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The duration of survival time from diagnosis of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) to death was evaluated for 4,323 persons living in San Francisco. These cases were reported to the public health department between July 1981 and December 31, 1987 and were followed until death or through the end of the study in December 1988. The average survival time was 12.5 months. Only 3.4 percent lived for at least five years following diagnosis and the patient with the longest recorded survival lived 8.1 years. Survival was better for patients who were diagnosed with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia during 1986 and 1987, but mortality increased from 1981 to 1987 for persons diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, a form of skin cancer. No change in mortality was observed among AIDS patients with other opportunistic infections or complications. Patients between the ages of 20 and 39 lived the longest, while both younger and older individuals had shorter survival times. Men lived longer than women, but few cases of women with AIDS were reported. Patients treated with zidovudine (AZT) survived longer than patients who received no antiviral therapy. Data were lacking on the use of treatments other than antiviral drugs, so their influence on mortality could not be evaluated. In conclusion, short-term survival has improved in recent years for some AIDS patients, and new treatments such as zidovudine may be responsible. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

National trends in the short-term survival of patients with AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) were evaluated using records from the Centers for Disease Control, state and local health departments, and other sources. Nationwide, 36,847 persons over age 13 were diagnosed with AIDS between January 1984 and September 1987. Over this time, more patients for whom Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) was one of the first symptoms were still alive one year after the initial AIDS diagnosis. The number surviving one full year after diagnosis increased from 42.7 percent between 1984 and 1985, to 54.5 percent in 1986 and 1987. This improved survival occurred among homosexual men, male and female intravenous drug users, and in all age, race, and geographic groupings. Patients who did not have PCP as an initial symptom of AIDS did not, as a group, show increased survival rates over the same time periods. Factors that may explain this reduced short-term mortality include improved diagnostic procedures and treatments for AIDS, especially the drug zidovudine (AZT), which was introduced in 1986. These results may be affected by underreporting of deaths due to the inability of local or state health departments to trace patients who move out of the area. This phenomenon would not, however, explain the improved survival observed only in persons with PCP as an initial manifestation. The author believes the data show a real improvement in the short-term survival of these patients. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Results of a report by the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System (NHBS), which was set up by the CDC, has revealed that around 71% of the injecting-drug users (IDUs) had been tested for HIV. The importance of behavioral interventions is highlighted as these have been found to reduce risk behaviors among IDUs.