Epidemiology of HIV infection among prostitutes in the Philippines.

Between 1985-87 examinations for human immune deficiency virus (HIV) antibody were done on 25392 prostitutes working in 64 cities throughout the Philippines. The countrywide seropositivity rate among these women based on this sample was 0.8/1000. Of the HIV cases 85% were working in just 2 cities whose prostitute populations comprised 50% of the total sample. The average incidence rate for the same 2 cities after 1 year was 2.3/1000. HIV antibody-positive women were enrolled in a case- control study to determine demographic and epidemiologic risk factors. This study involving 34 HIV-positive prostitutes and 61 randomly selected negative control prostitutes did not reveal any risk factors related to sexual or other types of behavior. A history of genital warts a history of abnormal vaginal discharge and cytomegalovirus antibody were significantly more frequent in the HIV-positive cases than in the controls; however by logistic regression analysis only an abnormal vaginal discharge was independently associated with HIV infection. Absence of any evidence of transmission by blood transfusion or intravenous drug abuse suggests that HIV was 1st introduced by the heterosexual route. (authors)