Cell Journal (Jan 2012)
Estimation the Frequency of Human Immunodeficiency Virus among Male and Female Patients, Iran
Abstract
Objective: A reduction in new human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) cases is one of theten areas prioritized by the United Nations Program on HIV. However, recent official reportsconfirm the HIV rate is increasing and predicted a huge incidence in the near futurein Iran, despite the preventative program by Iran’s Health Ministry. In this descriptive study,we evaluate the frequency of HIV positive cases among referral patients to a private cliniclaboratory for its diagnosis in addition to specimens from other laboratories. An epidemiologicalanalysis is also performed.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study, the total number of patients was 138cases that referred for the diagnosis of HIV to the private Laboratory. Of these, 93 males(67.4%) and 45 females (32.6%) voluntarily requested to be examined for specific increasesin specific antibody titer, western blot assays and RNA quantitation polymerase chainreaction. We collected two separate tubes of whole blood, one for reverse transcriptasepolymerasechain reaction analysis and the second one for the remaining two tests. Thosepatients who were antibody positive by western blot and/or reverse transcriptase-polymerasechain reaction(RT-PCR) analyses were considered as HIV positive cases.Results: There were 18.84% confirmed HIVcases (17.39% males; 1.45% females). Analysisof the results confirmed that the ratio of male to female patients in the infected groupwas not comparable to those in the suspect group. The majority of HIV positive cases wereeither infected by their partner via sexual intercourse (84.61%) or needle sticks (11.53%)among the drug addicted group. The infection routes of the remainder were unknown.Conclusion: Analysis of the data revealed a higher frequency of HIVin males than femalesamong the tested group. There was a shift in to unsafe sexual intercourse as seenin the present study. The higher rate of infected male patients shows a shift in transmissionroute to unsafe intercourse. Therefore, it is necessary to design new supportive programsby actively identifying and contacting at-risk groups, particularly infected females who areuninterested in being and monitored.
