HIV Indicator Diseases Across Europe Study (HIDES)

Most patients infected with HIV across the European continent remain undiagnosed; although this percentage varies markedly from 15-80% across the continent. Undiagnosed HIV is harmful to the person infected as appropriate health interventions are then delayed until the HIV infection is diagnosed. It is also detrimental to society as persons unaware of their HIV infection may transmit more frequently to others than persons that are aware of their HIV status.

An important public health issue is hence how to diagnose more HIV-infected persons earlier in the course of their infection. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has introduced testing guidelines where all persons are tested upon entry into the hospital system (the "opt-out" testing guidelines).

At the "HIV in Europe" conference held in November 2007, the general sense was that such an approach would not be suitable for Europe. Conversely, the conference recommended further development of focused HIV testing in patients presenting with certain clinical conditions and/or diseases (i.e. indicator condition guided testing).

Cost effectiveness analyses suggests cost savings if a population with a HIV prevalence of 1% or more are tested although this rate may be as low as 0.1%. However, there is very little - if any - evidence on HIV prevalence for various conditions and diseases in specific and easy to identify sections of society. This is true in general and particularly across the European continent.

Surveys will be undertaken by the investigators:

Zangerle, Kitchen, U H Innsbruck, Vassilenko, Minsk Municipal Infectious Diseases Hospital, Necsoi, Clumeck, Saint-Pierre U H Hadziosmanovic, U of Sarajevo Begovac, U Hospital of Infectious Diseases Pedersen, Mogensen, Abildgaard, Titlestad, Odense U H Dragsted, Roskilde H Späth, U of Bonn Sthoeger, Neve-Or AIDS Centre d'Armino Monforte, Mareo, Comi, Centanni, San Paolo H Grzeszczuk, Medical U of Bialystok Maltez, H Curry Cabral Castro, HU A Coruna-Hospital Juan Canalejo Masia, HU Elche Estrada, HCU San Carlos Iribarren, H. Donostia Ortega, CH General de Valencia Ocampo, H Xeral-Cies Vernazza, Kantonsspital St. Gallen Perry, Fisher, Elton John Centre, Morris, RIDU Minton, St James's U H Palfreeman, Leicester Royal Infirmary Gazzard, Sullivan, ChelseaWestminster H Winston, Walsh, St Mary's H Anderson, Millett, Homerton H NHS Trust Farazmand, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Ong, Krasnov, Kharkov Regional Clinic of Infectious Diseases Kutsyna, State Medical U