HIV SEROPREVALENCE IN A LONDON SAME-DAY TESTING CLINIC

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of HIV infection among people attending a confidential, non-genitourinary medicine based testing cli nic that provides HIV antibody test results on the day of consultation . Methods: Retrospective analysis of data collected on 2635 individual s attending the Same-Day HIV Testing Clinic at the Royal Free Hospital , London between March 1992 and February 1993. Results: A total of 161 2 men and 1023 women were tested for HIV antibody. The primary risk fo r HIV infection was heterosexual (71.7%; 1889 out of 2635) and homosex ual contact (24.5%; 646 out of 2635). Fifty-four individuals were give n positive HIV test results (46 men, median age 34 years; eight women, median age 27 years). Overall HIV seroprevalence was 2.0% (95% confid ence interval, 1.5-2.5). HIV seroprevalence was highest among homosexu al men (6.5%; 41 out of 635) and injecting drug users (5.7%; four out of 70). The rates for heterosexual men and women were 0.2% (two out of 915) and 0.7% (seven out of 974), respectively. Of the 54 individuals who were HIV-antibody-positive, 44 were Centers for Disease Control a nd Prevention stage II/III, eight stage IV and one was tested at the t ime of seroconversion (stage I; data were not available for one patien t). Of the total numbers attending this clinic 27% (702 out of 2635) h ad previously been tested and received a negative result. Of a total o f 54 HIV-antibody-positive individuals, 40% (21) had previously receiv ed a negative test result. Conclusions: The data suggest that seroprev alence amongst homosexual men attending a designated HIV testing clini c in London is lower than that reported by genitourinary clinic based testing sites. The large number of repeat testers who subsequently bec ame infected with HIV suggests that there is a population requiring sp ecific targetting for HIV risk reduction.