Diagnosis trends and HIV-to-AIDS intervals varied by place of birth. To decrease the incidence of HIV infection among Hispanics, prevention programs need to address cultural differences.
To examine trends in the proportions of deaths with various diseases among deaths with HIV infection, we analyzed multiple-cause death certificate data for all deaths in the United States from 1987 through 1999. Disease proportions were adjusted to control for demographic changes. Deaths reported with HIV infection increased from 15,331 in 1987 to 47,977 in 1995 and then decreased to 16,061 in 1999. Among these reported deaths, new trends during the period from 1995 through 1999 included decreases in the proportions with cytomegalovirus disease (from 6.8% to 2.8%), wasting/cachexia (9.8% to 6.8%), and dementia/encephalopathy (6.3% to 3.9%) and increases in the proportions with septicemia/septic shock (from 9.2% to 13.4%) and diseases of the liver (4.9% to 11.6%), kidney (6.3% to 9.1%), and heart (4.2% to 6.9%). Continuations of pre-1995 trends included decreases in the proportions with nontuberculous mycobacteriosis (7.1% to 3.1%) and Kaposi sarcoma (5.3% to 2.6%). Advances in antiretroviral therapy probably caused deaths due to HIV infection to decrease after 1995. Consequently, the proportions of deaths with HIV that were caused by other conditions increased. Improved prophylaxis or treatment of some opportunistic infections could also have reduced the proportions of deaths with those diseases, whereas antiviral drug toxicity could have contributed to increases in the proportions with noninfectious organ diseases.
To investigate the epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) encephalopathy, we analyzed cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from September 1, 1987, through August 31, 1991. Of 144,184 persons with AIDS (PWAs), 10,553 (7.3%) were reported to have HIV encephalopathy. The proportion of PWAs with HIV encephalopathy was highest at the extremes of age: in PWAs less than 15 years old the proportion was 13%, and in PWAs greater than or equal to 15 years old the proportion progressively increased with age, from 6% in PWAs 15 to 34 years old to 19% in PWAs greater than or equal to 75 years old (p = 0.00001, chi 2 test for linear trend in proportions). The reported annual incidence of HIV encephalopathy per 100,000 population aged 20 to 59 years was 1.4 in 1988, 1.5 in 1989, and 1.9 in 1990. This analysis best provides estimates for HIV encephalopathy as the initial manifestation of AIDS because the CDC AIDS reporting system often does not ascertain diagnoses after the initial AIDS report. These data suggest that age (very young or old) is associated with the development of HIV encephalopathy and that HIV encephalopathy is a common cause of dementia in adults less than 60 years old in the United States.
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