HIV-infection among immigrants in French Guiana: high risk during the first years after arrival

Abstract

Introduction. Over 75% of HIV patients in French Guiana are foreigners most of whom are actually infected locally. Objectives. We aimed to estimate the distribution of infections in time after arrival using a retrospective cohort. Methods. CD4 erosion modelling allowed to estimate the date of infection which was compared to the date of arrival in French Guiana in the subset of foreign patients that were estimated to have acquired HIV locally. Results. Among patients estimated to have been infected in French Guiana and having arrived after 1999, over half had been infected within 4 years and that a quarter of patients had acquired HIV within the 2 first years after arrival (median 3.9 years IQR=2.1-7.8 years). Conclusions. The added value of the present results is to show the rapid infection dynamics after arrival and emphasize the necessity of increasingly proactive combined prevention in recently arrived immigrants.

Keywords

• HIV
• Immigrants
• Prevention
• French Guiana
• Place of infection
• Sexual vulnerability