Incidence of Co-Infections of HIV, Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 and Syphilis in a Large Cohort of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Beijing, China

BACKGROUND:

The HIV-epidemic among MSM in China has worsened. In this key population, prevalence of HSV-2 and syphilis infection and co-infection with HIV is high.

METHODS:

A longitudinal study was conducted (n = 962) in Beijing, China, with three overlapping cohorts (n = 857, 757 and 760) consisting of MSM that were free from pairs of infections of concern (i.e. HIV-HSV-2, HIV-syphilis, HSV-2-syphilis) at baseline to estimate incidence of HIV, HSV-2, syphilis, and those of co-infection.

RESULTS:

The incidence of HIV, HSV-2 and syphilis in the overall cohort was 3.90 (95% CI = 2.37, 5.43), 7.87 (95% CI = 5.74, 10.00) and 6.06 (95% CI = 4.18, 7.94) cases per 100 person-years (PYs), respectively. The incidence of HIV-HSV-2, HIV-Syphilis and HSV-2-Syphilis co-infections was 0.30 (95% CI = 0.29, 0.88), 1.02 (95% CI = 0.13, 2.17) and 1.41 (95% CI: 0.04, 2.78) cases per 100 PYs, respectively, in the three sub-cohorts constructed for this study.

CONCLUSIONS:

The incidence of HIV, HSV-2 and syphilis was very high and those of their co-infections were relatively high. Such co-infections have negative impacts on the HIV/STI epidemics. Prevention practices need to take such co-infections into account.

Below:  Associations of the socio-demographic characteristic with loss of follow-up among MSM in Beijing, China

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/TrgSPE

By:  Li D1, Yang X1,2, Zhang Z1, Wang Z2, Qi X1, Ruan Y3, Zhou Y4, Li C2, Luo F1, Lau JT2.

• 1Chaoyang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, PR China.
• 2Center for Health Behaviours Research, The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong, China.
• 3State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (SKLID), Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, China.
• 4Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
• PLoS One. 2016 Jan 28;11(1):e0147422. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147422. eCollection 2016. 

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