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Some aspects of the natural history of HIV infection
Author(s) -
Coutinho R. A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3156.2000.00592.x
Subject(s) - seroconversion , natural history , incubation period , medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , immunology , disease , demography , incubation , biology , biochemistry , sociology
Summary Studying factors influencing the length of the incubation period of HIV/AIDS is important to our understanding of the natural history of the disease and for the decision when to start with anti‐retroviral therapy. In a multicentre study among HIV‐positive homosexual men with a known date of seroconversion, we found that the median survival time after HIV infection was 12.1 years. Age is an important determinant of the survival: the older the shorter the incubation period and survival. Gender does not seem to play a role, but women appear to have higher CD4 counts than men at seroconversion, AIDS and death. HIV‐positive drug users often die before they ‘reach’ AIDS often from HIV‐related causes e.g. bacterial infections. In a multicentre study we found that such pre‐AIDS mortality is now also found among homosexual men and haemophiliacs but at a much lower level. Most studies show that HIV subtype does not influence the incubation period. On the other hand genetic factors do play an important role.