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011329:Prisoners; D011330:Prisons; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain