Characteristics of Persons With Recently Acquired HIV Infection

In the current study, investigators used the serologic testing algorithm for recent HIV seroconversion (STARHS) to determine the risk and demographic characteristics of persons infected, on average, within 170 days. Such data help to better understand the epidemic and target care and prevention efforts.

From 1997-2001, blood specimens were tested using STARHS for those consenting patients diagnosed with HIV within 12 months from multiple sites in 10 US cities. Demographic and risk information was gathered for 964 patients in face-to-face interviews and medical chart reviews.

For 191 (20 percent) of the 964 participants, the HIV-positive diagnosis was recent — made within 170 days of infection. Recently acquired HIV diagnoses were more frequently made for men (21.7 percent); whites (29.3 percent); men who have sex with men (25.5 percent); persons with an HIV-positive partner (24.9 percent); and persons with a gonorrhea diagnosis within the previous 12 months (27.0 percent). Recent diagnoses were less frequent among African Americans (15.5 percent); Latinos (15.5 percent); and heterosexual men (14.7 percent) and women (14.4 percent).

Comparatively few participants received their HIV diagnosis within 170 days of acquiring the infection. "To increase early diagnosis of HIV, HIV testing should be more routinely offered to persons with a recent history of sexually transmitted diseases and to African Americans and Latinos in a variety of settings," concluded the authors.

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