Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

HIV in Colombia: an Epidemiologic Point of View

  • Tropical Diseases in Colombia (A Restrepo, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Tropical Medicine Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of this review is to present an updated view from the epidemiological point of view of the problem of HIV infection in Colombia, highlighting aspects related to the general population, risk factors, discriminated minorities, access to treatment, social factors, resistance, and opportunistic infections.

Recent Findings

Recent data show that in Colombia’s general population, there is a prevalence of HIV infection around 0.6–0.7%, but when we look at high-risk groups like men who have sex with men, it can be as high as 24%; this denotes a marked increase in the epidemic in some subgroups, which goes hand in hand with the increasingly early onset of active sexual life without protection among our adolescents, giving the epidemic an increasingly younger and more feminine face, all this associated with the growing poverty and lack of access to medical services, which necessarily means that we are diagnosing patients in advanced stages of the disease and with a series of opportunistic infections that go according to our epidemiology and geography, highlighting mainly tuberculosis as one of the most frequent.

Summary

The epidemic of HIV in Colombia is increasing, mainly in some specific groups that exert a series of risk factors that facilitate the spread of the infection at an early age. The male:female ratio is still almost 3:1, but a marked increase in infected women is shown through the heterosexual route, which also implies a high risk of vertical transmission, which has decreased in recent years thanks to a series of campaigns aimed at this particular public, but many of our at-risk youth are not becoming aware of safe sex practices and much less are accessing a timely diagnosis, which when done is almost always done in a way delayed, limiting the chances of recovery and adherence to treatment. These findings represent an effort by several government agencies to promote safe sex practices among our youth, easy and quick access to diagnosis, and timely treatment not only of the different opportunistic infections but also of HIV itself, which will necessarily impact the goal of future research, which must surely measure the impact of this whole series of measures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

  1. Vesga JF, Cori A, van Sighem A, Hallett TB. Estimating HIV incidence from case-report data: method and an application in Colombia. AIDS. 2014;28(Suppl 4):S489–96.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Piñeirúa A, Sierra-Madero J, Cahn P, Guevara-Palmero RN, Martínez-Buitrago E, Young B, et al. The HIV care continuum in Latin America: challenges and opportunities. Lancet Infect Dis. 2015;15(7):833–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. • UNAIDS data 2017, available from http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/20170720_Data_book_2017_en.pdf. A very good review with the most updated data on how the HIV epidemic goes in Colombia.

  4. Arrivillaga M, Hoyos PA, Tovar LM, Varela MT, Correa D, Zapata H. HIV testing and counselling in Colombia: evidence from a national health survey and recommendations for health-care services. Int J STD AIDS. 2012;23(11):815–21.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Colombia’s Health Minister. Overview of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Colombia 2017.

