BACKGROUND: There is no description of dermatoses among HIV infected individuals in Rio Grande do Norte(RN) / Brazil, althoug this state had an accumulated total of 899 adult Aids cases registered from january 1983 to august 2000 and mortality coefficients per 100,000 residents of 3.80 and 2.47, in the years 1995 and 1997, respectively, such that this difference in values coincided with the introduction of antiretroviral (ARV) usage in this state. OBJECTIVE: To describe epidemiologic caracteristics of retrovirus infected subjects with dermatoses, including frequency of dermatoses and to establish relationships between the caracteristics of users and nonusers of ARV drugs. METHODS: Were included 172 patients, according to HIV infection classification of CDC/1992. The use of ARV drugs was determined and the dermatoses were submited to analysis. RESULTS: The sample comprises 83.72% of men, with mean age of 37.17 years, with sexual way of retrovirus contamination (96.5%), predominant heterossexual behaviour (54.7%). The most frequent form skin diseases were classified into viral, fungic and miscellaneous. The mean percentage of diseased skin area was 12.5%. Mean viral load was 109,114.05 cps/ml, and mean CD4+ T lymphocytes was 383.15 cells/mm³. Overal 81.4% of patients were using ARV drugs. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiologic profile of HIV infected patients residents in state of RN did not differ from that of others brazilian regions. Analytic studies, minimizing confounding bias, are necessary to discribe the real frequency of HAART (High Active Antiretroviral Therapy) in seropositive HIV subjects.
skin diseases; epidemiology; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
