Seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus in mental health patients.

In contrast to the published data on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in parenteral drug abusers, there is a paucity of data on prison inmates and virtually none on psychiatric inpatients. Because our facility serves each of these patients groups, we designed an anonymous seroprevalance study. We tested 1,496 unduplicated sera using sequential enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot tests.