Document 0595
 DOCN  M94A0595
 TI    Human immunodeficiency virus antibody testing at the Gay Men's Health
       Centre. Melbourne.
 DT    9412
 AU    Carmody C; Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney.
 SO    Annu Conf Australas Soc HIV Med. 1993 Oct 28-30;5:89 (poster no. 29).
       Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ASHM5/94349060
 AB    BACKGROUND: The Gay Men's Health Centre is a significant testing centre
       for gay men in Victoria, requesting over 600 Human Immunodeficiency
       Virus (HIV) antibody tests annually. OBJECTIVES: To determine the number
       of new diagnoses of HIV infection at the Centre and to obtain
       epidemiological information on those individuals. METHODS: All patients
       newly diagnosed as HIV antibody positive were identified by their unique
       Centre identifier by the testing laboratory after a retrospective search
       from June 1993 to January 1990 inclusive. Information was obtained by
       file retrieval and included age at diagnosis, residential postcode,
       exposure category, marital status, HIV antibody test history, reason for
       testing, and recent history of sexually transmitted diseases. RESULTS:
       The Centre identified 53 new diagnoses of HIV infection over this 42
       month period. There were 52 diagnoses in males and 1 in a transsexual.
       The majority of the males were self-identifying gay men. There was a
       broad distribution of residential postcodes. The majority of diagnoses
       were in new patients. The mean age at diagnosis was 31.94 (S.D. = 7.22).
       Information on HIV antibody test history was available for 52 patients.
       There were 33 seroconverters (mean age = 30.42, S.D. = 6.09) and 19
       non-seroconverters (mean age = 34.58, S.D. = 8.39), p = 0.047. The
       single most frequent reason for testing was asymptomatic screening.
       CONCLUSION: The majority of new diagnoses of HIV infection were in gay
       men attending as new patients. The majority were seroconverters who were
       younger than non-seroconverters. This may indicate that there are still
       some older gay men who are infected but remain untested.
 DE    Adult  Australia/EPIDEMIOLOGY  *AIDS Serodiagnosis  Cross-Sectional
       Studies  Homosexuality/*STATISTICS & NUMER DATA  Human  HIV
       Infections/DIAGNOSIS/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/TRANSMISSION  Incidence  Male  Mass
       Screening  Patient Acceptance of Health Care  Sex Behavior  *Social
       Environment  MEETING ABSTRACT

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).