Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Chile. December 2003

Abstract

From 1984, when the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Chile, to December 2003, 6.060 patients with AIDS and 6.514 with asymptomatic HIV infection have been notified to a passive national surveillance system; around 3,800 have died due to the infection. Magnitude of the under reporting is discussed. Assumed routes of the infection have been: sexual (94.1%), blood--largely intravenous drug use--(4.3%) and vertical transmission (1.6%). According to analysis performed by the National Commission on AIDS (CONASIDA), a governmental office, HIV/AIDS epidemic in Chile is characterized by: predominance in male homo/bisexuals, urban and rural distribution, impoverishment of the affected people, diagnosis made mainly during adulthood and a steady trend to affecting more women and heterosexuals at large. Since 2001 there has been a continuous increase in access to standard antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for those cared for by the public health system, reaching free coverage for 100% of this population by 2003, which has determined a significant decrease in the rate AIDS-associated clinical manifestations while reaching an stop of the previously increasing lethality of the infection (from a 15% increase from 1993-1997 to 0.2% from 1998-2003).