TEMPORAL TRENDS IN REASONS FOR AND RESULT OF HIV-TESTING AMONG WOMEN IN ROME, ITALY

To describe the trend in the reasons for and result of women's HIV tes ting, systematic data was gathered for 11,523 consecutive women during pre-and post-test visits at a major counseling and testing (CT) site of Rome, Italy, June 1985-July 1996. The number of tested women and th e proportion of female clients attending the CT site significantly inc reased during the study period (p < 0.001), mostly because of reported sexual risk or when triggered by pregnancy. A significant increasing trend in the proportion of women who had one prior test (30% overall) was observed in all groups, apart from IDU. Newly diagnosed HIV infect ions were 319 (2.8%). The HIV prevalence was 27% in 1985-1987, when 66 .7% of cases were IDUs, and decreased to 1.3% in 1994-1996, when 53.7% of cases were women reporting HIV infected partners. The findings sug gest that information on the potential risk of HIV transmission has pe rmeated the female population. The shift of newly diagnosed infections from IDUs towards women reporting sexual exposure, suggests the need for targeting preventive efforts to these population groups. Underlyin g reasons for multiple testing need further analysis.