Frequency of risk factors for transmission of HIV/AIDS

Background: pakistan is considered a low prevalence but future high risk country for human immunodeficiency virus infection. the objective of this study was to find out the risk factors for transmission of hiv infection.material & methods: this descriptive study was carried out from february 2008 to july 2011 at anti retroviral centre, kohat. all 65 hiv positive patients were interviewed after informed consent.results: a total of 65 patients suffering from hiv/aids were interviewed; 47(72%) males and 18(28%) females. the mean age was 41 years. five males and 3 females were unmarried; the rest 57 were married. regarding education, 2 patients were having primary and one middle level education, the rest were uneducated. regarding transmission, 40(61.54% had heterosexual transmission, 4(6.20%) were of mother to child transmission, one had history of dental procedure before contracting infection while 4 had a previous history of blood transfusion. no homosexual or transgender transmission was reported. out of 40 heterosexual transmissions; 24 were from sex workers, 15 from husband to wife and one from wife to husband. regarding addiction, 21(32.3%) using oral snuff addiction, 2(3.1%) hashish, 2(3.1%) smokers, 2(3.1%) were injection drug users and the rest had no addiction. out of 65 cases, 57(87.7%) did not have history of sexually transmitted infections, whereas 8(12.3%) had no such history.conclusion: heterosexuality is the most common mode of transmission and sex with a sex worker is the most common risk factor for hiv/aids transmission in our set-up, while mother to child and injectable drug abuse are the next common risk factor