Incidence and risk factors for AIDS-related mortality in HIV patients in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: To estimate the incidence and risk factors for mortality in HIV-1-infected patients in China. METHODS: Information on AIDS-related deaths was collected from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Disease Surveillance Information Reporting System and AIDS Prevention and Control Information System. RESULTS: A total of 379,348 HIV cases were recorded in the databases from 2006. Among those, 138,288 patients were reported as having developed AIDS and 72,616 (19%) died of AIDS after data was extracted from the databases in January 2011. Mortality was higher among those patients aged 50 years old or older (AOR: 3.41, CI: 1.47-7.91) who had been infected by intravenous drug use (AOR: 1.65, CI: 1.28-2.14) or blood transfusion/donation (AOR: 2.18: 1.18-3.99). Compared to patients who had not initiated highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), those who had initiated HAART were more likely to have a long interval of time between infection confirmation and AIDS-related death. CONCLUSIONS: The effective reduction of AIDS mortality could be improved through timely treatment.