Adult AIDS and symptomatic HIV patients at Sawanpracharak Hospital

A total of 751 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients were admitted to Sawanpracharak Hospital from 1989 to 1996; of which 1, 1, 4, 5, 61, 146, 267 and 266 cases were seen in each year respectively. The majority of the patients were aged between 20-29 years (43.3%), male (85.1%), married (57.0%), living in Nakhon Sawan Province (70.9%)--31 per cent in urban areas and 39.9 per cent in rural areas, and private employees (65.8%). There were 499 (66.4%) patients with AIDS and 252 (33.6%) with symptomatic HIV patients. Most of them had their risk factor from sexual contact (89.5%) with 95.1 per cent of heterosexual behavior. Most of the intravenous drug users were male and all of the blood transfusion risk factors were female. The overall mortality rate was 27.3 per cent. All cases admitted between 1989 and 1991 died; between 1992 and 1996 the mortality decreased from 80.0 per cent to 19.2 per cent. Diseases significantly related to the mortality rate were wasting syndrome and recurrent bacterial pneumonia more than 1 per year. Most of the private employees were in the age group of 20 to 39 years; while most of the agriculturists, housewives and priests were in the age group of 20 to 29 years. All sex-workers were in the age group of 20 to 29 years. Males and females had significantly different marital status; 37.7 per cent of males were single and 53.7 per cent were married, while only 19.6 per cent of females were single but 75.9 per cent were married. Sexual contact was the most common risk factor in both males and females. Males had more intravenous drug use than females but had no blood transfusion risk factor. AIDS had a significantly higher mortality rate (32.5%) than symptomatic HIV (17.1%) patients. Each occupation had different marital status and risk factors (p = 0.0001 and 0.0003 respectively). Education, prevention, early diagnosis and proper management can reduce the spread of HIV infection. Prevention of wasting syndrome is required for decreasing the mortality of the patients.