The changing demographics of new HIV diagnoses at a London centre from 1994 to 2000

Objective

To document the demographic changes in new HIV diagnoses at the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK, between 1994 and 2000.

Design

Retrospective case note review.

Methods

Data were extracted from the Royal Free HIV database identifying new diagnoses for 1994, 1997 and 2000. All case notes were reviewed and patients were included if they had their first positive HIV test at the Royal Free Hospital, or if they first tested positive elsewhere and attended the Royal Free HIV unit for their initial HIV care. Data extracted included sex, ethnicity, age, risk factor(s) for HIV, reason for test, clinical stage of disease, CD4 count and HIV RNA viral load at diagnosis.

Results

One hundred and forty‐four patients were identified for 1994, 136 for 1997 and 110 for 2000. Over this time period the proportion of white patients dropped from 72% (n = 104) to 48% (n = 53), P= 0.0001, whilst the proportion of black Africans rose from 24% (n = 34) to 45% (n = 49), P= 0.0004. The median CD4 count at diagnosis of the white cohort was 475 cells/µL in 1994 and 286/µL in 2000, P= 0.005, whilst in the black African patients it was 240/µL and 230/µL for the same years.

Conclusions

There has been a reduction in new HIV diagnoses among the white population and a rise in the black Africans at this centre between 1994 and 2000. The clinical and immunological parameters of HIV disease have worsened over this time period for the white group, but have remained stable in the black Africans.