Determinants of antimicrobial prophylaxis use and treatment for wasting among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus disease in the United States, 1995-1998.

Despite US Public Health Service (USPHS) recommendations for antimicrobial prophylaxis for patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, the proportion of patients who receive prophylaxis is not known. We measured the prevalence of antimicrobial prophylaxis use, and treatment for HIV wasting at baseline among 531 patients with advanced HIV disease enrolled in a multicenter randomized trial of red blood cell transfusion. Use of antimicrobial prophylaxis and treatment for wasting in the 30 days before enrollment was ascertained in patients eligible for primary prophylaxis, secondary prophylaxis, or both, according to USPHS guidelines. There was high utilization of primary and secondary Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia prophylaxis, variability in primary Mycobacterium avium complex prophylaxis by center, and low use of primary cytomegalovirus prophylaxis. Treatment of wasting was more common in white than nonwhite patients and in patients with HIV disease who lived in the region west of the Mississippi River of the United States versus those whose lived in the eastern region.