INFORMATICA International Journal Main Page Editorial Board Abstracting/Indexing Instructions to Authors Subscription Information Contents Author Index Papers in Production		INFORMATICA, 2011, Vol. 22, No. 1, 27-42 © Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, ISSN 0868-4952 HIV Evolution: A Quantification of the Effects Due to Age and to Medical Progress Guglielmo D'AMICO, Giuseppe DI BIASE, Jacques JANSSEN, Raimondo MANCA Department of Drug Sciences via dei Vestini, 31, 66013 Chieti, Italy Cesiaf, Euria, Univ. de Bretagne Occ. 6 av. L. Gorgeu, 29238 Brest, France Department of Mathematics for the Economics, Financial and Insurance Decisions via del Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161 Rome, Italy E-mail: dibiase@unich.it Abstract This paper offers an analysis of HIV/AIDS dynamics, defined by CD4 levels and Viral load, carried out from a macroscopic point of view by means of a general stochastic model. The model focuses on the patient's age as a relevant factor to forecast the transitions among the different levels of seriousness of the disease and simultaneously on the chronological time. The third model considers the two previous features simultaneously. In this way it is possible to quantify the medical scientific progresses due to the advances in the treatment of the HIV. The analyses have been performed through non-homogeneous semi-Markov processes. These models have been implemented by using real data provided by ISS (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy). They refer to 2159 subjects enrolled in Italian public structures from September 1983 to January 2006. The relevant results include also the survival analysis of the infected patients. The computed conditional probabilities show the different responses of the subjects depending on their ages and the elapsing of time. Keywords: non-homogeneous semi-Markov processes, survival analysis, age dependent model, chronological time dependent model, HIV/AIDS To preview Lithuanian abstract see full article text To preview full article text in PDF format click here You could obtain free Acrobat Reader from Adobe
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