Title:Epidemiological Profile of Naive HIV-1/AIDS Patients in Istanbul: The Largest Case Series from Turkey
Volume: 12
Issue: 1
Author(s): Mucahit Yemisen, Ozlem Altuntas Aydın, Alper Gunduz, Nail Ozgunes, Bilgul Mete, Bahadir Ceylan, Hayat Kumbasar Karaosmanoglu, Dilek Yildiz, Fatma Sargin, Resat Ozaras and Fehmi Tabak
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Epidemiology, HIV/AIDS, screening test, Turkey.
Abstract: The aim of the study was to report the epidemiological profile of HIV-1 positive patients from, Istanbul,
Turkey, which has one of the lowest HIV-1/AIDS prevalences in Europe. The patients were followed by ACTHIV-IST
group which was established by the Infectious Diseases Departments of five teaching hospitals (three university hospitals
and two public hospitals) in Istanbul, Turkey. The HIV-1positive patients were added to the standard patient files in all of
the centers; these files were then transferred to the ACTHIV-IST database in the Internet. A total of 829 naiv-untreated
HIV-1 positive patients were chosen from the database. The number of male patients was 700 (84.4%) and the mean age
of the patients was 37 years (range, 17-79). In our study group 348 (42%) of the patients were married and 318 (38.7%) of
the patients were single. The probable route of transmission was heterosexual intercourse in 437 (52.7%) patients and
homosexual intercourse in 256 (30.9%) patients. In 519 (62.6%) patients the diagnose was made due to a screening test
and in 241 (29.1%) patients, the diagnose was made due to an HIV-related/non-related disease. The mean CD4+ T cell
number in 788 of the patients was 357.8/mm3 (±271.1), and the median viral load in 698 of the patients was 100,000
copies/mL (20-9,790,000). In Turkey, the number of HIV-1 positive patients is still low and to diagnose with a screening
test is the most common way of diagnostic route.