AEGiS-06IAC: The continuous follow-up of HIV testing by general practitioners.

6th International AIDS Conference

San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

The continuous follow-up of HIV testing by general practitioners.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:333 (abstract no. Th.D.828)
Massari V, Brunet JB, Valleron AJ; INSERM U263, Universite Paris7, Paris, France

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the request for HIV antibody testing by general practitioners (GP) and/or their patients and to study its evolution over time.

METHODS: A survey was developed by the French Communicable Diseases Network in March 1987 which links a 1% representative sample of French GPs to a central computer by electronic mail. GPs report anonymously all prescriptions made for HIV antibody testing and provide the following information for each case: person requesting test (patient or GP), reason for request, age and sex of patient, result of the test.

RESULTS: During the 34 month survey, 4,410 HIV tests were analysed. The mean number of HIV tests/GP/week was 0.20 in 1987 (extrapolating to 515,000 tests for whole country, sd=31,000), 0.16 in 1988 (400,000, sd=19,000), and 0.23 in 1989 (600,000, sd=30,000). Comparison of 1987 to 1989 shows a significant decrease in the number of patients reporting that they belong to an high risk group (31% versus 11%, p less than 0.001). Among patients there is a decrease in request for test (53% versus 42%, p less than 0.001), in clinical signs of HIV infection (9% versus 5%, p less than 0.01), and in history of STD (33% versus 20%, p less than 0.001). The percentage of HIV positive patients decreases from 5% in 1987 to 2.5% in 1989 (p less than 0.01). HIV + patients were less often asking for HIV test than HIV- persons (16% versus 42%, p less than 0.01). Thirty four percent of HIV+ patients were IV drug users, 23% were homosexual men, and 12% were heterosexual partners of an HIV positive person. Two percent of HIV positive tests were detected in prenuptial screening, and 2% in prenatal screening.

CONCLUSION: Among those tested, the overall incidence of HIV is decreasing, but there is a significant number of HIV positive persons who report not belonging to any high risk group. This indicates the continued spread of HIV in general population.

Keywords: AEGIS, Physicians, Family, HIV Infections, HIV Antibodies, HIV Seropositivity, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Substance Abuse, Intravenous, Heterosexuality, Ambulatory Care Facilities, Human, Male, ICA6

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ThD828