HIV infection in England and Wales: a changing pattern

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Abstract
SUMMARY: Of 32983 specimens from 307 sources in England and Wales tested in the Virus Reference Laboratory for anti-HIV between 1984 and 1987, 6491 (20%) were positive. Ninety-five per cent of the positive subjects were male and 44% of them were from three London genito-urinary medicine clinics. In 1987 the numbers of newly diagnosed HIV infections decreased in homosexual men and haemophiliacs and increased in injecting drug abusers; 148/119 (12%) of all the positive findings in 1987 were in females. Between 1984 and 1987 the proportion of anti-HIV positive individuals who were asymptomatic fell by nearly 10% and the proportion with AIDS/ARC rose by nearly 10%. Of the requests leading to positive results 1280 (20%) were recognized as duplicates of previous positive results, while for 34 % of the requests no clinical information was provided. These deficiencies in the data compromise HIV surveillance based on diagnostic testing, and supplementary bias-free data are needed.