Sexually transmitted diseases: they increase the risk of HIV infection

Studies presented at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, confirms the increased risk of infection with HIV when other sexual diseases are present risk.
Many sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are known to promote HIV infection. Conversely, it increases the risk of other STIs.

Kayitesi Kayitenkore, the King Faisal Hospital in Kigali (Rwanda), provide a confirmation in a study he conducted with colleagues in a cohort of 1,076 Rwandan discordant couples (where only one partner was infected with HIV), to understand whether the presence of STIs was associated with seroconversion of uninfected person.

Of the 42 couples for whom they observed a transmission, the researchers actually found that the presence of an STI (syphilis, genital ulcers, Trichomonas vaginalis infection, etc ...) in the uninfected partner multiplied by 3.29 the risk of becoming HIV.

According to the researcher, "the management of STIs should become a priority for the public health agenda in order to obtain in these communities a substantial impact on the incidence of HIV infection."

Noting the lack of studies on this subject in the homosexual population, Feng Jin, National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research in Sydney (Australia) and colleagues have meanwhile led a study of 1,421 Australian men, initially seronegative, 38 were infected with HIV during a median follow-up of two years.

The researchers found that the presence of anal gonorrhea was strongly associated with risk of infection, it multiplied by 13.61. Anal wounds were also involved with an increased risk of 185%.

"These results suggest that frequent screening and prompt treatment of STIs anal, could be an important way to protect them from infection with HIV," considers Feng Jin.