A note on the prevalence of anti-HIV seropositivity in the Preadmission Clinic of the largest Thai Red Cross Society clinic.

Abstract

Clinical decision-making regarding operative procedures will be influenced when the patient is known to be anti-HIV, so his or her status should be discussed with the patient and clinician responsible for other aspects of his or her care. Here, we reviewed serology screening for anti-HIV in a 1-year period at the PreAdmission Clinic of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the largest Thai Red Cross Society hospital. A total of 463 patients, 215 males and 248 females, were investigated, and four cases (all males) were determined to have anti-HIV seropositivity. The infection rate was 0.86%, similar to that of previous surveys of the general population. According to our study, 75% of the HIV-seropositive patients did not know their HIV status before our screening, and most of the infected cases (50%) underwent sex change surgery. The patients who underwent elective surgery in our clinic were usually anti-HIV seronegative. The risk group of our patients seems to be the sexual dysphorian patients who underwent sex change surgery. Additional screening tests for other infectious agents such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus is recommended. However, in a setting where HIV infection is common, such as in Thailand, the physician should practice universal precautions since any serological test poses dangers during diagnosis.