Shift in New HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Factors Associated with False Positives for HIV Testing: A Retrospective Study from 2013 to 2018 in Xi’an, China

Abstract

Objectives: In the study, firstly, the epidemic characteristics of new HIV/AIDS were investigated in order to provide evidence for the targeted interventions; Secondly, the major factors of false positives (FP) for HIV testing were also determined. Methods: A retrospective review was performed in a teaching hospital in Xi’an between 2013 and 2018. The overall characteristics and epidemiological trends of new HIV/AIDS were described. Moreover, the distributions of FP cases in the gender, age and department were analysed, and the major factors of FP were determined by the Pareto analysis. Results: During the study, a total of 469 new HIV/AIDS were diagnosed, with an increasing prevalence from 0.0626% in 2013 to 0.0827% in 2018. Of them, the majority occurred in the Hans (99.57%), males (88.50%), people aged 21-50 years (76.97%), migrants (60.98%) and sexual contact route (88.70%). A rapid increase in the annual number of new HIV/AIDS and multiple routes of HIV transmission were found. The epidemic showed increasing trends in groups of young individuals, students and homosexual mode, however, a downward trend in the percentage of injecting drug use was also observed. 67.81% of FP cases were over 50 years old. The departments of oncology, obstetrics, hepatobiliary surgery, nephrology, cardiology and infectious disease were major factors of FP by Pareto analysis. Conclusions: The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Xi’an is still evolving, therefore, effective strategies, appropriate education and scaling up HIV testing should be developed to control the spread of the epidemic. In addition, old adults and specific departments were associated with FP.