[Prevalence of type 1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in African patients residing in Catalonia].

278 black patients from West Africa, living in Maresme, a coastal area north of Barcelona were studied in order to determine the prevalence of HIV-1 infection. During the first period (1984-86), 102 patients were studied, 3 of them were positive for HIV-2, but none was positive for HIV-1. In the second period (1987-89), 176 patients were studied and 15 were positive for HIV-1. Sexual intercourse with prostitutes of low social level was the only risk factor in all of them. Nine of these 15 patients had other STD, 4 parasite infections, 5 AIDS related-syndrome and 2 AIDS. These findings alert us to the high prevalence of HIV-1 infection in this group of patients (8.5%) and call for stricter measures to enforce hygiene in the area of prostitution.