RESUMEN
Four hundred and eighty six infected adults (90,7 percent men) were prospectively followed from 1988 to 1993 at a multi-professional center in Santiago, Chile. 87,8 percent of male patients (pts), 84 percent of them homo/bisexual, and 64,4 percent of women acquired the infection sexually. At the beginning of the follow up (F/U) 51 percent of men and 71 percent of women were asymptomatic and 30 percent of the total group had AIDS. (AIDS definition: CDC 1993, excluded CD4 lymphocyte count <200 x mm3). 240/486 (49,4 percent) had developed AIDS at the end of the study (12/31/93). AIDS defining events (ADE) were: interstitial pneumonia (confirmed or suggestive as caused by P. carinii [PCP]), 25 percent; tuberculosis (all forms), 22.1 percent; wasting, 13.8 percent; Kaposi Sarcoma, 9.2 percent; esophageal candidiasis, 6.7 percent; isosporiasis, 5,4 percent. Of all PCP cases, 72 percent were ADE, the rest, post AIDS'. As expected, AIDS pts continued having major complications (mainly bacterial pneumonias, PCPs, esophagitis, tuberculosis and diarrhea due to I. belli and Cryptosporidium. Less frequently, but also observed, were toxoplasmic encephalitis and cryptococcal meningitis). Known mortality (excluded abandonment of F/U) was 27 percent for the whole group and varied from 5.8 percent, 51,6 percent to 69.2 percent for the first, 4th and 6th yaer of F/U respectively. For II-III CDC pts the mortality was 5 percent and 57 percent and for IV CDC pts it was 38 percent and 100 percent during the first and 6th year of F/U respectively. 36 percent, 53 percent, 74 percent and 85 percent of the pts followed for 1, 3, 5 and 6 years respectively had developed AIDS by the end of 1993. Multifactorial causes with either diarrhea, wasting or both were responsible for the death in half the pts in whom this was known, 15 percent died of respiratory complications and 5,7 percent of cryptococcal meningitis. 80 percent of AIDS pts survived their ADE. This study has provided information about the clinical profile of the HIV infection and natural history of the disease in Chile