Profile of HIV serodiscordant couples in a tertiary care center

Background: Globally, 36.7 million people are infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Of these 36.7 million people, 2.1 million are in India. Integrated counseling and testing centers are the cornerstones of early access to prevention and support services. The term "serodiscordant couple" refers to a couple where one partner is HIV-positive and the other HIV-negative. Aim: To study the serodiscordance rates in a cohort of people attending integrated counseling and testing center. Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study of data from integrated counseling and testing center from January 2013 to December 2014 was done. Results: Of the 7489 persons tested, 306 persons were positive for HIV (192 males and 114 females) with a prevalence of 4 percent. Of the 126 couples tested, serodiscordance was found in 46 couples, while 80 couples were seroconcordant. The overall prevalence of HIV serodiscordance was 36.5 percent. Male positive and female negative couples (M+F-) were 35 (76.0%) and female positive and male negative (F+M-) were 11 (23.9%). Discordant M+F-couples were significantly higher than discordant F+M-couples (P < 0.001). Most participants were aged between 21 and 40 years. The average age of men was 41.91 years and that of women was 34.21 years. The average age difference between life partners was 7.7 years. Significant association was seen between age and gender, as females were found to be younger (P value = 0.001). Limitation: Information regarding years of married life, number of sex partners or sexual behavior pre-and post-detection were not collected. Thus, our data present only the magnitude of serodiscordance in a cohort but does not analyze the other predictors of serodiscordance. Conclusion: Serodiscordant relationships occur more commonly in India than is presumed. Our study highlights the profile of serodiscordant couples in this part of the country. Effective measures to prevent transmission of HIV within a serodiscordant relationship are necessary steps in halting the HIV epidemic.