Introduction:

early diagnosis of HIV and early and continuos antirretroviral treatment constitute key strategies to avoid dying of aids. After a steady increase, HIV-related mortality has remained stable since 2005, although the expected reduction has not occurred. A study was conducted in order to characterize the clinical and epidemiological profile of the population that died of AIDS in Uruguay in 2014 and to assess the distribution of deaths in the continuum of care cascade.

Method:

retrospective and observational study, based on information kept in files containing death certificates and medical histories of people who were 18 years old or older and died of AIDS in 2014.

Results:

we had access to 124 records of the 175 deaths, finding that 105 corresponded to HIV-related deaths, 77% of them came from the public subsector and 68% of them being men. Most of them were young adults (43.7±11.6 years old) and lived in vulnerable conditions (47.1% had used drugs; 15.4% were homeless or in prison; 37.5% benefited from social plans). In 71.4% of cases diagnosis was late and 37.1% died within the first year of diagnosis. 60% died without having consulted the health system or continued treatment (11.4% failed to seek health assistance, 48.6% interrupted treatment).

Conclusions:

the increased proportion of patients who died without having sought health assistance or follow up in the health system within a population of social vulnerability evidences the need to adopt comprehensive strategies that have been proved successful to increase access and continuation of treament.

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