After the epidemic: follow up study of HIV seroprevalence and changing patterns of drug use
Abstract
To follow up known intravenous drug users to determine current health state and drug use, compare characteristics with those of recent drug users, and examine HIV exposure and serostate. Subjects were identified from conventional general practice records and recruited from 1980 to the end of 1985; they were followed up during 1987 and 1988 and compared with drug users identified in the same way but recruited after 1985. General practice and community in north west Edinburgh. Follow up conducted throughout the United Kingdom. Subjects known to have injected illegal drugs before 1986 (n = 203) and since that time. Mortality from and prevalence of HIV seropositivity and various parameters indicative of abstinence. Of the 203 subjects in the follow up group, 189 (93%) were traced; 16 (8%) had died and the remaining 173 (85%) were interviewed. In all, 146 (72% of the follow up cohort) had been tested for HIV antibodies, 94 (64%) having positive and 52 (36%) negative results; 57 (28%) had not been tested. Of the 65 subjects in the recently recruited group, 51 (79%) had been tested for HIV, 15 (29%) having positive results. A further 21 (43%) were currently negative for HIV antibody but still at risk. Thirty three (19%) of those follo...Continue Reading
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