Clinical characteristics of HIV-1 infected persons followed at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia

International Conference on HIV/AIDS, STDs, & STIs

October 24-25, 2013 Holiday Inn Orlando International Airport, Orlando, FL, USA

Maha Al-Mozaini

Posters: J AIDS Clin Res

Abstract :

W hile epidemiological characteristics of the HIV-1 pandemic in Western, African and South-East Asian countries are well recognized, there is very little information available on the situation of HIV-1 infected persons in the countries in the Middle East. This is particularly true for the KSA, for which clinical, demographical and treatment related characteristics of HIV-1 infected persons remain largely unknown. A descriptive data were collected from 602 HIV-1 infected patients that were followed at our institute since 1984. About 69.77% of the study subjects are males and 30.23% are female HIV patients. The mean age at diagnosis was 30 years with a SD of 14. The majority of HIV-1 infected patients came from Riyadh, followed by other provinces. The major mode of HIV-1 transmission was heterosexual contacts (54.65%), and concordantly infected married couples represented 48.25% of all patients. Other transmission categories were hemophilia 9.97%, perinatal transmission 9.8%, blood and blood product transfusion 14.29%, bisexual behavior 3.32%, IDU 2.82%, MSM 1.66% and organ transplantation 1.16%. Rate of HCV co-infection among HIV-1 infected persons was 12.9%. Mortality in this cohort was highest in 1992, when 16 out of 123 patients died. By 2010, only 1.84% had insufficient CD4 T cell counts (<400/ul), 71% were treated with HAART and mortality in this cohort was low (1%), but still substantially higher than the average mortality rate in KSA (0.3%). These data provide a snapshot of the current HIV-1 epidemic at a major tertiary referral Hospital in Riyadh, and may help to design and implement targeted treatment and prevention strategies for HIV-1 in KSA

Biography :

Maha Al-Mozaini has completed her Ph.D. from Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK and Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Infectious Disease Division of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. During her fellowship, she was supported by an award from the Dubai-Harvard Foundation for Medical Research. She established and heads for the first time within, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, research section entitled ?Immunocompromised Host Research?.