ABSTRACT
Background: The challenge is to make all HIV-infected people aware of their status so that they may prevent the transmission of HIV to others. Only 25–30% of the people who are HIV positive in India are aware of their HIV status. Guntur district has a high epidemic potential with established transmission among the general population. The objective of the study was to study the socio demographic profile and HIV positivity rates among clients visiting an Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC).Methods: This descriptive study is based on secondary data from the records of the ICTC. The data is entered and analysed with MS Office Excel and EPI Info statistical package. Important findings were tested for statistical significance at 5% level of significance.Results: Of the 6940 clients attending the ICTC, 43.34% are antenatal women (HIV positivity of 0.27%). Of the rest, provider initiated clients are 94.02% (HIV positivity 4.38%) and client initiated 5.9% (HIV positivity 20%). The difference of HIV positivity is highly significant (p<0.000001). 61.1% of the clients were found to be between the ages 25 to 49 years. Among the client initiated, more women (7.4%) were seen to be attending the ICTC (p<0.05). High risk professions identified were hotel workers (7.3% HIV positive), local transport workers (6.01%) and petty business (6.22%). Housewives were found to have 3.2% HIV positivity.Conclusions: Self-referral to ICTC is still very poor. The epidemic is shifting to the general populations. HIV/AIDs education efforts aimed at the population in general must be increased.