title: Profiling of HIV clinic patients to determine the prevalence and characteristics of recent infections.
abstract: Patients newly attending the government HIV clinic in Hong Kong were studied for the prevalence and characteristics of recent HIV infection, which was defined as having a negative HIV antibody test and/or seroconversion illness within one year of a first positive antibody result. Fifty-nine (12.0%) of 492 HIV-positive patients first seen from 2001 to 2004 were determined to be recently infected. This likely represented the lower bound of the real situation. Compared with non-recent infections on univariate analysis, recent cases were more likely to be men who have sex with men (OR 2.23; 95%CI, 1.23-4.05), never married (OR 1.96; 95%CI, 1.03-3.89), had tertiary or above education (OR 3.93; 95%CI, 1.65-10.09) and with a baseline CD4>=500 cells/ul (OR 3.65; 95%CI, 1.87-6.93). Upon multivariate analysis, tertiary or above education (adjusted OR 4.23; 95%CI, 1.76-10.16) and CD4>=500 cells/ul at diagnosis (adjusted OR 3.58; 95%CI, 1.88-6.84) remained independent variables. HIV clinics are feasible settings for collecting epidemiological information of on-going infection. Differences in the profile between recent and non-recent cases may shed light on targeting efforts to prevent new HIV infections.
authors.affiliation: Integrated Treatment Centre, Special Preventive Programme, Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: G C Y
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.forename: K C K
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution