Pattern of HIV-infection in Hurungwe district, Mashonaland West, Zimbabwe.

After the first case of HIV-infection had been diagnosed in 1986 in a Northern district of Zimbabwe, a local hospital based surveillance system, was introduced. In order to monitor the spread of the epidemic in the district, residence, age, sex and clinical presentation of all newly diagnosed HIV-patients were recorded. After three years, the data were compiled and analysed with the following results. Altogether 887 symptomatic HIV-patients (0.5 pc of the district population) were diagnosed. The most common HIV-associated signs and symptoms were PGL (47 pc), chest infection (29 pc), herpes zoster (24 pc) and chronic STDs (15 pc). The female-to-male ratio in adults was 1.4. The average age on diagnosis in women was 26.0 +/- 6.7 years and in men 30.7 +/- 8.6 years. The three years' cumulative incidence of HIV-cases was 27.2/1,000 in the urban area and 3/1,000 in the rural areas of the district.