Elevation of Oral Lesions in High-risk Group for HIV Infection

1Department of Stomatology, Central Hospital, Shengli Oil Field, Dong Ying, China, 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dongying, China, 3Department of Stomatology, Central Hospital, Shengli Oil Field, Dongying, China, 4Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China

Objective: To investigate the oral manifestations and the rate of HIV infection in high-risk groups for HIV/AIDS in Dongying City, Shandong Province, China, and to provide the evidence for formulating strategies for AIDS prevention.

Methods: 400 female Commercial Sex Workers (CSW) and 400 male sex consumers (SC) and 200 male and female service staff (SF) in a nightclub were interviewed by questionnaires and the oral examinations were carried out at the same time. The blood samples were collected for tests of HIV-antibody, rapid plasma reagin (RPR) and treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA). The salivary samples were collected for fungal culture.

Results: HIV-antibodies were negative in the three groups, but 4.25% of subjects (17/400) in CSW group and 3.25% of subjects (13/400) in SC group were proved to be infected with syphilis by TPPA. Among 30 subjects with syphilis, there were 17 with primary syphilis without oral lesions, 13 with secondary syphilis with oral lesions in 4 subjects. The rates of oral candidiasis in CSW, SC and SF groups were 35.8% (143/400), 32.5% (130/400) and 6% (10/200) respectively. The prevalence of oral candida-carriage was 5%, 3.8% and 1%. There were significant differences between the former two groups and the SF group for candidiasis and candida-carriage (p<0.01). The prevalence of recurrent oral ulceration (ROU), lichen planus (LP) were also significantly higher in the former two groups than those in SF group (p<0.05). There were no differences among groups for prevalence of herpes-simplex, herpes zoster, warts, hyperpigmentation, leukoedema, leukokeratosis, fungiform papillitis, smoking patch, fissured tongue, chronic cheilitis and bloody vesicles.

Conclusion: Although no HIV-positive subject was detected, the risk for HIV acquisition is high because of the oral ulceration present and oral sex behaviours among this population.