Publications by authors named "Doris V Baez Feliciano"
Article Synopsis
- Early initiation of injection drug use (IDU) before age 13 is linked to a range of adverse psychosocial and clinical outcomes in a study of 1308 HIV-positive patients.
- The early initiation group exhibited higher rates of tobacco and alcohol use, suicide attempts, incarceration, and various mental health issues.
- Despite a different clinical profile, including specific infections, there were no significant differences in mortality rates or antiretroviral treatment outcomes between the early and non-early initiation groups.
The HIV epidemic is a significant global health care issue. With increasing knowledge and improved therapeutics the natural history of the infection has been modified. In this paper we aim to present the general socio-demographic profile and the clinical and therapeutic spectrum of patients with HIV infection who have visited the Bayamón Health Care facilities over the last 12 years and who are part of the Retrovirus Research Center (RRC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To compare the occurrence of AIDS as well as the sociodemographic and clinical profiles of AIDS patients in Puerto Rico before and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and the privatization of the island's public health care system.
Methods: We compared the incident AIDS cases for two three-year periods, 1992-1994 and 1998-2000, in four populations: (1) entire United States, (2) Puerto Rico, (3) Bayamón Health Region (located in north-central Puerto Rico, it includes 11 of the island's 78 municipalities), and (4) an HIV cohort enrolled at the Universidad Central del Caribe (UCC) School of Medicine. The UCC is located in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, within an academic medical complex that houses the teaching hospital (Ramón Ruíz Arnaú University Hospital), the ambulatory health care facilities (Immunology Clinics) for patients with HIV, and administrative buildings.