Profile of

Objectives Voluntary counseling and testing is one of the cost-effective ways of reducing HIV transmission in resource-poor countries like India. The present study aimed at determining the socio-demographic profile of HIV seropositive clients of an Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC), association, if any, between sex and sociodemographic characteristics , their referral pattern, HIV status of the spouses/partners and trend, if any, in number of seropositives for HIV/AIDS over the years. Methods The descriptive record based study was conducted among the registered HIV seropositive clients at ICTC of Calcutta National Medical College & Hospital, a Government run Medical College in West Bengal, India. Data were collected for a period of five years (2007-08 to 2011-12) from the relevant registers using proforma based on Operational Guidelines for ICTC of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO). Data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 19.0) and Chi-square tests were conducted at 5% level of significance. Results Among 461 HIV seropositive clients, 62.7% were males and 83.9% belonged to 15-49 year age group. Daily wage laborers (65.1%) and Housewives constituted majority (47.5%) of males and females respectively. Significant association between male and female with educational status (d.f =2, p=0.036) and current marital status (d.f=2, p= 0.00) was observed. About 6% provided history of transfusion of blood and blood products. Only 6% attended ICTC voluntarily. About 4% were referred from Directly Observed Treatment, Short course (DOTS) Centre for tuberculosis. Only 27.7% of spouses/partners of the eligible seropositives could be tested and most of them (65.8%) were seropositives. Conclusion Immediate attention should be paid towards implementation of blood safety; increase in voluntary attendance at ICTC and spouse/partner testing.