[HIV infection prevalence in patients having cutaneous pathology in a National Reference Center (2005-2006)].

OBJECTIVE Determining the prevalence of HIV infection in patients suffering from cutaneous disease in a national reference center in Colombia. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of patients aged 18 or older, having cutaneous pathology and no previous HIV diagnosis. The calculated sample size was 1,537 patients. A confirmed case was defined as being that of a patient having positive results in the ELISA and Western blot tests. Prevalence was the number of confirmed cases divided by the total population. The associations were measured by using prevalence ratio. RESULTS 1,649 patients were enrolled in the study. Our center's prevalence was 1.21 % (20 cases). Molluscum contagiosum and seborrheic dermatitis were the diseases having the highest prevalence of HIV infection which had not been previously diagnosed (3.91 % and 2.05 %, respectively). Molluscum contagiosum and HIV infection prevalence ratio was 3.96 (p: 0.01562). CONCLUSIONS The risk of HIV infection in patients aged 18 or older suffering from Molluscum contagiosum was nearly 4 times higher than the risk in patients having other cutaneous pathologies.