[A high fraction of drug-dependent patients among anonymously detected HIV-infected patients in Stuttgart].

A high percentage of intravenous drug addicts was found among HIV-infected individuals who had been detected by anonymous testing from May, 1985, to October, 1988, at the AIDS Counselling Service of the Municipal Health Department in Stuttgart. Among the subjects being seropositive for HIV-1 antibodies, 36.6% were drug abusers, while until October, 1988, only 10.3% of the reported AIDS cases in the Federal Republic of Germany were members of this risk group. On the other hand, only 1.9% of 1.001 individuals who came to the AIDS Counselling Service of the Municipal Health Department in Stuttgart for HIV antibody testing were drug addicts. Our observations show that special information campaigns for young people about the risk of HIV infection by intravenous drug abuse should be intensified.