Sammanfattning
A survey was conducted to examine the extent of “late testers” defined as patients diagnosed with AIDS up to 90 days after first HIV-diagnosis. Late testers in Sweden between 1990-2006, before and after the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) became available, were included. Furthermore, an investigation of parameters such as age, sex, number of sexual contacts, route of transmission, AIDS-criteria and geographic area of probable acquisition of the infection has been utilized in order to categorize certain groups that are more likely to be late testers. The study shows that the number of late testers has increased during the period as a result of a growing number of late testers among individuals infected before arrival to Sweden. The study also shows that late testers are most often infected through heterosexual contacts. Among persons living in Sweden, when contracting the infection, men infected heterosexually abroad primarily in Thailand, are overrepresented. It is important to reach these groups with earlier HIV-tests.