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. 2014 Nov-Dec;13(6):501-5.
doi: 10.1177/2325957414536229. Epub 2014 Jun 4.

Viral loads among young HIV-infected men with early syphilis

Melanie M Taylor  1 , Whitney Y Li  2 , Julia Skinner  3 , Tom Mickey  4
Affiliations

Viral loads among young HIV-infected men with early syphilis

Melanie M Taylor et al. J Int Assoc Provid AIDS Care. 2014 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

High rates of HIV coinfection among men with syphilis suggest HIV transmission opportunities due to biologic and behavioral risk synergy. We abstracted HIV viral loads for HIV-infected males aged 24 years or younger with a diagnosis of early syphilis (ES) in Maricopa County, Arizona, in order to evaluate HIV infectivity. During 2009 to 2012, there were 56 HIV-infected, ES cases meeting the age criteria, of whom 32 (57%) had a detectable viral load performed within 1 year of syphilis diagnosis (median 21 000 copies/mL, range 130-302 844 copies/mL). Only 4 (7%) of the 56 patients had an undetectable viral load (<100 copies/mL) reported within a year of syphilis diagnosis. Twenty (36%) had no reported viral load or a viral load collected after 1 year of syphilis diagnosis. Among this group of young men coinfected with HIV and ES, many had detectable viral loads collected near the time of syphilis diagnosis, suggesting the potential for HIV transmission.

Keywords: HIV; coinfection; syphilis; treatment; viral load.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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