Founded in 1853 as the Hospital de Isolamento de Monte Serrat, Hospital Couto Maia originally served patients with yellow fever arriving on Brazilian and international merchant ships. It is an infectious disease reference hospital that serves the population of Bahia, which has suffered from various epidemics during this period including yellow fever (1849), cholera (1855), the bubonic plague (1904), Spanish Fever (1919), smallpox (1919) and typhoid fever (1924). Currently, Hospital Couto Maia is responsible for epidemiological surveillance and teaching in the areas of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, biomedicine and medical history and archives.

Site Visit: Thanks to the collaboration of the Hospital Couto Maia, its Director, Ceuci Nunes, Maria Ines Costa Dourado, Guilherme de Sousa Ribeiro, and Maria Amélia de Sousa Mascenas Veras, students in this course have the unique opportunity to meet with HIV/AIDS patients.

Objective: To discuss the determinants of the risk of HIV/AIDS infection and the difficulties of diagnosis and patients’ adherence to treatment plans.