URBS IN RURE REDUX - CHANGING RISK-FACTORS FOR RURAL HIV-INFECTION

The purpose was to ascertain risk factors for HIV infection in a predo minantly rural population using descriptive epidemiologic studies perf ormed at a university health sciences center. Participants included ad ult patients with HIV infection or AIDS who were cared for between Jan uary 1982 and January 1993. The relative frequency of cases in minorit y and female heterosexual patients increased significantly. The male t o female ratio among blacks with HIV infection declined to 1.1:1 durin g the final 3 years of the study. Patients who believed they had acqui red infection in Virginia were more likely to cite a rural area of acq uisition and to have had multiple heterosexual partners but were less likely to have had male homosexual contact than patients who believed they had been infected in other states. HIV continued to spread into r ural areas of Virginia, and the, gender ratio among blacks with HIV de clined throughout the study. Having multiple heterosexual partners, th e main risk factor for HIV transmission worldwide, may now result in H IV infection in rural Virginia.