An epidemiological study of HIV sexual transmission in married couples in Shanxi Province.

Objective To study the status and risk factors of the HIV sexual transmission in married couples and to provide scientific evidence for HIV prevention and control stragety.Methods Ninety-two couples aged 20-65 years with stable marriages were selected.In each couple,one was HIV positive and the other had no known risk behavior such as drug injection, multi-sexual partners,history of paid blood donation,blood transfusion and so on.All of the participants were investigated on suspected risk factors and laboratory tests for HIV antibody,CD4 lymphocytes,viral load and HIV subtypes.They were followed-up 1 or 2 years later.All of the data were analyzed with SPSS 11.5 statistical software.Results The HIV infection rate of sexual transmission was 30.4%in married couples.The HIV transmission rates of male-to-female and female-to-male were 31.1%and 29.8%respectively.The HIV subtype of all the positive participants was HIV-1 B'.The average CD4 cell count in the case group (133/ml) was significantly lower than that in the control group(227/ml)(t=2.166,P0.05).The HIV viral load more than 10~5 copies/ml reached 78.5%in the case group and 54.6%in the control group,and the difference was significant(x~2= 5.211,P0.05).Opportunistic infection occurred in 35.7%of the couples of the case group and 17.2%of the control group.The difference was significant(x~2=0.53,P0.05).Conclusion Low CD4 cell count,high HIV viral load and opportunistic infection are the main risk factors that affected HIV transmission in couples.