AEGiS-14IAC: Trends in demographic and clinical characteristics of HIV-seropositive patients attended in a public reference hospital in Peru.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

Trends in demographic and clinical characteristics of HIV-seropositive patients attended in a public reference hospital in Peru.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. C10663)

Samalvides F, Verdonck K, Vidal M, Seas C, Echevarria J, Gotuzzo E
Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru

BACKGROUND: From 1985 to December 2000, 21794 people had been diagnosed with HIV in Peru, including 11310 patients with AIDS. Transmission is mainly sexual; infection through intravenous drug use is very rare. There is insufficient systematized information about trends in clinical characteristics in Peruvian patients.

METHODS: A retrospective and observational study was carried out at the "Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia", a public reference hospital in Lima where approximately 2630 HIV-seropositive patients have been attended between 1985 and 2000. Data from the clinical files of a sample of 800 patients, systematically chosen (based on the last two digits of the code of their clinical file) were collected and analyzed. Chi-squared test was used for comparison of categorical variables.

RESULTS: More then ten years ago, HIV transmission was mainly homosexual (67% in '87) and the ratio of men to women was high (10 to 1 in '90) in this patient population. In recent years, the majority of people are infected through heterosexual contact (40% in 2000) and the proportion of women in the HIV-seropositive population has increased (19% in 2000). The mean age at diagnosis of HIV did not change over time (32.3 years in '88 and 32.5 in '00). The proportion of patients who had AIDS at the time of diagnosis of HIV has increased since 1992 (39% in '92, 63% in '00; p=0.001). Trends in opportunistic infections registered in clinical files are shown in the table. [table: see text]

CONCLUSION: Heterosexual contact has become the most important way of transmission and the proportion of women with HIV has increased in this patient population, an evolution also seen in other developing countries. The proportion of patients in follow-up reported with tuberculosis and chronic diarrhea has decreased between 1995 and 2000.

Keywords: AEGIS, HIV Seropositivity, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Infections, Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, Substance-Related Disorders, Retrospective Studies, Peru, Human, Female, Male, transmission, trends

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