To study the epidemiological characteristics and western blot (WB) patterns of HIV-1 antibody positive cases in Beijing, so as to provide scientific evidences for prevention and control of AIDS.

The research subjects were HIV-1 antibody positive cases tested in the Beijing Central Laboratory of HIV Confirmatory Test from 2015 to 2017. Statistical analysis on the demographic characters of the subjects as well as analysis on the WB patterns of the samples were performed.

Among the 3 196 HIV-1 antibody positive cases, male subjects accounted for 95.6%, and subjects aged 20-39 years old accounted for 74.9%; subjects with college education and above accounted for 57.0% and 69.1% of the subjects were unmarried; meanwhile, homosexual and heterosexual transmissions accounted for 80.3% and 17.8%, respectively. For the WB patterns of 3 196 HIV-1 positive samples, 2 653 samples showed all bands, accounting for 83.0%. According to the single band analysis, the top three bands were gp160 (99.9%), p66 (99.6%) and p24 (99.4%). The band p31 showed statistically significant differences among age groups (P<0.05). The difference of band p66 among groups of education was statistically significant (P<0.05). The difference of band p24 in transmission routes was statistically significant (P<0.05). No statistically significant difference of all bands among genders and marriage statuses was observed.

HIV-1 antibody positive cases in Beijing were mainly unmarried men aged 20-39 years old with college education or above. Behavior interventions should be enhanced to this group. Large proportion of patients with all bands in WB indicated that most patients in Beijing can be identified during active phase of the virus.

HIV-1 antibody positive; Western Blot; Band