WOMEN WITH HIV PRESENTING AT 3 LONDON CLINICS BETWEEN 1985-1992

Objective-To determine the changing patterns of HIV infection in women in three units in London. Subjects-Three hundred and fifty seven HIV seropositive women who have attended outpatient clinics between 1984 a nd 1992. Methods-A retrospective review of data obtained from a comput erised database and supplemented by direct inspection of the notes. Re sults-The number of newly identified women with HIV has risen steadily over the period of study with a significant shift towards a heterosex ual mode of transmission. This is a reflection of increasing numbers o f women from Sub-Saharan Africa rather than a rise in the incidence of HIV in women born in the UK. Conclusions-The increase in women infect ed by HIV remains predominantly restricted to women in ''high risk'' g roups. Although encouraging, our data should be interpreted with cauti on since it suffers from the inherent bias of selective testing. Safer sex education and epidemiological surveillance should continue despit e the apparent low risk to women born in the UK.