AIDS in Colombia.

AIDS was taken very seriously by Colombia from the 1st verified AIDS cases in 1983. The Ministry of Health established a national program against AIDS with a commitment to stop its spread. In 1984 all donor blood was screened for HIV and Colombias National Institute of Health began seroepidemiologic studies to provide current information on HIV infection prevalence. The seroprevalence studies were done on the following populations: female prostitutes male homosexuals high risk individuals in Bogota getting free AIDS testing Ameridians living on a reservation within the Orinco and Amazon basins blood donors to the Bogota Red Cross and high and low risk groups from Villacencio Meta and Colombia. The tests were done following CDC criteria. The results are broken down into a map of cities containing AIDS and bar graphs of AIDS cases versus time or patient age. Most of the AIDS cases were found in homosexual males aged 20-39 years. Colombia still has a very low overall AIDS prevalence. To try to stop the doubling or tripling of annual AIDS cases in Colombia measures such as public education about AIDS mandatory testing of blood donors establishment of HIV-1 diagnostic laboratories and the provision of free AIDS testing have been set up.