Progressive Characteristics of HIV Infection in the Elderly in the Cohort of the Internal Medicine Department of the Points G University Hospital, Bamako. Mali

Few data are available on HIV infection in the elderly and they are an important population in our different cohorts in view of the improvement in the quality of care over the last ten years.Objective: to determine the clinical and immunovirological characteristics as well as the acceptance of antiretroviral drugs in this patient population.This is a cohort study of the files of PLHIV (People living with HIV) aged 50 years or more, followed in the Internal Medicine Department of the Point G University Hospital between January 2007 and December 2012.Results: Out of 161 HIV-infected patients in the cohort, 38 were aged 50 years or older, of whom 11 met the criteria and were included.The median age was 55 years, 90.9% of whom were in the [50 -59 years] age group, with 63.6% being women (sex ratio = 0.57).At admission, 3 patients (27.3%) had prurigo and 2 (18.2%) had oral-pharyngeal candidiasis.At inclusion, 45.5% of patients were classified as WHO stage 2 and one as WHO stage 4.All were on ARVs, including 10 on 1st line HIV-1 and 1 on HIV-2.On triple therapy, the average weight gain was 5.1 kg at D15 and 6.84 kg at M6.However, at M12 there was a weight loss of 1.04 kg.The mean CD4 T cell gain was +102/mm 3 at M6 and +188/mm 3 at 12 months.At D0, mean viral load = 565024.75copies/mm 3 [99 -1100000] in 4/11.At M12, two patients had undetectable viral loads.Conclusion: The prevalence of HIV in elderly subjects is certainly underestimated.