Original Article

Assessing the Prevalence of HIV among Afghan Immigrants in Iran through Rapid HIV Testing in the Field

Abstract

Throughout the world, many migrant and mobile populations are at elevated risk for HIV. Iran has a large immigrant population from neighboring Afghanistan; however, few data exist on the prevalence of HIV in this community. In 2008, we conducted a study to assess the presence of HIV infection among 477 immigrants in a town to the northeast of Tehran using a rapid test in the field. HIV prevalence was 0.2% (95% CI 0.005-1.2) with one person HIV-positive. We recommend periodic HIV sero-surveillance with detailed behavioral measures for this population in the future.

Gouya MM. National Report on HIV and AIDS Cases. 2009, Disease Management Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Tehran: Islamic Republic of Iran, 2009.

Zamani S, Kihara M, Gouya MM, Vazirian M, Ono-Kihara M, Razzaghi EM, Ichikawa S. Prevalence of and factors associated with HIV-1 infection among drug users visiting treatment centers in Tehran, Iran. AIDS 2005;19(7):709-16.

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). 24th Meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, Geneva, Switzerland. Decisions, Recommendations and Conclusions. [online] 2009 Jun 24 [cited 2011Aug15]; Available from: URL:http://data.unaids.org/pub/BaseDocument/2009/2009 0624_pcb_24_decisions_final_en.pdf

Gurubacharya DL, Gurubacharya VL; International Conference on AIDS. HIV prevalence among Nepalese migrant workers working in Nepal and Indian cities. Int Conf AIDS 2004;15:11-6.

Wiwanitkit V, Waenlor W. Prevalence of anti-HIV seropositivity in Myanmar migrators in a rural area of Thailand. Viral Immunol 2002;15(4):661-3.

Statistical View to Afghan Immigrants. The Etemad Newspaper. [online] 2008 Oct 28 [cited 2011 Aug 15]; Available from: URL:http://www.magiran.com/npview.asp?ID=1724139[Persian]

Mehr Parsa R. Lavasan; Morning City. The Iran Newspaper. Available from: URL: http://www.magiran.com/npview.asp?ID=1751459[Persian]

Files
IssueVol 49, No 7 (2011) QRcode
SectionOriginal Article(s)
Keywords
Prevalence HIV Afghan Rapid test
Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Jabbari H, Sharifi AH, SeyedAlinagh S, Kheirandish P, Sedaghat A, Sargolzaei M, Esmaeeli Djavid G, Khanbabae A, Rasoolinejad M, Mohraz M, McFarland W. Assessing the Prevalence of HIV among Afghan Immigrants in Iran through Rapid HIV Testing in the Field. Acta Med Iran. 1;49(7):478-479.