HIV prevalence in patients with sexually transmitted diseases in Yaounde, (Cameroon) in 1989 and 1990: necessity of an STD control programme.

OBJECTIVE To monitor HIV seroprevalence among STD clinic attenders as part of a sentinel surveillance programme. DESIGN Seroepidemiological survey on randomly selected patients. SETTING "Elig Essono" STD clinic, Yaounde; from February 1989 to December 1990. PATIENTS 1161 randomly selected patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES HIV and syphilis seroprevalence. RESULTS Twenty six of the 1161 patients (2.4%; CI: 95%; 1.5%-3.3%) tested were found to be HIV positive (mostly due to HIV1); 35.4% had antibodies to Treponema pallidum. There was no association between HIV seropositivity and sex, marital status, or educational level. Genital ulcer disease did not correlate with HIV seroprevalence. However, patients with a positive serological test for T pallidum were more likely to have HIV infection (rr = 2.4; 95% CI; from 1.1 to 3.0). Results from 1990 were double those of 1989 (3.3% versus 1.6%, p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Compared with the findings among the same groups in metropolitan areas of various other African countries, the HIV seroprevalence is still low; this could be due to many reasons, such as the recent introduction of the virus in the country, a different spectrum of STDs, the high level of circumcision of males. HIV infection trends should continue to be monitored among risk groups such as STD patients and control programmes implemented to reduce the rapid spread of AIDS in the country.