Study on the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with human immunodeficiency virus at the walk-in service of the teaching hospital of the Federal University of Minas Gerais

This study had the aim of prospectively analyzing the clinical and epidemiological characteristics that lead adult patients with HIV/AIDS to seek urgent medical care in the walk-in service of the teaching hospital of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Over a one-year period, all admissions of adult patients with HIV were evaluated. There were 118 admissions involving 99 patients. Their mean age was 39.4 years. The male-to-female ratio was 1.35:1. The length of time from diagnosis to admission was most frequently 0-5 years (40.4% of the cases). Antiretroviral therapy was being regularly used among 56.8% of the admissions. The T CD4+ lymphocyte count was less than 200 cells/mm(3) in 45.7% of the patients. The most frequent complaints were increased body temperature, diarrhea, coughing and dyspnea. The respiratory tract was the region most affected. The most common opportunistic diseases were pneumocystosis, community-acquired pneumonia, diarrheal syndrome and oral candidiasis. The demand for admissions among HIV patients represented 2.8% of all admissions, with an average length of stay of 4.6 days. Most of the patients had low T CD4+ lymphocyte counts, and almost half of them were not taking highly active antiretroviral therapy. There was a tendency towards feminization. AIDS-related diseases continue to be the most frequent occurrences within our setting.