HIV Seropositivity among ICTC Clients of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Bengaluru Vandana W.V.1, Rani K Leela2 1Assistant Professor, Dept of Microbiology, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Rd no 2, Vijayanagar, EPIP Zone, Whitefield, Bangalore 2Associate Professor, Dept of Microbiology, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Rd no 2, Vijayanagar, EPIP Zone, Whitefield, Bangalore Online published on 6 April, 2019. Abstract Background Due to the large population size, India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world. Deaths in productive age group due to HIV have damaging impact on families and communities Therefore, this study was undertaken to study the prevalence of HIV and to explore the pattern of socio-demographic and epidemiological distribution among HIV seropositive patients at ICTC Centre in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Bangalore This will give us an insight on the distribution of various epidemiological characteristics of the HIV positive clients in this region thus help in formulating strategies for effective Implementation Of Its Prevention. Material and Method This is a cross sectional study carried out for a period of 4years from 2014–2017 on clients attending ICTC of our hospital. The information was collected on a pre-designed schedule by the counsellor. Blood samples were tested as per NACO guideline after getting consent from the attendees. Pre-test, post-test and follow-up counseling were provided to the clients. Results A total of 11, 417 clients were provided testing and counselling for 4 years duration of which 109 (0.95%) were tested positive for HIV with a decreasing trend noted. High risk behavior is noted among the males. Most of the women receive the infection from their spouse. It was observed that majority of seropositive clients were illiterate married males who were skilled laborer's in the age group of 15-49yrs. Major route of transmission was heterosexual contact (80.7%) followed by parent to child (4.5%). Conclusion People have begun using ICTC services, which reflects a change in their attitude toward HIV. ICTC data can be an important tool to formulate an effective approach of planning and improving the national HIV/AIDS intervention strategy. There is need to carry out intense IEC activities for behavior change at grass root level. And suggests the need for the scaling up of focused prevention efforts in high-risk groups. Top Keywords HIV serostatus, Integrated counseling and testing center. Top |