[Survival of AIDS patients in a city in southeastern Brazil]. / Sobrevivência de pacientes com AIDS em uma cidade do sudeste brasileiro.

OBJECTIVE: To assess survival in patients diagnosed with AIDS in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, between 1986 and 1997. METHODS: The epidemiological records of 2,214 patients diagnosed during the study period were retrospectively reviewed. From those, 1,231 patients with at least 30 days of follow-up after the date of diagnosis were included in the study. Information concerning deaths was obtained from hospitals and vital-records offices. RESULTS: Survival for the group as a whole was 310 days (10.3 months) over the period of 1986 through 1997. Median survival was 362 days for 1986 to 1990, 260 days for 1991 to 1995, and 864 days for 1996 and 1997. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves and the log-rank test showed significant differences for the following variables: sex, age, period when diagnosis was made, and presence of candidiasis and of cerebral toxoplasmosis. Cox's regression showed an association between reduction of survival and the following variables: age (in comparison to individuals younger than 15 years, hazard ratio = 1.435 for age between 15 and 34 years, and 1.681 for age above 35 years); period of diagnosis (in comparison to the period of 1996 and 1997, hazard ratio = 1.682 for the period from 1986 to 1990, and 2.324 for the period from 1991 to 1995); and presence of candidiasis (hazard ratio = 1.391). The hazard ratio for the presence of cerebral toxoplasmosis was 1.063, with a probability value close to the limit of significance. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a striking increase in survival in 1996 and 1997, coinciding with the availability and utilization of highly active antiretroviral drugs.

Transformation and trends in preventive and social medicine education at the undergraduate level in a Brazilian medical school.

In the present study we discuss some transformations in undergraduate training in Preventive and Social Medicine in the Department of Social Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeiro Preto, University of So Paulo, from 1993 to 1999. Aspects of the relationship between medical training and the reorganization of local services of the Brazilian national health system, and between graduate teaching in Preventive and Social Medicine and medical education as a whole are discussed. The crisis in Preventive and Social Medicine and its influence of medical training are evaluated. Trends for the application of a body of knowledge of the specialty and for the relationship between the department and the medical school are discussed.

[Historical trend in the occurrence of deaths in a municipality from Southern Brazil: 1936-1982]. / Tendência histórica da invasão de óbitos em Município da Região Sul do Brasil: período de 1936 a 1982.

The authors studied 33,494 deaths occurring in Londrina, State of Paraná, Brazil, from 1936 to 1982. The deaths were divided into two groups: residents and invaders, who lived outside the Londrina municipal limits. Invaders were studied as to origin, place of occurrence, cause, and diagnostic confirmation and compared with residents across proportional mortality. An attempt was made to identify a relationship between invaders' deaths and Londrina's historical development, especially migratory phenomena and health care improvements. Results showed that over the course of the period studied, most of the outsiders who had died in Londrina (over 80%) were from northern Paraná. Identification of the proportion of in-hospital deaths, diagnostic confirmation, and criteria from several chapters of the International Classification of Diseases showed that outsiders had received proportionally more medical care. Londrina's medical care attracted outsiders from the beginning of the period onward, a trend that was further consolidated after 1970.