Infectious disease consultations at a South African academic hospital: A 6-month assessment of inpatient consultations
Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases
| Field | Value | |
| Title | Infectious disease consultations at a South African academic hospital: A 6-month assessment of inpatient consultations | |
| Creator | Richards, Lauren Spencer, David C. Nel, Jeremy S. Ive, Prudence | |
| Description | Background: Infectious diseases (IDs) dominate the disease profile in South Africa (SA) and the ID department is increasingly valuable. There has been little evaluation of the IDs consultation services in SA hospitals.Methods: A qualitative review of ID inpatient consultations was performed over 6 months at a SA tertiary hospital. Prospectively entered data from each consultation were recorded on a computerised database and retrospectively analysed.Results: 749 ID consultations were analysed, 4.8% of hospital admissions. Most consultations included initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) (27.8%), lipoarabinomannan antigen testing (24.8%) and change of ART (21.6%). Of patients reviewed, 93.3% were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive and the median CD4 count was 52 cells/mm3. The infectious diagnoses (excluding HIV) most frequently encountered were pulmonary and abdominal tuberculosis (TB) and acute gastroenteritis. When all subcategories of TB infection were combined, 42.9% were found to have TB. Patients had predominantly one (45.4%) or two (30.2%) infectious diagnoses in addition to HIV. Some (12%) had three infectious diagnoses during their admission. The number of diagnoses, both infectious (odds ratio [OR] 2.00; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–3.60) and non-infectious (OR 2.27; 95% CI 1.25–4.11), was associated with increased odds of death.Conclusion: The IDs department sees a high volume of patients compared to most developed countries. HIV, TB and their management dominate the workload. This study shows that HIV patients still have significant morbidity and mortality. The complexity of these patients indicates that specific expertise is required beyond that of the general physician. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS Publishing | |
| Date | 2020-09-09 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajid.v35i1.169 | |
| Source | Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases; Vol 35, No 1 (2020); 6 pages 2313-1810 2312-0053 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/169/358
https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/169/357
https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/169/359
https://sajid.co.za/index.php/sajid/article/view/169/356
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