This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor.—We studied the evolution of the use of hospital services and health spending secondary to the recent therapeutic changes among patients followed up in public hospitals in southwestern France by the Groupe d'Epidemiologie Clinique du SIDA en Aquitaine (GECSA).¹ This regional hospital-based information system on infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) includes at least 80% of the patients known to be infected with HIV in the Aquitaine region.²

In France, most HIV-infected patients currently are treated in public hospitals,³ where 3 types of services are provided outpatient clinic, inpatient hospital ward, and day hospital. The day hospital mostly is intended for patients who need short, intense, and repeated care (eg, chemotherapy of HIV-associated neoplasms). Futhermore, initial prescription of antiretroviral agents has to be approved by a hospital-based physician. Treatment with 2 nucleoside analogs became common during the second half of 1995; protease inhibitors were introduced in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?