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Risk factors for HIV infection in a gynaeco-obstetric population in Vietnam--a case-control study
Thi Thu Ha Tran1, Brian P Mulhall, Petra Macaskill
1Haiphong Children's Hospital, Haiphong, Vietnam.
Background:
Vietnam has an emerging HIV epidemic, particularly in male drug injectors. Data on HIV infections in women in the general population, and their risk factors, are scanty.
Methods:
A case-control study was performed in a large gynaeco-obstetric hospital in Haiphong city in 1998-2001. The sample was 22000 attendees. The medical records of 58 HIV-seropositive cases were compared with 422 randomly chosen HIV-seronegative controls for potential risk factors.
Results:
A multivariate analysis found that HIV infection was associated with young age, past/current history of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and being unemployed. Patients aged 21-30 years were 10-fold less likely to be infected than women aged <20 years (OR 0.11, 95% CI 0.04-0.33). Women with a past/current history of STI had over 20 times the risk of those who did not (95% CI 6.7-62.3). Unemployed women had at least twice the risk of infection of any other occupational group.
Conclusions:
We have identified risk factors in women that have not been highlighted previously in Vietnam. Our study suggests that all antenatal women, especially those who are young or unemployed (or, with a current/past history of STI), should be offered free HIV tests, counselling and management.
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