  6. Gómez-Bustamante E, Cogollo-Milanés Z. Secondary student’s knowledge about HIV-AIDS. Rev Salud Pública. 2011;13(5):778–84.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Girón SL, Palacio H, Mateus JC. HIV sexual risk behaviors in youth 15–24 years of age in Cali, Colombia: do differences exist among neighborhoods? Colomb Med. 2013;44(2):72–9.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Rubio Mendoza ML, Jacobson JO, Morales-Miranda S, Sierra Alarcón CÁ, Luque Núñez R. High HIV burden in men who have sex with men across Colombia’s largest cities: findings from an integrated biological and behavioral surveillance study. PLoS One. 2015;10(8):e0131040.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Zea MC, Reisen CA, del Río-González AM, Bianchi FT, Ramirez-Valles J, Poppen PJ. HIV prevalence and awareness of positive serostatus among men who have sex with men and transgender women in Bogotá, Colombia. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(8):1588–95.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Zea MC, Reisen CA, Bianchi FT, Gonzales FA, Betancourt F, Aguilar M, et al. Armed conflict, homonegativity, and forced internal displacement: implications for HIV among Colombian gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Cult Health Sex. 2013;15(7):788–803.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Galindo-Quintero J, Mueses-Marin HF, Montaño-Agudelo D, Pinzón-Fernández MV, Tello-Bolívar IC, Alvarado-Llano BE, et al. HIV testing and counselling in Colombia: local experience on two different recruitment strategies to better reach low socioeconomic status communities. AIDS Res Treat. 2014;2014:803685.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Ettenger A, Bärnighausen, Castro A. Health insurance for the poor decreases access to HIV testing in antenatal care: evidence of an unintended effect of health insurance reform in Colombia. Health Policy Plan. 2014;29(3):352–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Reisen CA, Zea MC, Bianchi FT, Poppen PJ, del Río González AM, Romero RA, et al. HIV testing among MSM in Bogotá, Colombia: the role of structural and individual characteristics. AIDS Educ Prev. 2014;26(4):328–44.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Varela-Arévalo MT, Hoyos-Hernández PA. Adherence to treatment for HIV/AIDS: beyond the uptake of antiretrovirals. Rev Salud Pública. 2015;17(4):528–40.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Cardona-Arias J, Peláez-Vanegas L, López-Saldarriaga J, Duque-Molina M, Leal-Álvarez O. Health-related quality of life in adults with HIV/AIDS in Colombia. Biomedica. 2011;31:532–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Machado-Alba JE, Vidal X. Effectiveness of antiretroviral treatment in Colombia. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2012;32(5):360–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. De La Hoz JM, Bolaño L, Cárdenas O, González R, Sabbag J, Palacio L, et al. Characterization of treatment failure in HIV positive patients in the Colombian Caribbean region. Colomb Med (Cali). 2014;45(4):162–7.

    Google Scholar 

  18. DiazGranados CA, Mantilla M, Lenis W. Antiretroviral drug resistance in HIV-infected patients in Colombia. Int J Infect Dis. 2010;14(4):e298–303.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. •• Álvarez-Barreneche MF, Restrepo-Castro CA, Hidrón-Botero A, Villa-Franco JP, Trompa-Romero IM, Restrepo-Carvajal L, et al. Hospitalization causes and outcomes in HIV patients in the late antiretroviral era in Colombia. AIDS Res Ther. 2017;14:60. It shows a very real and accurate vision of the true face of opportunistic infections nowadays in Colombia.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Escandón P, de Bedout C, Lizarazo J, Agudelo CI, Tobón A, Bello S, et al. Cryptococcosis in Colombia: results of the national surveillance program for the years 2006–2010. Biomedica. 2012;32:386–98.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Arango M, Castañeda E, Agudelo CI, De Bedout C, Agudelo CA, Tobón A, et al. Histoplasmosis: results of the Colombian national survey, 1992–2008. Biomedica. 2011;31(3):344–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Caceres DH, Zuluaga A, Arango-Bustamante K, de Bedout C, Tobón ÁM, Restrepo Á, et al. Implementation of a training course increased the diagnosis of histoplasmosis in Colombia. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2015;93(3):662–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Camargo M, Soto-De Leon SC, Muñoz M, Sanchez R, Peña-Herrera D, Pineda-Peña AC, et al. Human papillomavirus detection in women with and without human immunodeficiency virus infection in Colombia. BMC Cancer. 2014;14:451.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Bautista-Amorocho H, Castellanos-Domínguez YZ, Rodríguez-Villamizar LA, Velandia-Cruz SA, Becerra-Peña JA, Farfán-García AE. Epidemiology, risk factors and genotypes of HBV in HIV-infected patients in the northeast region of Colombia: high prevalence of occult hepatitis B and F3 subgenotype dominance. PLoS One. 2014;9(12):e114272.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Villa L, Trompa IM, Montes FN, Gómez JG, Restrepo CA. Analysis of mortality caused by tuberculosis in Medellín, Colombia, 2012. Biomedica. 2014;34(3):425–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Diseases Section, Internal Medicine Department, University of Antioquia Medical School, Medellín, Colombia

    Juan Carlos Cataño

Authors
  1. Juan Carlos Cataño
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Carlos Cataño.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Tropical Diseases in Colombia

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cataño, J.C. HIV in Colombia: an Epidemiologic Point of View. Curr Trop Med Rep 5, 77–84 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40475-018-0141-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40475-018-0141-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation