%0 Journal Article
%T Patterns, trends and sex differences in HIV/AIDS reported mortality in Latin American countries: 1996-2007
%A Monica Alonso Gonzalez
%A Luise Martin
%A Sergio Munoz
%A Jerry O Jacobson
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-11-605
%X Cause of death data from vital statistics registries from 1996 to 2007 with "good" or "average" quality of mortality data were examined. Standardized mortality rates and Poisson regression models by country were developed and differences among countries assessed to identify patterns of HIV mortality over time occurring in Latin America.Standardized HIV mortality following the adoption of public ART policies was highest in Panama and El Salvador and lowest in Chile. During the study period, three overall patterns were identified in HIV mortality trends- following the adoption of the free ART public policies; a remarkable decrement, a remarkable increment and a slight increment. HIV mortality was consistently higher in males compared to females. Mean age of death attributable to HIV increased in the majority of countries over the study period.Vital statistics registries provide valuable information on HIV mortality in LA. While the introduction of national policies for free ART provision has coincided with declines in population-level HIV mortality and increasing age of death in some countries, in others HIV mortality has increased. Barriers to effective ART implementation and uptake in the context of free ART public provision policies should be further investigated.The worldwide scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has substantially improved survival and quality of life of HIV-infected individuals. There is clear evidence that mortality associated with AIDS as well as incidence of AIDS-defining clinical conditions have fallen drastically in industrialized countries that provide good access to ART, such as the United States and Western European countries [1-9]. Improvement in survival among AIDS patients in developing countries has also been documented [10-12].Despite increases in ART coverage to more than 4 million people in low- and middle-income countries by 2008 [13], HIV/AIDS has continued to be the fourth most frequent cause of death in low income countries
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/605