Brady KA, Turner BJ, Berry SD, Weiner M; International Conference on AIDS.

Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. TuPeC4700.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States

BACKGROUND: The CDC has recommended that HIV testing should be offered to inpatients in areas where the HIV prevalence in hospitalized patients is >1 per 1000. Few data are presently available regarding the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV in urban hospitals to guide efforts to initiate and fund programs for inpatient HIV testing. To this end, we conducted an unlinked HIV seroprevalence study in two Philadelphia hospitals. METHODS: We obtained excess sera from patients aged < 65 years admitted to the general internal medicine (GIM1 and GIM2) services of both hospitals and to the trauma service of one hospital. Specimens were collected from June 16 to July 19, 2001 for the GIM1 and trauma services at one hospital and from July 7 to Sept. 3, 2001 for the GIM2 service. Demographic data were sought for all subjects. Specimens for persons with an HIV discharge diagnosis were removed from the sample. Specimens were tested by HIV-1 ELISA with Western Blot confirmation. Linkage between patient data and study numbers were removed to insure anonymity of HIV results. RESULTS: We obtained sera for 362 unique patients who met the eligibility criteria (59% of 619 admissions). 17% were admitted to the trauma service, 63% to GIM1 and 20% to GIM2. Of these 362 patients, 46% were women, 76% Black, and 21% White. The median age was 45.1 years. An additional 15 subjects were excluded (3.9%) because they were known to be HIV+. Of the remaining 362 patients without known HIV, 5 (1.4%) tested HIV positive. Those who tested positive were all Black, 2 were women, 4 were <45 years of age, 4 were on a GIM service and all were Philadelphia residents. CONCLUSION: Over 7000 patients <65 years of age are admitted to these services each year. We estimate that 100 inpatients on these services may have undiagnosed HIV infection annually. Our data offer support for systematic efforts and financial support for HIV testing of inpatients on GIM and trauma services at two Philadelphia hospitals.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• African Americans
• European Continental Ancestry Group
• Female
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• HIV Seroprevalence
• Hospitals
• Hospitals, Urban
• Humans
• Inpatients
• Mass Screening
• Philadelphia
• Prevalence
• injuries

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0020173

UI: 102259201

From Meeting Abstracts