Sexually transmitted disease rates before and after HIV testing

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of having an HIV-positive or negative test result on sexual risk behaviour before and after the test. Longitudinal retrospective case-note survey identifying new episodes of sexually transmitted disease (STD) infections in 114 subjects testing HIV positive and 114 matched negatives were examined at the Genitourinary Medicine Department, St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. Across the whole sample in the year after HIV testing the number of cases of new STD infections was 40% of the number of cases in the year prior to HIV testing. There was no association between serostatus and incidence of STD infections before and after HIV testing. Of those testing negative, 5.3% were identified as having a new infection in the year after the HIV test, while amongst those testing positive there was a rate of new STDs of 2.6%. In conclusion, there was no evidence that having a negative test result increased the risk of acquisition of new STDs. Rates of new STD infections amongst seropositives in the year after HIV testing were low.