title: Epidemiologic characteristics of HIV-positive patients referring to behavioral diseases consultation center in Shiraz, Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was firstly reported from California and soon became a pandemic in the world. This disease poses serious threats to humans' health. In this study, we intended to examine the characteristics of HIV-positive patients who referred to the Behavioral Diseases Consultation Center (BDCC) in Shiraz, Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. HIV-positive patients, referring toBDCC of Shiraz University of Medical Scienceswere the population under the study. The data, collected through a checklist, were encoded and entered in to the SPSS 19. Then descriptive statistics such as mean, median, standard deviation and range were used to describe the variables. Also, the relationships between the variables were tested using X2 test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean and median age of the HIV-positive patients were 39 + 8.7 and 38years, respectively.Nearly327 (65.4%) of the studied population were male and 173 (34.6%) were female. With respect to marital status, 225 (45%) participants were married, 133 (27%) were single, 91 (18.2%) were divorced and 49 (9.8%) were widowed. Also, 265(53%) of the participants were infected through injection drug use, 198 (39.6%) through sexual route, 7 (1.4%) through blood and blood products, 6 (1.2%) through tattoos and 21 (4.2%) by other routes. Most of the participants had a HIV-positive history in their family, and 145 (29%) mentioned that their wives were HIV-positive. Moreover, 320 (62.7%) of the participants had a positive history of drug use, 176 (35.2%) did not have a history of drug abuse, and the status of 10 (2%) participants was not recognized.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the results of this study highlighted that injection addiction remains the major transmission route inIran, the role of sexual transmission should be acknowledged in the future.
authors.affiliation: 1. MSc of Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, School of Health and Nutrition, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Yousefalimohamadi@ymail.com.
authors.forename: Yousef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Alimohamadi
authors.affiliation: 2. Professor Assistant of Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology, School of Healthand Nutrition, Shiraz University of Medical sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Tabatabaee@sums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tabatabaee
authors.affiliation: 3. Medical Doctor, Master of Public Health, HIV Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Afsarkp@sums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Parvin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: AfsarKazerooni
authors.affiliation: 4. MSc of Health Economics, Department of Health Economics, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. vahedi.s3@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sajad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vahedi
authors.affiliation: 5. MSc of Health Economics, Department of Health Economics, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. meysamenami@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Meysam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Enaami
authors.affiliation: 6. MSc of Health Economics, Department of Health Economics, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. teimouriz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Abedin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Teimourizad
keywords: AIDS; Descriptive study; Epidemiologic Characteristics; HIV; Iran; Shiraz