Prevalence and pattern of HIV infection in Karachi.

Two thousand seven hundred and seventy six subjects comprising 844 high risk and 1932 low risk group were screened for HIV antibodies by ELISA and western blot. Eight subjects from high risk group were HIV positive. They included three prisoners, two sexually promiscuous, two seafarers and one recipient of blood. The highest prevalence of the infection was found in sexually promiscuous group (5.40% +/- 7.40) followed by prisoners (1.64% +/- 1.87), multitransfused patients (1.0% +/- 1.96) and seafarers (0.66% +/- 0.93). No case of HIV infection was found in low risk population group, however, one pregnant women had p24 and p55 antibodies on western blot.