Oral Sessions HIV and the Mozambican Mineworker Working in South Africa: The Undiagnosed, the Unprotected, and the Uncircumcised

Background: Approximately 34,000 Mozambicans migrate annually to and from South Africa to work in the mining sector. Mineworkers throughout the world are considered a population at high risk of HIV infection due to sexual risk behaviours associated with migratory work patterns. There is no information on HIV prevalence or associated risk factors for Mozambican mine workers that could guide prevention efforts for this population. We conducted the first Integrated Bio-Behavioral Survey (IBBS) in Mozambican mineworkers to meet this need. Methods: Mineworkers were recruited using simplified Time-Location Sampling (TLS) between February and March 2012, at the border between Mozambique and South Africa. Demographic and behavioural data were collected through a standardized questionnaire and entered into netbooks. The prevalence of HIV was determined by testing dried blood spots with enzyme immunoassays. After assessing possible design effects due to temporal clustering, and finding that variance was similar to that of a simple random sample, unadjusted estimates and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Unweighted logistic regression was used to detect associations with HIV. Results: We recruited 430 mineworkers, of which 323 provided blood samples for HIV testing. Among mineworkers, 24.7 % had sex partners in both countries in the 12 months prior to the survey and 80.7