The Barbados AIDS audit - abstract

ABSTRACT

An audit was conducted of the notes of 156 patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, who were alive on the 31st July 1993 and 45 patients who had died of HIV disease. All patients had been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, or had been seen in the counselling clinic which is located in the hospital. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the demographic and risk factor profile of the patients, to examine the pattern of HIV disease and to document the workload and demand on the counselling clinic which the patients attended. The use of various investigations was analyzed. Important findings were 1. Women admitting to prostitution had a history of cocaine use; 2. Older men were morel likely to give a history of contact with prostitutes; 3. Sixty-two per cent of attenders at the clinic were in the early stages of HIV infection. These patients can be given less frequent follow-up appointments. 4. Respiratory tract infections were the major cause of hospital admission. 5. Neurological problems were the chief cause of death (AU)