HIV antibody was detected in 27 of 450 prisoners (6.0%), in a crosssectionalrnstudy carried out in the major prison of Dire Daloia district, inrneastern Ethiopia. Syphilis was found to be very common in the prisoners.rnOverall, 31.6% of the prisoners had a positive VDRL. The rate inrnprisoners who were HIV positive was 63% or 17 out of 27. A concurrentrndiagnosis of syphilis was strongly associated with HIV seropositivity.rn(Odd's ratio = 4.09). Recent admission to prison within the past threernmonths was strongly associated with HIV positivity (Odd's ratio = 3.72);rn21 of the 27 HIV positive prisoners had been in prison for less than threernmonths. Factors found important in other studies on prisoners and AIDS,rnsuch as homos(3xuali ty and intravenous drug use were not found to bernfeatures of prisoners in Dire Dawa. Surprisingly, significantrnassociations could not be proved between number of prostitute contacts orrnnumber of sexual contacts per month before prison and HIV positivity.rnDuration of residence in Dire Dawa town, travel outside of Dire Dawa andrnnumber of l ong term sex partners before prison, were not found to bernassociated with HIV seropositivity. Likewise, no statisticallyrnsignificant correlation was found between HIV seropositivity and historyrnof injections, dental extractions or immunizations in the past. Only 8 ofrnthe 450 prisoners (1. 6%) were uncircumcised. Although one of the eightrnwas HIV positive, no relationship was found between the circumcision staternand HIV infection . That all 27 HIV positive prisoners had been in prisonrnshorter than 12 months with 21 of them (77.8%) imprisoned for less thanrnthree months, suggests that the epidemic in Dire Dawa may be of recentrnorigin. The high prevalence seen in prisoners in Dire Dawa likelyrnreflects infection in the surrounding community, and are a cause forrnserious concern