Gender and age-related variations in human immunodeficiency virus infection trends at the Mexican Institute of Social Security: 2003-2017.

Introduction: Diagnosing and treating human immunodeficiency virus carriers has led to the identification of a higher prevalence of said infection and, therefore, of a higher risk of transmission of the virus.

Objective: To find out the trend of new cases of human immunodeficiency virus infection carriers at the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) in Mexico within the 2003-2017 period.

Methods: Patients affiliated to the IMSS were analyzed. Data from 42,181 newly-diagnosed cases were collected, with variations related to gender and age being observed. Age-standardized rates per 100,000 population were obtained.

Results: The highest mean annual percentage change in males was documented in adolescents (13.0, 95% CI = 9.9, 16.1). Heterogeneous trends were recorded for women, with a significant overall decrease (-2.2, 95% CI = -3.4, -1.0), but growing trends were also observed in some groups.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that the human immunodeficiency epidemic in patients cared for at the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social is concentrated in males, with a growing trend particularly in adolescents.