HIV-INFECTION AMONG WOMEN IN THE ARMY RESERVE COMPONENTS

There is little information regarding the extent of HIV infection amon g women. Since late 1985, members of the Army Reserve Components have been routinely tested for HIV, providing an opportunity to measure dir ectly the prevalence and incidence density of infection in a military- associated population with limited military contact. We evaluated the prevalence among 122,195 women, and directly measured the incidence de nsity among 96,001 women followed for 247,872 person-years. The overal l prevalence was 0.65 (per 1000), and the incidence density was 0.12 ( per 1000 person years follow-up). Several demographically defined grou ps, including minority women, had elevated levels of infection. The in cidence densities of infection between early and late in the testing p rogram were compared, and no evidence of acceleration or deceleration was observed.