Medical clinic utilization and patient characteristics at the XI International Conference on AIDS [letter]

Findings are presented from an assessment of the degree to which delegates attending the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver used medical clinics set up to meet their needs. Visit and individual-specific information was collected via a clinic visit profile sheet and questionnaire. Over 4 days delegates made 221 clinic visits during the conference centers open hours. Excluding repeat visits 202 unique individuals used clinic services for a utilization rate of 17.6 people/1000 delegates. Only 8 delegates were transferred to a hospital 1 HIV-negative and 7 HIV-positive individuals. Clinic visits at 3 sites were more likely to be from male (58%) and HIV-positive (55%) delegates. The main reasons for clinic visits from HIV-positive and -negative delegates were respiratory (13.9%) skin (17.7%) and head and neck-related (23.4%) complaints. 8.7% of visits from HIV-positive delegates were attributed to infections like herpes virus or candidiasis. 7.8% of clinic visits were to request prescriptions while 7.1% of visits among HIV-positive delegates were to request help with injections. 20.1% and 14.1% of prescriptions filled at the clinics were for analgesics and antibiotics respectively. Findings are presented on differences in health status and health care services availability between developed and developing country HIV-positive questionnaire respondents. The health care services available at the conference adequately managed delegates health problems.