title: A note on the prevalence of anti-HIV seropositivity in the Preadmission Clinic of the largest Thai Red Cross Society clinic.
abstract: Clinical decision-making regarding operative procedures will be influenced when the patient is known to be anti-HIV, so his or her status should be discussed with the patient and clinician responsible for other aspects of his or her care. Here, we reviewed serology screening for anti-HIV in a 1-year period at the PreAdmission Clinic of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the largest Thai Red Cross Society hospital. A total of 463 patients, 215 males and 248 females, were investigated, and four cases (all males) were determined to have anti-HIV seropositivity. The infection rate was 0.86%, similar to that of previous surveys of the general population. According to our study, 75% of the HIV-seropositive patients did not know their HIV status before our screening, and most of the infected cases (50%) underwent sex change surgery. The patients who underwent elective surgery in our clinic were usually anti-HIV seronegative. The risk group of our patients seems to be the sexual dysphorian patients who underwent sex change surgery. Additional screening tests for other infectious agents such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus is recommended. However, in a setting where HIV infection is common, such as in Thailand, the physician should practice universal precautions since any serological test poses dangers during diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chulalonhkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. wviroj@pioneer.netserv.chula.ac.th
authors.forename: Viroj
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wiwanitkit
authors.forename: Weerachit
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Waenlor
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D005260:Female; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012011:Red Cross; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies