[Utilization of anonymous HIV testing by the federal health office--developments and motives].

In the state-run health office in Ulm a survey of the frequency of anonymous HIV-antibody tests was taken between 1985 to 1991, of the age and gender representation from 1988 to 1991, of the test motives from 1.1.1990 to 1.3.1991. The result was a regressive trend following the test boom of 1987 and 1988, which is becoming more and more stable. The relation of men and women has been amounting to 6:4 in the last four years; the proportion of women receding slightly but constantly. The main motive of being tested was finding out about a high-risk or potentially high-risk sexual contact, mostly at the beginning of a new partnership. The motive ranking second in frequency was the investigation of the consequences of blood exposure, mostly relating to medical work. The third place was taken by irrational anxieties as a test motive. The article discusses the fact that test at the beginning of a new partnership frequently have the meaning of a sacrifice and a symbol of bondage in combination with a vow to be faithful. In case of irrational anxieties about AIDS the test-counsellor gets a chance to diagnose a possibly neurotic development at a very early stage, so that painful and expensive chronification and generalisation could be stopped or eased.