AEGiS-06IAC: Centres for free and anonymous screening: a prospective enquiry.

6th International AIDS Conference


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

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Centres for free and anonymous screening: a prospective enquiry.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:333 (abstract no. Th.D.830)
Auquier P, Connes H, Reviron D, Blanc AP, Larher MP, Enel P; Public Health Unit, Marseilles, France

OBJECTIVE: Centres for free and anonymous screening aim to promote prevention among a target-population attracted by these traits of no-cost and anonymity. The request for a screening-test -a high point in the development of individual awareness- provokes a contact with medical staff which can be adapted to each case and during which the individual may be encouraged by appropriate information to abandon his/her risky behaviour. The novelty of these Centres and the extreme vulnerability of our region to the AIDS epidemic led us to conduct a prospective enquiry among the public using one of the Centres.

METHODS: 620 subjects who came to consult this Centre in the last 6 months of 1989 were given an anonymous questionnaire: all data were analysed by descriptive and explanatory methods.

RESULTS: The first results underline: the usefulness of the Centre (the supposed incidence of seropositivity is 51%); the freedom of charge was the main motivation among those using the Centre; the need for information adapted to the target-group of drug-addicts, among whom the use of condoms is less wide-spread than among other risk-groups; the reality of the social problem of unemployment; the existence of a high percentage of this population having already had several screening-tests in the preceding months leads us to suppose that they have maintained their risky behaviour.

CONCLUSION: This enquiry confirms that these Centres, beyond their mission of information, prevention and screening, play an important role in the epidemiological evaluation of the illness and in the definition of social and economic services to be provided.

Keywords: AEGIS, Mass Screening, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Condoms, Questionnaires, AIDS Serodiagnosis, Confidentiality, diagnosis, ICA6KWDaegis,massscreening,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,condoms,questionnaires,aidsserodiagnosis,confidentiality,diagnosis,ica6

900620
ThD830

Copyright © 1990 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.