Eleven years of experience with HIV infections in a general practice in Amsterdam

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Objectives and methods: The aim of this retrospective observational study is to describe, on the basis of patients’ records, some experiences with 65 HIV-infected patients in an inner city general practice in Amsterdam during the period 1983-1994. Results: The point prevalence of HIV-infected patients still alive at the end of the observation period was 6.9 per 1,000 listed male patients and 0.6 per 1,000 listed female patients. By then 29 AIDS cases had been registered and 19 men were known to have died (nine of them at home). Almost 50% of the patients showed no symptoms or only mild symptoms and only a minority met the criteria of AIDS at the time of the diagnosis of HIV infection. The main suspect symptoms registered before this diagnosis were persistent generalised lymphadenopathy, oral hairy leukoplakia, disseminated herpes zoster and unexplained mononucleosis syndrome. From the time AIDS was diagnosed 47% of patients who had died had survived for one year and 26% for two years. The corresponding figures for AIDS patients still alive were 60% and 30% respectively. Patients’ aversion to diagnostic and therapeutic intervention was not a trivial phenomenon. Two AIDS patients refused referral and four AIDS patients refused antiretroviral drugs persistently. Euthanasia was discussed with 40% of the patients and applied in four out of 19 patients. Conclusion: The three main stages of HIV infection present general practitioners with various diagnostic and therapeutic problems.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: