ABSTRACT
Between January and December 1989, 1,404 subjects (mean age 26 years) admitted or seen at the out-patient clinic of the hospital of Goma, Northern Kivu, were investigated for anti-HIV 1 antibodies by the ELISA and Western blot techniques. Seventy-eight out of 808 men (10 percent) and 127 out of 596 women (21 percent) were seropositive. Anti-HIV1 antibodies were found in 14/631 blood donors (2 percent), 25/241 in-patients awaiting blood transfusion (10 percent), 3/42 women hospitalized for complications of pregnancy (7 percent), 130/388 subjects with signs and/or symptoms of HIV1 infection (33 percent) and 33/102 patients with tuberculosis (32 percent). The difference in seropositivity between men and women was statistically significant. A significantly high seroprevalence was found in men who were having regular sexual intercourse with prostitutes (42/167 = 25 percent, P less than 0.01) and in subjects with a history of sexually transmitted disease during the last 5 years (64/180 = 36 percent, P less than 0.01), compared with subjects who had none of these risk factors. The installation of a blood bank where blood products are controlled has contributed to the reduction of HIV1 transmission throughout the town. The foundation of an association of unpaid voluntary blood donors recruited among secondary school students has been another educative measure in the anti-AIDS national plan.
