To evaluate the burden that AIDS patients will impose on health care facilities, we evaluated the costs incurred for patients with stage-IV HIV infection followed up at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) from 1982 to 1987. Besides determination of these costs the study shows that management of these patients is progressively switching from inpatient to outpatient services. In 1987; 0.25% of acute-care beds were occupied by patients with advanced HIV infection, and the inpatient cost for this new disease was estimated at approximately 700,000 Swiss francs.