Goal: To describe the clinical and immunological characteristics in the HIV-infected patients at the antiretroviral treatment initiation. Methods: This was a descriptive and retrospective study on the cohort of the patients living with HIV followed at Parakou teaching hospital from the 1st January 2004 to the 31st December 2012. Persons under the age of 15 and the pregnant women have been excluded from the study. Results: The active file was composed of 988 patients under antiretroviral treatment. They were 339 men and 649 women. The sex ratio was 0.52. The average age of the patients was 35.49 ± 9.72 years. The immunodeficiency was profound with 57.65% of patients at the stage 3 of WHO and 42.35% at the stage 4. Opportunistic infections at the antiretroviral treatment initiation were dominated by oral candidiasis (30.16%), the diarrhea (20.45%) and zona (11.03%). Conclusion: HIV infection touched young adults who consult at an advanced stage of immunodeficiency.