Ten Years of HIV Diagnosis in a Dermatology and Venereology Department: A Retrospective Study on Demographic, Clinical, and Laboratory Characteristics.

ABSTRACT

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission remains an important health issue, with a high burden that is felt across the world. This work aims to analyze the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of newly diagnosed patients with HIV in a Department of Dermatology and Venereology. A retrospective observational study was conducted from all health records of newly diagnosed patients with HIV from a Dermatology unit from January 2011 to December 2020. A total of 134 patients with new HIV diagnoses were included in the analysis. Concurrent dermatological or venereal diseases were diagnosed in 91.0% of the patients (n=122), being the most common conditions syphilis (22.4%, n=30) and urethritis (14.9%, n=20). Out of all the patients with diagnoses of concurrent sexually transmitted infection (STI) (41.0%, n=55), syphilis was reported in 81.8% of the patients (n=45), gonorrhea in 9.1% (n=5), and chlamydia in 5.5% (n=3). We present a large patient database on the clinical conditions associated with newly diagnosed HIV, concluding that infectious diseases were the most common conditions associated with newly diagnosed HIV.