Epidemiological Study of AIDS in Qom Province, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: Unfortunately, AIDS has high morbidity and mortality due to its easy transmission, secrecy, severe complications, and no definitive treatment. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology of HIV in Qom Province, Iran. Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was performed on patients with AIDS referred to the Behavioral Diseases Counseling Clinic in Qom Province from its opening until the first half of 2019. Sampling was done by census and reviewing all registered files in this clinic. The inclusion criteria were completed files of all patients. However, records of patients who were incomplete or had other sexually transmitted diseases and neurological disorders were excluded from the study. After data collection, the files were entered in SPSS software, version 22. Results: A total of 612 patients were studied in this study. The mean age of the patients was 36.63±9.41 (±SD) years. Also, 523 patients were males (85.5%), and 89 were females (14.5%). The numbers (percentages) of single, divorced, and widows people were 217 (39.6%), 89 (16.2%), and 12 (2.2%), respectively. Most people (221 people, 42.5%) had primary education, and only 3 (0.6%) had a bachelor’s degree. Most of them lived in urban areas (501, 97.9%) and were unemployed (323, 58.7%). Also, 403 (83.4%) had a history of addiction, 392 (95.7%) were injecting drug users, 345 (95%) had a history of injection among injecting drug users, 277 (66.1%) had extramarital sex, 245 (96.1%) had several sexual intercourses, 26 (10.4%) used condom, and 18 patients (7.8%) had an infected child. The number of HIV-infected people in Qom until 2012 was about 477 people, which comprised 0.041% of the province’s population (1151672 people the population of this province according to the 2011 census registered in the Statistics Center of Iran). Conclusion: According to the study findings and the national statistics regarding the change of the primary method of transmission from injection to sex from 1997 to 2013 in Qom Province, we can conclude that Qom Province is also moving towards changing the main method of transmission from drug injection to sexual transmission.