United Press International

　　Tuesday, September 27, 2005

　　EDMONTON, Alberta, Sep 26, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) —— An international study, conducted in part in Edmonton, Canada, indicates pneumonia doesn't harm HIV-positive patients any more than those without HIV.

　　In a two-year study that included the University of Alberta, researchers documented the outcomes of cases at 26 hospitals in 11 nations involving 58 HIV-positive patients with community-acquired pneumonia. They compared those cases with outcomes for 174 HIV-negative patients suffering a similar severity of CAP.

　　All the HIV-positive and negative patients were matched for age and gender.

　　Researchers report finding no differences in the length of hospitalization or in the time it took to clinically stabilize the patients.

　　There was also negligible difference in the mortality rate; total deaths among the HIV patients was 3.5 percent and 4.8 percent among the HIV-negative patients.

　　Patients with pneumocystis infection were excluded, as the study was designed to address those with bacterial infections.

　　Results of the multi-nation study that included the United States, Canada, South Africa, Chile and Spain appeared recently in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.