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PREVALENCE OF HIV INFECTION IN AMERICAN HOSPITALS.

Because patients must agree to be tested, determining the prevalence of HIV infection among patients at U.S. hospitals has been difficult. The Centers for Disease Control therefore established a surveillance system based on anonymous testing at 26 sentinel hospitals believed to represent the nation's geographic and socioeconomic diversity. Testing was performed on all hospitalized patients except those with known or suspected HIV infection or HIV-associated conditions.

A total of 89,547 blood specimens were tested from January 1988 through June 1989. The overall prevalence of HIV-1 infection was 1.3 percent, but it ranged widely -- from 0.1 percent to 7.8 percent. The rate was especially high in certain subgroups: at the highest-prevalence hospitals, about 20 percent of men 25 to 44 years old were HIV-positive. As the prevalence rose, the ratio of infected men to women dropped, suggesting a higher rate of heterosexual spread in communities with a higher prevalence of infection. Many seropositive persons were probably unaware of their infection.

This study confirms fears that in hospitals serving at- risk communities, the prevalence of HIV infection may be quite high.

— ALK

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine August 3, 1990

Citation(s):

St Louis ME et al. Seroprevalence rates of human immunodeficiency virus infection at sentinel hospitals in the United States. N Engl J Med 1990 Jul 26 323 213-218.

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