Risk profile of HIV positive persons attending Integrated Counselling and testing centre of a tertiary care hospital, Amritsar

Introduction: AIDS epidemic has spread across all sections of Indian society. Some unique features of the disease like extraordinarily high fatality, taboos associated with it and non-availability of cure makes it different from other STDs. Objective: To study the risk behaviour and mode of transmission of HIV in attendees who tested HIV positive at ICTC. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study carried out at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre at Govt. Medical College, Amritsar from Jan’09 to Dec’09. ICTC was visited thrice a week and by using purposive sampling all the persons (405) who came to collect their positive reports on these three days of the week, were included in the study after obtaining their written informed consent. Data analysis was done by using statistical software Epi Info version 7. Results: Most of the respondents were males, currently married, educated up-to middle school level and belonging to lower socio economic status. Almost three-fourth (76%) of them acquired HIV infection as a result of unprotected sex, followed by IV drug abuse (20%), blood transfusion (8.4%) and unsafe injections by quacks (1.5%). Majority of them had a single partner (57.5%) and out of those acquiring infection via IV drug use, majority were using shared needles as well as syringes. Conclusion: HIV infection is found to be more common in males. Sexual route was the commonest mode of transmission. The proportion of respondents acquiring HIV infection via IV drug abuse was found to be significant and much higher in this region as compared to national average