Purposes:

To characterize sociodemographic and clinical aspects in newly diagnosed HIV patients that were hospitalized at a university health center between 2010 - 2016.

Methods:

We made an observational descriptive cross - sectional study reviewing clinical records, including patients older than 14 years old, who were diagnosed with HIV infection during hospitalization and at least a CD4 count.

Results:

Median age at diagnosis was 41 years old (IQR 31 - 51), 85% were men. The main symptoms were general/systemic (70.2%). 99 patients (61.5%) had opportunist infections, being tuberculosis the most frequent (34.3%). The median CD4 were 88 cells/mm3 (IQR 27 - 327) and 77% were classified as AIDS. 29 patients died (18%), finding as a risk factor for mortality don’t having a good health care insurance, low CD4 count, having respiratory symptoms, pneumonia diagnosis, multiple organic failure’s criteria and ICU admission.

Conclusion:

In our case, the majority of patients with a new diagnosis of HIV were in advanced stages of immunosuppression with a high burden of AIDS defining diseases. It is important to strengthen public health policies to diagnose HIV infection earlier.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )