Evidence for XXXX in prostitutes in Tamil Nadu (India).

@entity1 @entity778 @entity281
Blood samples were collected from 102 female prostitutes housed in a custodial care institution in Tamil Nadu, India, to determine the presence of antibodies to @entity1 @entity778 (HTLV-III). Both social and sexual histories were taken from 101 of the 102 @entity1 . Commercial test kits were used to test sera for antibody to HTLV-III. Reactive sera were tested for a 2nd time by the enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA). Those repeatedly reactive sera were transported to the US, the National Institutes of Health, for western blot analysis. The sera from 11 of the study subjects were found to be repeatedly reactive in ELISA, and 10 were confirmed to have specific antibody to the virus by western blot analysis. Both infected and uninfected @entity1 were similar in age and of low socioeconomic status. The risk ratio for HTLV-III antibody was 8.2 in those @entity1 who had had sexual exposure to foreigners. None of the @entity1 were intravenous drug abusers, and all denied oral or rectal intercourse. On the basis of the stringent criteria used in the western blot analysis, it is believed that the 10 @entity1 have HTLV-III antibody. This emerges as the 1st report of evidence for @entity778 in India. 10-40% of prostitutes in North America and Europe have HTLV-III antibody; the risk factors for @entity281 appear to be intravenous drug use and penis-rectal intercourse. 54-88% of prostitutes in Central Africa have HTLV-III antibody, and the frequency of sexual contact with different partners is more important here as a risk-factor than the type of intercourse. As the prostitutes in this study in Indian did not use intravenous drugs and did not practice penis-rectal or penis-oral intercourse and had been prostitutes for shorter periods of time than the noninfected @entity1 and had fewer contacts, it is believed that @entity778 has been introduced only recently into prostitutes in India. Sexual exposure to foreigners was a significant factor in the infected @entity1 .
