Background: Spain has the highest rate of AIDS in Europe since 1990, mainly at the expenses of the intravenous drug user (IDU) transmission group, and women account for 20% of all the cases. Because cervical lesions may be altered by HIV, invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is included in the AIDS case definition worldwide.
Goal of study: To assess the impact of the HIV epidemic on the incidence of ICC and to describe the characteristics of ICC in the spectrum of AIDS-defining diseases in Catalonia, Spain.
Study design: Descriptive study of women notified through the AIDS surveillance system during 1994 to 1996. Age-specific ICC incidence rates from a population-based Cancer Registry were used to calculate the population attributable risk percent (PAR%).
Results: Fifty-six cases (6.8%) with ICC were reported to the AIDS Registry, 64.3% of those women were IDU with a mean age of 32. Among women aged 20 to 49, the PAR% was 12.2% (95% CI: 7.9-16.5%) and the incidence rate ratio was 18.5 (95% CI: 11.2-29.2).
Conclusions: HIV is having an impact on ICC epidemiology among young women in Catalonia. The policy of cervical screening should be modified and offered every 6 to 12 months to women at risk for or with HIV infection.