Incidence, Mortality, and Burden of HIV/AIDS and Its Geographical Distribution in Iran during 2008-2016

This study aimed at estimating the incidence, mortality, burden, and geographical distribution of HIV/AIDS in Iran at national and provincial level during 2008-2016. We applied the Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) index to assess the burden of HIV/AIDS on the basis of Years of Life Lost (YLLs) and Years Lived with Disability (YLDs). We used the Iranian life table of 2016 for treated and a fixed figure of 8 years as remaining length of life in untreated patients, 0.03 as discount rate, and 0.504 as disability weigh in both treated and untreated cases. The primary data was obtained from HIV/AIDS surveillance system. The incidence of HIV/AIDS increased from 4440 cases in 2008 to 4928 cases in 2016. The mortality rate was 259 and 288 cases in 2008 and 2016, respectively, which was always higher among males than females. The burden of HIV/AIDS increased from 26231 DALYs in 2008 to 29114 DALYs in 2016. In addition, the population-adjusted burden of HIV/AIDS was not equally distributed among different provinces of Iran, and it was more concentrated in western regions of the country during the studied period. Although the trend of the national burden of HIV/AIDS did not change significantly over the past decade, it was alarming especially among males and among people living in some provinces such as Ker-manshah, Lorestan, Hormozgan, and Tehran.