HIV prevalence and sexual behavior among young male conscripts in the Brazilian army, 2016

Abstract

Since 1996, the Brazilian Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (Departamento de Vigilância, Prevenção e Controle das IST, do HIV, AIDS e Hepatites Virais, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde, Ministério da Saúde) in collaboration with the Brazilian Ministry of Defense has conducted periodic and anonymous probability sample surveys to determine the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence, the sexual and risk behaviors among conscripts of the Brazilian army. This study aimed to estimate the HIV seroprevalence of conscripts in Brazil by geographic region and to describe behavior in relation to the risk of HIV transmission by analyzing data from the Brazilian Conscripts Survey 8th edition performed in 2016.Conscripts were selected with a 2-stage sampling method stratified by geographical region. The study included a self-reported questionnaire and blood collection for HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis testing. Data from 37,282 conscripts between 17 and 22 years of age were analyzed. Of these conscripts, 73.7% stated that they were sexually active. The overall country-wide prevalence of HIV was 0.12%. The geographic prevalence rates were as follows: north (0.24%), northeast (0.15%), central-west (0.13%), southeast (0.07%), and south (0.10%). The proportion of conscripts who reported having sex with other men was 4.4%, and the estimated HIV prevalence in this group was 1.32%. Regarding prophylaxis use, 45.6% of the participants reported consistent condom use with casual partners within the last year, and 34.5% reported condom use with steady partners within the last year. The independent factors associated with HIV infection were: MSM status (odds ratio [OR] = 14.62; P = .000) and having more than 10 partners over their lifetime (OR = 3.32; P = .028).Our data suggest that the HIV prevalence among young men in Brazil remains stable except for the north region, and MSM continue to be associated with a high risk for HIV infection at a rate that is approximately 13-fold higher than the rate among men without a history of sex with another man. Our findings confirm the need to scale up combination HIV prevention for young men, including MSM, in Brazil.

Late diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection and associated factors

“…The main reasons for LD are the absence or low perception on the risk on the part of vulnerable people ( 38 - 39 ) . Generally, people with a steady affective partnership, due to the low perception of risk ( 37 ) , use condoms less frequently during sexual intercourse, which makes them vulnerable to HIV ( 40 ) and to late diagnosis.…”

A portrait of risk behavior towards HIV infection among Brazilian Army conscripts by geographic regions, 2016

“…The survey was conducted among MSM aged 18 years and over, 58.3% of them younger than 25 years of age 24 . Sperhacke et al 1 identified that in 2016 the prevalence of HIV among Brazilian conscripts who declared themselves as MSM was 1.32%, while for the total sample the prevalence was 0.12%.…”

“…National and international surveys have indicated a greater vulnerability of adolescents and young men to STIs, particularly HIV infection [1][2][3][4] . In Brazil, data from the latest HIV/AIDS Epidemiological Bulletin 5 indicated that, from 2007 to 2017the AIDS detection rate increased approximately 2.3 times among men aged 15 to 19 (from 3 to 7/100 thousand inhabitants) and 20 to 24 (from 15.6 to 36.2/100 thousand inhabitants).…”

“A prevenção não sobe a Augusta”: homossexualidade, HIV, “risco” e produção de fronteiras na região central da cidade de São Paulo

“…Inquéritos nacionais foram realizados junto à chamada população geral, como as pesquisas sobre "Comportamento Sexual e Percepções da População Brasileira sobre HIV/Aids", realizadas em 1998 e 2005, em amostras representativas da população brasileira de 16 a 65 anos pelo Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP); e as Pesquisas de Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Práticas relacionadas às DST e Aids (Brasil, 2005(Brasil, , 2011, inquéritos domiciliares realizados em 2004 e 2008 representativos da população brasileira de 15 a 64 anos; e as pesquisas entre jovens conscritos do exército brasileiro realizadas desde 1996, cuja oitava edição foi realiza-da em 2016 (Szwarcwald et al, 2005;Szwarcwald et al, 2011;Sperhacke et al, 2018). Somente em 2009, o PN-DST/Aids passou a financiar a realização de estudos de vigilância comportamental e epidemiológica voltados aos grupos populacionais mais afetados pela epidemia, dedicando-se aos HSH, que incluíram, além de entrevistas sobre comportamentos sexuais e preventivos, a realização de testagem para HIV (Kerr et al, 2013(Kerr et al, , 2018.…”