Our goal was to determine the prevalence of, and risk factors associated with, syphilis in HIV-infected patients who attend an AIDS outpatient clinic in Vitoria, Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional study—including interviews for demographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics—and blood collection (venipuncture and fingerstick) for VDRL and treponemal tests (rapid test) in a total of 438 patients. The mean age was 43.0 years (SD = 11), and mean years of school was 8.1 (SD = 4.2). The prevalence of syphilis was 5.3% (95% CI, 3.3%–7.3%). The treponemal test was positive in 18.9% of participants. In multivariate analysis, prevalent syphilis infection was independently associated with male gender (AOR 4.6, 95% CI, 1.1–20.0), a history of male-male sex (AOR 1.8, 95% CI, 1.6–4.1), current use of antiretroviral therapy (AOR 5.5, 95% CI, 1.7–16.7), and history of treated syphilis infection (AOR 5.5, 95% CI, 2.0–15.8). Syphilis prevalence was high in patients living with HIV/AIDS who attend an AIDS clinic; therefore, routine STI counseling and screening should be included in their care.

Este artigo contém uma reflexão sobre o processo de envelhecimento da população brasileira e a elevação do índice da infecção do vírus HIV entre pessoas a partir de 50 anos no país. Pretende-se demonstrar que, apesar do aumento, esse segmento ainda parece ser invisível aos olhos da sociedade e do Estado e que a melhoria da atividade sexual não vem sendo acompanhada de informações e ações voltadas para a prevenção de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis com essa parcela da população. Pretende-se, também, apresentar como algumas pessoas com essa idade acompanhadas por um serviço de referência para pessoas vivendo com HIV/Aids, em Vitória no Estado do Espírito Santo vêm conseguindo conviver com a doença, e quais os dispositivos internos e externos utilizados por esses indivíduos nesse convívio.

Poster presentations Methods Using data from the Provincial Laboratory and STI clinic, an anonymized dataset with the last HIVAb-(HIVGO1/2, Abbott, AxSym +/-Western Blot) (STI clinic patients) or first syphAb+ (Architect, Abbott +/-RPR & Innolia) was constructed with: (1) All patients: age, gender, date of testing, N. gonorrhoea (NG) and C. trachomatis co-infection within 30 days of HIV/syphilis test, infectious syphilis stage, and HIV testing as of Dec 2010 and (2) STI clinic patients only: syphilis test results within 30 days of their HIVAb-test. Patients remaining HIVAb-> 180 days after the sample receipt date were excluded from HIV pNAT. The remaining samples were divided into SyphAb+ and SyphAb-subsets. Pools of 25 samples were tested using the Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS Taq-Man HIV-1 Test (pNAT). Positive pools were broken down to identify positive individuals. Percentage calculations were based on patients with pNAT. Results 7954 HIVAb-patients were eligible. Of these, 2237 were retested and were HIVAb-> 180 days; 216 (10%) of this subset were SyphAb+. 5441 (95%) of the remaining patients had samples available for pNAT: 5001 were SyphAb-, 331 were SyphAb+, and 109 had no syphilis testing. Four SyphAb+ patients (0.07% of all, 1.2% of SyphAb+), all seen at STI clinic, had detectable HIV RNA using pNAT; one patient had Early Latent Syphilis and positive NG culture. Conclusions pNAT testing can be used to identify acute HIV infections in high risk populations. Patients with positive syphilis serology may be an important subset for this approach. SyPhiliS and hiV Co-infeCtion in PatientS atending an aidS outPatient CliniC in Vitoria, Brazil