Seroprevalence of HIV infection among the foreign students at Agra

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Seroprevalence of HIV infection among the foreign students at Agra during a

fifteen year period (1988-2002)

Tahziba Hussain, K.K. Kulshreshtha, Sumita Sood, Mohd. Arif, Shikha Sinha, V.S.

Yadav U. Sengupta & V.M. Katoch

HIV/AIDS Unit, National JALMA Institute for Leprosy & Other mycobacterial

Diseases.(Indian Council of Medical Research), Agra, India

Received September 22, 2004. Indian J Med Res 122, November 2005, pp 447-450

The present study reports a retrospective analysis of data of HIV testing of

foreign students from Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and Europe, studying

as well as staying at Agra, over a period of 15 yr (1988 to 2002). Of the 2653

[2092 (78.85%) were from the Sub-Saharan African countries, 377 (14.21%) from

the South-East Asian countries, and 184 6.93%) from the European countries],

foreign students tested for HIV, only 26 were found to be positive for HIV-1/2

antibodies by the ELISA, rapid and Western Blot assays.

Out of 26 HIV-positive, 17 males and 7 females were from Sub-Saharan Africa and

2 males were from the European countries.

The range of HIV-positivity over a period of 15 yr varied greatly.

When the five- year (1988-1992, 1993-1997 and 1998-2002) results were compared,

the HIV-seropositivity showed a decline from 1.85, 0.50 to 0.36 per cent in the

first, second and third 5 yr slots, respectively.

While the data were not representative of all foreign students in India, this

reflected the population.

Reprint requests: Dr Tahziba Hussain, HIV/AIDS Unit, National JALMA

Institute for Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases. (Indian

Council of Medical Research), Tajganj, Agra 282001, India

e-mail: tahziba_hussain@...

http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2005/november/1112.pdf

[A pdf copy of the article is available from the moderator]