[Incidence of pneumonia in HIV-infected patients in the highly active antiretroviral therapy era].

Background And Objective: There is scant data comparing the incidence of pneumonia in the community and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) population in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era.

Patients And Method: Prospective study during 18 months. Data were obtained by the means of the electronic clinical record. Incidence rate was compared between HIV positive and negative patients.

Results: There were 529 pneumonia episodes in global population (n = 220,000), 1.6 cases/1000 person-year. HIV-infected patients (n = 170) suffered 12 episodes of pneumonia; 46 cases/1000 person-year (relative risk = 29.3, 95% confidence interval, 16.34-51.4; p < 0.01). HIV infected patients with pneumonia have a lower CD4 count (mean 434 versus 230 cells/ml; p = 0.04), higher viral load (4.1 versus 3.2 log copies/ml; p = 0.07) and received antiretroviral treatment in a similar proportion compared to HIV without pneumonia (62 versus a 66.7%, p = 0.5).

Conclusions: Pneumonia in HIV infected patients may be about 30 times more frequent than general population in HAART era. Prevention measures should be reinforced.