D. Kitayaporn et al., SURVIVAL OF AIDS PATIENTS IN THE EMERGING EPIDEMIC IN BANGKOK, THAILAND, Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes and human retrovirology, 11(1), 1996, pp. 77-82
Survival from the time of AIDS diagnosis to death was determined retro
spectively among Thai patients (greater than or equal to 13 years old)
who attended a public tertiary care infectious disease hospital in a
suburb of Bangkok, Thailand, from February 1987 through February 1993.
An AIDS diagnosis was based on the 1987 Centers for Disease Control (
CDC) definition, except Penicillium marneffei infection was included a
s an AIDS-defining condition. Of 329 AIDS pa patients, 152 (46.2%) had
died. The median age at diagnosis was 31.5 years (range, 18-74) 306 p
atients (93.0%) were males. Reported risk categories were heterosexual
contact (55.2%), injecting drug use (IDU, 22.6%), male homosexual or
bisexual contact (9.5%), and unidentified risk or other (12.7%). Media
n survival time (Kaplan-Meier) for all patients was 7.0 months; 1-year
survival probability was 39.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 31.5-4
6.9%). Cox's proportional hazards model showed three factors associate
d with survival: age, reported risk category, and presenting diagnosis
. Patients aged 26 to 35 years survived longer (median survival time,
10.6 months; relative hazard [RH] = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.44-0.85, referent
: others), as did patients in sexual risk categories (median survival
time, 7.3 months; RH = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.40-0.78, referent: IDU and oth
er categories). A single presenting diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberc
ulosis was also associated with longer survival (median survival time,
19.9 months, RH = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.35-0.86, referent: other diagnoses
). AIDS patients in the early phase of the epidemic in Bangkok have mu
ch shorter survival times than patients in developed countries, in par
t perhaps because they are often diagnosed late in the course of HIV i
nfection. Increased attention should be given to the early diagnosis a
nd treatment of these patients.