Clinical and socioepidemiological characteristics of 12 HIV recent infections in the MSM Buenos Aires Cohort, Argentina.

SEGURA M; AVILA MM; PANDO MA; MARONE R; SOSA ESTANI S; FERNANDEZ M; MAULEN S; SANCHEZ J; WEISSENBACHER M

Rio de Janeiro

Conferencia; The 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment; 2005

IAS

Objectives: To assess clinical and socioepidemiological data of 12 new HIV infections in the MSM Buenos Aires Cohort.   Methods: A cohort of 327 HIV seronegative MSM was followed up every six months for a year. Socioepidemiological and clinical questionnaires, medical examination, screening for HIV, HCV (by ELISA) and syphilis (by VDRL) were performed. Seroconverters also completed another clinical and risk behavior questionnaire and CD4 count and viral load were determined.   Results: Twelve new HIV infections were diagnosed. None of the 12  serconverted for HCV or VDRL. Mean age was 31 ± 6.3 years and the 83% of seroconverters had university studies. After six month 9 subjects seroconverted; all reported having more  than one male sex partner compared to the 64.6% of those HIV-negative (p=0.03); 50% of seroconverters referred an HIV-positive sex   partner compared to 18.5% HIV-negative in the same period (p=0.04). Among the 12 seroconverters  after one year of follow-up, 11 admited having risk behavior six-months prior  to seroconvertion. Of these 11, 3 reported an HIV-positive sex partner (2 had unprotected oral sex); 2 reported unprotected anal intercourse and 4 unprotected oral sex with unknown HIV-serostatus partner;1 reported condom breakage and 1 repeted other risk practices. At the first visit, history of STI was self- reported by 5 seroconverters. Once given the HIV-positive result, 9 reported, at least, one symptom. The median plasma viral load was 109,094.5 copies/ml (range 2554- 500,000 copies/ml) and the median CD4 count was 414 cell/µl (range184-1005 cell/µl).      Conclusion:  Twelve recent HIV infections were detected; most symptomatic. As expected higher viral load was associated with lower CD4 cell count. Main risk factors were unprotected oral and/or anal sex with an HIV-positive partner and sex with an unknown serostatus partner.