PREVALENCE OF HIV-INFECTION AMONG GENERAL -PRACTICE OUTPATIENTS IN AUVERGNE

In order to determine the prevalence of HIV infected outpatients treat ed by general practitioners, the authors carried out a survey combinin g mailing and phone. First mail was sent to all GPs in the area. Then a randomized sample of GPs who had not answered this mail was called. Thus the authors were able to estimate the number of HIV positive pati ents recorded by GPs in the area (between 549 and 889, prevalence betw een 415 and 672 per million of inhabitants), and their main characteri stics. These notably differ from those published by a French anonymous nationwide survey on AIDS patients, in terms of contamination and evo lution.