CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY OF HOSPITAL PEDIATRIC HIV AIDS CARE IN CATALONIA, 1992/

A cross-sectional survey to assess the impact of the paediatric HIV/AI DS epidemic on the hospital-based health care system was performed in state-financed hospitals in Catalonia during 1992, raising issues of r elevance today. Out of the 27 hospitals contacted, 20 responded.(1) A considerable proportion of the health care to children with an HIV-rel ated condition was provided by four hospitals. The average length of s tay of the 176 HIV patients who were admitted was 10.8 days; these pat ients were admitted to the hospital twice a year on average. Nearly ha lf of the out-patients who attended with an HIV-related condition were either seropositive without a confirmed diagnosis of an HIV infection (class P-O) or seronegative. Thirteen per cent of the overall admissi ons to paediatric day care hospitals were attributable to an HIV-relat ed condition. By ownership status of the hospitals, HIV/AIDS paediatri c in-patients of public hospitals generated the majority of admissions per patient per year, and had the shortest lengths of stay. Unlike th e HIV/AIDS epidemic in adults, the magnitude and characteristics of th e epidemic in children may not require the shift of hospital-based hea lth care to primary health care.