The study comprised 249 HIV-infected patients with advanced infection: 190 men and 59 women aged 22 to 59 years (155 former intravenous drug users, 59 homosexual/bisexual men, 32heterosexuals and 3 hemophiliacs or blood recipients). A total of 128 patients were treated with primary fluconazole prophylaxis (group 1) and 121 subjects without antifungal prophylaxis (group 2). Out of 416 identified patients, subjects receiving other antifungal agents or fluconazole at different doses, noncompliant patients, patients followed up for less than 6 consecutive months and patients not seen after their first CD4+ count below 200/microL were excluded from group 1. Patients who received short courses of topical antifungal treatment were included in group 2. No power calculations to determine the sample size were reported.