Characteristics of Adolescents and Young adults with HIV in the Republic of Korea from 2010 through 2015

Although the number of newly diagnosed cases of HIV is decreasing worldwide, those in Korea have been steadily on the rise, especially among adolescents (ages 10–19 years) and young adults (ages 20–29 years). To identify the characteristics in the new diagnosis among these age groups, we analyzed HIV testing sizes and HIV prevalence under the national HIV surveillance system in Korea in the last six years. We collected data of HIV tests conducted at Blood Banks (BB), Public Health Centers (PHCs), and Military Manpower Administration (MMA) nationwide every year from 2010 to 2015, except for anonymous tests. HIV prevalence, calculated as the number of new HIV-diagnosed cases per 10,000 test-takers per year, was analyzed according to sex, age, institution, and reason for HIV testing. Data were analyzed using logistic regression. In the three testing institutes, there were new cases of HIV with 50% and 95% of cases diagnosed in young adults and adolescents, respectively. The total size of HIV tests at the three sites was approximately 3.5 million tests per year; 80% of these were conducted in BBs, 10% in PHCs, and 10% in MMA. HIV prevalence, according to age, increased across all age groups for the six years, especially prevalent in young adults doubled during that period (1.01 per 10,000 test-takers in 2010, 2.45 in 2015). HIV prevalence among the “suspected” young male adults who visited PHCs for tests, was highest during the six years, increasing 6.5 times in the last two years (315.79 per 10,000 test-takers in 2014, 335.55 in 2015) compared to before 2014. We identified the characteristics of growing HIV infection in Korea as the increase of HIV prevalence among the suspected of young male adults at PHCs. Further, we propose that HIV prevalence in MMA can be used as an essential index for national HIV surveillance of adolescent boys in Korea.