A study of HIV-concordant and -discordant couples attending voluntary counselling and testing services at a tertiary care center in North India.

ABSTRACT

A large number of Indian couples are exposed to the risk of heterosexual human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission. The present records-based study was undertaken at the voluntary counselling and testing facility of a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi, India to determine HIV prevalence among Indian couples; to assess the magnitude of seroconcordance and discordance among HIV-affected couples; and to compare the concordant and discordant partnerships for sociodemographic determinants and cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) counts. Of the 1309 couples included in the study, 249 (19%) were HIV-affected, and of them 113 (45.4%) were concordantly and 136 (54.6%) discordantly affected by HIV. Males were the HIV-infected partners in 72% of the serodiscordant partnerships analyzed. Seroconcordance was significantly associated with the occupation status of being a housewife (P = 0.009). The contribution of discordant partnerships to the burden of HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is significant, warranting novel couple-targeted counselling strategies and preventive measures, including safe sexual behavior and possibly preexposure HIV prophylaxis of the uninfected partner.