Epidemiology of HIV Transmission Routes in Jahrom County, Fars Province Islamic Republic of Iran 2017

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) refers to disorders caused by a defect in the functioning of the human immune system that occurs due to infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The HIV transmission routes include injecting drug use, sexual transmission, occupational transmission, transfusion of blood components and mother-to-child transmission. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the frequency of HIV transmission routes in people infected with HIV in Jahrom County, Iran.
The present cross-sectional study was conducted by a census method on 73 HIV-positive subjects and AIDS patients in Jahrom County with active and available records during a certain period in 2017. Data were analyzed by SPSS16 and Excel 2013 software using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test at a significance level of 0.05.
In examining potential routes of disease transmission, except for five cases of mother-to-child transmission, the transmission route was unknown in none of the remaining 68 people. The most frequency of the transmission route was related to injecting drug use (58.9%), followed by history of tattoo (57.5%), high-risk sexual behavior (56.2%), dentistry, surgery and endoscopy (39.7%), injuries in the barbershop (16.8%), bloodletting (12.3%), and blood transfusion (6.8%), respectively.
The most frequency route of transmission was the injecting drug use. Therefore, the injecting drug users (IDUs) are at high risk for HIV infection, and further attention should be given to these vulnerable groups within the educational programs.