and city or county jurisdictions independently funded for HIV surveillance: California (including Los Angeles County and San Francisco), District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois (including Chicago), and New York (excluding New York City).preventive care should be routinely offered to persons evaluated for monkeypox, with linkage to HIV care or HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as appropriate.Eight health departments matched probable and confirmed cases of monkeypox † diagnosed through July 22, 2022, and occurring among persons aged ≥18 years, to local HIV and STI surveillance data using individually established methods that included various personal identifiers (e.g., name, † https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/case-definition.html INSIDE

To understand recent temporal trends in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) mortality in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), trends in causes of death among persons with AIDS in San Francisco who died between 1994 and 1998 were analyzed. Among 5234 deaths, the mortality rate for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related or AIDS-related deaths declined after 1995 (P<.01), whereas the mortality rate for non-HIV- or non-AIDS-related deaths remained stable. The proportion of deaths of persons with AIDS associated with septicemia, non-AIDS-defining malignancy, chronic liver disease, viral hepatitis, overdose, obstructive lung disease, coronary artery disease, and pancreatitis increased (P<.05). The standardized mortality ratio was high for these causes in both pre- and post-HAART periods, except for pancreatitis, a possible complication of HAART, which demonstrated an increasing standardized mortality ratio trend after 1996. With increasing AIDS survival, prevention of chronic diseases, assessment of long-term toxicity from HAART, and surveillance for additional causes of mortality will become increasingly important.

Late diagnosis of HIV is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Despite the availability of HIV testing, persons continue to test late in the course of HIV infection. We used the HIV/AIDS case registry of San Francisco Department of Public Health to identify and recruit 41 persons who developed AIDS within 12 months of their HIV diagnosis to participate in a qualitative and quantitative interview regarding late diagnosis of HIV. Thirty-one of the participants were diagnosed with HIV because of symptomatic disease and 50% of the participants were diagnosed with HIV and AIDS concurrently. Half of the subjects had not been tested for HIV prior to diagnosis. Fear was the most frequently cited barrier to testing. Other barriers included being unaware of improved HIV treatment, free/low cost care, and risk for HIV. Recommendations for health care providers to increase early diagnosis of HIV include routine ascertainment of HIV risk behaviors and testing histories, stronger recommendations for patients to be tested, and incorporating testing into routine medical care. Public health messages to increase testing include publicizing that (1) effective, tolerable, and low cost/free care for HIV is readily available, (2) early diagnosis of HIV improves health outcomes, (3) HIV can be transmitted to persons who engage in unprotected oral and insertive anal sex and unprotected receptive anal intercourse without ejaculation and from HIV-infected persons whose infection is well-controlled with antiretroviral therapy, (4) persons who may be infected based upon these behaviors should be tested following exposure, (5) HIV testing information will be kept private, and (6) encouraging friends and family to get HIV tested is beneficial.

Prior evidence suggests that the health and longevity benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for persons living with AIDS (PLWAs) have not been equally distributed across racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Notably, black PLWAs tend to fare worse than their counterparts. We examine the role of neighborhood socioeconomic context on racial/ethnic differences in AIDS treatment and survival in San Francisco. The study population encompassed 4211 San Francisco residents diagnosed with AIDS between 1996 and 2001. Vital status was reported through 2006. Census data were used to define neighborhood-level indicators of income, housing, demographics, employment and education. Cox proportional hazards models were employed in multivariate analyses of survival times. Compared to whites, blacks had a significant 1.4 greater mortality hazard ratio (HR), which decreased after accounting for ART initiation. PLWAs in the lowest socioeconomic neighborhoods had a significant HR of 1.4 relative to those in higher socioeconomic neighborhoods, independent of race/ethnicity. The neighborhood association decreased after accounting for ART initiation. Path analysis was used to explore causal pathways to ART initiation. Racial/ethnic differences in neighborhood residence accounted for 19-22% of the 1.6-1.8 black-white relative odds ratio (ROR) and 14-15% of the 1.3-1.4 Latino-white ROR for delayed or no treatment. Our findings illuminate the independent and synergistic contributions of race and place on treatment disparities and highlight the need for future studies and interventions to address treatment initiation as well as neighborhood effects on treatment differences.

Socioeconomic resources and age, not race or gender, are associated with disparities in engagement in HIV care in San Francisco.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically improved survival after AIDS. The benefits of HAART have not been equally realized for all communities, however. We characterize the association of socioeconomic status (SES) with survival after AIDS diagnosis in San Francisco in the period before (1980-1995) and after (1996 - 2001) the wider use of HAART. Using citywide surveillance data, we examined differences in survival after AIDS diagnosis by neighborhood household income using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards analysis to adjust for significant covariates. Residing in higher SES neighborhoods significantly predicted better survival after AIDS from 1996 to 2001 (hazard ratio = 0.92 per $10,000 increase in neighborhood household income, 95% CI: 0.85-0.99) after adjusting for CD4 count at diagnosis, age, and injection drug user status. Persons living in poorer neighborhoods were less likely to use HAART at any time in the past compared with persons in wealthier neighborhoods. Moreover, no association between survival and neighborhood SES was evident in the era prior to the wide use of HAART. Finally, the difference in survival by neighborhood income level disappeared after controlling for the use of HAART, suggesting that use of or access to treatment explained the association. From 1996 to 2001, survival with AIDS was worse for people living in poorer neighborhoods compared with those living in wealthier neighborhoods of San Francisco as a result of unequal access to or use of HAART.

ABSTRACT. Over 100 HIV-infected patients have initiated chronic dialysis at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) since 1985. This study employed retrospective analysis to identify determinants of and trends in survival among HIV-infected patients who have initiated chronic dialysis at SFGH from January 1, 1985 to November 1, 2002 (n = 115). Cohort patient survival was compared with survival after an AIDS-opportunistic illness in all HIV-infected patients in San Francisco during the study period. Higher CD4 count (hazard ratio [HR], 0.86 per 50 cells/mm3 increase; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 0.93) and serum albumin (HR, 0.53 per 1 g/dl increase; CI, 0.36 to 0.78) at initiation of dialysis were strongly associated with lower mortality. Survival for those initiating dialysis during the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was 16.1 mo versus 9.4 mo for those initiating dialysis before this time, but this difference was not statistically significant. In adjusted analysis, only a non-statistically significant trend toward improved survival during the HAART era was noted (HR, 0.59; CI, 0.34 to 1.04). By comparison, survival for all HIV-infected patients after an AIDS-opportunistic illness in San Francisco increased from 16 mo in 1994 to 81 mo in 1996. The dramatic improvement in survival that has occurred since the mid-1990s for patients with HIV appears to be greatly attenuated in the sub-group undergoing dialysis. Although this may partly reflect confounding by race, injection drug use and HCV co-infection, future attempts to improve survival among HIV-infected dialysis patients should focus on barriers to the effective use of HAART in this group. E-mail: Rudy@itsa.ucsf.edu

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