Monitoring HIV through sentinel surveillance in Morocco.
HIV sentinel surveillance was performed in five provinces of Morocco in 1993, expanded to 10 provinces in 1996. The activity was done by unlinked anonymous testing procedures. We analysed the data from 1993 to 1999. The groups studied were sexually transmitted infections, clinic attendees, pregnant women and patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The results show that overall HIV prevalence rate over the whole period in 10 cities was 0.10% (45/44,233). Casablanca had a significantly high rate with 0.39% (10/2567). The patients with pulmonary tuberculosis displayed the highest prevalence with 0.36% (9/2530). These data confirm the assumption that the HIV epidemic is low in Morocco. However, the increase of HIV prevalence lately calls for reinforcing preventive measures to limit its spread.
Laboratoire d'Immunologie-Virologie, Centre national de Diagnostic et de Suivi de l'Infection VIH, Institut national d'Hygiène, Rabat, Morocco.
E
E
Elharti
A
A
Zidouh
R
R
Mengad
O
O
Bennani
R
R
Elaouad
D015492:AIDS Serodiagnosis; D000328:Adult; D035041:Anonymous Testing; D002648:Child; D002944:Circumcision, Male / Q000009:adverse effects; D015897:Comorbidity; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D009018:Morocco / Q000453:epidemiology; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data