AIDS in the meeting of the Tapajós and Amazon rivers: deaths in the period 2010-2018 in Santarém, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: The city of Santarém, the regional healthcare center in the western Pará State, lacks studies on the epidemic of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in particular, on the causes of death. Objective: To characterize the sociodemographic and clinical profile related to the evolution of HIV infection to death. Methods: The sample consisted of 94 medical records of patients from a reference center in the city of Santarém-PA, who died between 2010-2018. Data were collected on the sociodemographic profile, immunological and clinical characteristics of the patients. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, adopting p<0.05. Results: Most deaths were male (67%), aged between 15-29 years (39%) and diagnosed between 30-44 years (41%), single (54%), mixed race (91.5%), from Santarém (77%) and with sexual intercourse being the main type of exposure (95.7%). Most patients were not being treated at the moment of death (56.4%), the main cause of death was respiratory failure (5%), in which, these individuals had, at the moment of death, TCD4+ lymphocytes <200 cell/mm³ (26%) and detectable viral load (29%). Conclusion: The lifetime from diagnosis to death was 48.45±50,30 months, and immunosuppression in the diagnosis was positively associated with the shortest survival time. However, sex was not associated with the immunological profile, age at the time of diagnosis, and death. There was only a tendency for women towards immunosuppression and detectable viral load.