MATERIAL AND METHODS

The survival function of the 100 first AIDS patients in Norway is presented and analyzed with respect to four factors obtained at the time of diagnosis; a) year of diag-nosis b) initial AIDS related disease c) knowledge of HIV seropositivity prior to onset of AIDS and d) age at time of diagnosis. The median survival was 9.3 months. Among the known seropositive AIDS patients there were almost twice as many with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia as initial AIDS related disease, as among the not known seropositives (rel-ative risk 1.8). With Cox regression analysis we found that known seropositivity and age are factors that appear to influence survival, whereas year of diagnosis and initial AIDS related disease appearently do not. The mechanism whereby prior knowledge of HIV seropositivity leads to apparent increase in survival may be due to better fol-low-up and thereby an earlier date of diagnosis. Key word5: Survival analysis, AIDS, cofactors. In order to provide the best possible health services for AIDS patients it is important to monitor their clinical progression in relation to cofactors and in relation to treatment. Studies of AIDS patients have shown increased survival in patients who have been diagnosed most recently (1-2), an observation which in particular has been made among patients with pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) as the initial AIDS related disease (3). It has also been shown that patients who present with Kaposis sarcoma have better prognosis (4-6). We here present the survival function for the first 100 Norwegian AIDS patients and analyse their sur-vival with respect to 4 factors obtained at the time of diagnosis; a) year of diagnosis, b) initial AIDS re-lated disease, c) knowledge of HIV seropositivity prior to onset of AIDS and d) age at time of AIDS diagnosis