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Vol. 19. Issue 1.
Pages 105-107 (January - February 2015)
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Vol. 19. Issue 1.
Pages 105-107 (January - February 2015)
Letter to the Editor
Open Access
Impact of human immunodeficiency virus infection on the clinical presentation and outcome of community-acquired pneumonia in hospitalized Nigerian adults: a multicenter case–control study
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Michael Onyebuchi Iroezindu
Corresponding author
mikezindu@yahoo.com

Corresponding author.
Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
Godwin Chukwuemeka Mbata
Department of Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Cajetan Chigozie Onyedum
Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
Emmanuel Iheke Chima
Department of Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria
Godsent Chichebem Isiguzo
Department of Medicine, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
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Table 1. Characteristics of HIV-infected and HIV negative patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
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Dear Editor,

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality both in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected inividuals,1 and in the general population.2 So far, the effect of HIV infection on the outcome of CAP is controversial. While there is evidence that HIV-infected persons with CAP have increased mortality compared with HIV negative individuals,1 similar outcomes in both groups have also been reported.3 However, the role of co-morbidities was not completely established in a good number of the observations.1,3 In addition, some of the studies included a substantial proportion of HIV-infected patients receiving ART,1 which further complicates the scenario. There is limited information about the effect of HIV infection on the evolution of CAP in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated the impact of HIV on CAP by comparing the clinical presentation and in-hospital outcomes of CAP between ART-naive HIV-infected and HIV negative Nigerian patients who had no co-morbidities.

We conducted a five-year multicenter retrospective case–control study of patients hospitalized with CAP between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2012 in four major referral hospitals in South East Nigeria. Standard CAP definition was used.4 Patients with co-morbidities or opportunistic respiratory infections were excluded. After applying the exclusion criteria, we enrolled a consecutive sample of 44 HIV-infected patients with CAP (cases) and 234 HIV negative patients with CAP (control). Demographic, clinical, laboratory and treatment data were obtained from the patients’ folders. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality while the secondary outcome was length-of-hospital stay (LOS). Patients whose sputum culture yielded organisms other than Streptococcus pneumoniae were categorized as having CAP of non-pneumococcal etiology. Pneumonia severity was assessed using the CURB-65 scoring system.5

Data analyses were performed using the Epi Info version 3.5.3. Comparisons between cases and controls were carried out using the chi-square or Fisher's exact test for qualitative variables, and Student's t-test or non-parametric equivalents for quantitative variables as appropriate. p-Value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The results are shown in Table 1. HIV-infected patients were significantly younger than the controls (37 vs. 49 years, p=0.0002), otherwise both groups had similar socio-demographic characteristics and received comparable treatments. While the control group had a higher proportion of patients with sputum production (73 vs. 54%, p=0.01) and chest pain (28 vs. 14%, p=0.04); fever (89 vs. 73%, p=0.02) and breathlessness (75 vs. 58%, p=0.04) were more frequent in the cases. HIV-infected patients were more likely to have severe pneumonia as assessed by the CURB-65 score (38.7 vs. 6.0%, p<0.0001), and were also more likely to have anemia (p<0.0001) and hyperglycemia (p=0.002). HIV-infected patients had higher in-hospital mortality (54.5 vs. 8.5%, p<0.0001) and longer LOS among survivors (13 vs.10 days, p=0.03).

Table 1.

Characteristics of HIV-infected and HIV negative patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

  HIV+ve with CAP (N=44)  HIV−ve with CAP (N=234)  p-Value 
Characteristics
Female gender  24 (54.5)  121 (51.7)  0.73 
Age (yrs), mean±SD  36.8±11.9  48.6±18.8  0.0002 
Age>65 years  3 (6.8)  58 (24.8)  0.008 
Social class      0.60 
1–2 (upper)  14 (31.8)  84 (35.9)   
3–5 (lower)  30 (68.2)  150 (64.1)   
Urban residence  22 (50.0)  141 (60.3)  0.21 
Ever smoked  8 (18.2)  21 (9.0)  0.07 
Alcohol use  13 (29.5)  49 (20.9)  0.21 
Time to first in-hospital assessment (hrs), median (IQR)  1.0 (0.5–2.5)  1.3 (1.0–3.0)  0.09 
Time to first in-hospital antibiotics (hrs), median (IQR)  6.0 (2.5–10.0)  4.0 (3.0–7.0)  0.11 
Antibiotics basis      0.63 
Entirely empirical  26 (59.1)  129 (55.1)   
Changed to sensitivity pattern  18 (40.9)  105 (44.9)   
Class of antibiotics received      0.96 
Penicillin  18 (40.9)  101 (43.2)   
Cephalosporin  10 (22.7)  55 (23.4)   
Fluoroquinolone  12 (27.3)  62 (26.5)   
Macrolide  2 (4.5)  16 (6.8)   
Received oxygen  14 (31.8)  104 (44.4)  0.12 
ICU admission  0 (0.0)  2 (0.9)  0.54 
Symptom duration (days), median (IQR)  8 (3.5–14)  5 (3–7)  0.0003 
Clinical features       
Cough  37 (84.1)  200 (85.5)  0.81 
Sputum production  24 (54.5)  171 (73.1)  0.01 
Breathlessness  33 (75.0)  137 (58.5)  0.04 
Chest pain  6 (13.6)  66 (28.2)  0.04 
Fever  39 (88.6)  170 (72.6)  0.02 
RR (breaths/min)  36.7±9.5  32.9±9.9  0.003 
SBP (mmHg)  108.6±21.2  116.1±18.8  0.003 
DBP (mmHg)  68.9±15.0  73.4±12.6  0.04 
CURB-65 score      <0.0001 
0–2  32 (61.3)  220 (94.0)   
≥3  12 (38.7)  14 (6.0)   
Laboratory parameters
Chest X-ray finding      0.37 
Unilobar consolidation  37 (84.1)  208 (88.9)   
Multilobar consolidation  7 (15.9)  26 (11.1)   
Sputum isolatea, n (%)      0.09 
Pneumococcal  7 (31.8)  71 (52.2)   
Non-pneumococcal  9 (40.9)  36 (26.5)   
No pathogen  6 (27.3)  19 (15.1)   
Serum urea (mmol/l)  8.3±3.5  5.0±2.1  <0.0001 
Blood glucose (mmol/l)  8.6±3.1  6.9±1.9  <0.0001 
Hemoglobin (g/dl)  8.4±2.9  11.3±1.7  <0.0001 
WBC (mm3), median (IQR)  6400 (4800–11,550)  9300 (5800–13,100)  0.03 
Outcome variables
Length-of-hospital stay (days)
Survivors  12.6±6.1  10.3±4.4  0.03 
Dead  6.4±5.9  6.3±2.8  0.96 
Survivors and dead  9.9±4.7  9.2±5.5  0.32 
Mortality  24 (54.5)  20 (8.5)  <0.0001 

Except where stated, values are n (%) or mean±standard deviation; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; CAP, community-acquired pneumonia; ICU, intensive care unit; SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; SBP, systolic blood pressure; WBC, white blood cell count.

a

22 HIV-infected and 126 HIV negative patients had sputum cultures available of which only 16 and 107 patients, respectively, had organisms isolated. The non-pneumococcal organisms included the following: HIV-infected (Klebsiella pneumoniae=7, Staphylococcus aureus=2) and HIV negative (K. pneumoniae=19, S. aureus=8, Streptococcus pyogenes=9).

In conclusion, we found that HIV infection negatively impacts on CAP clinical presentation, overall mortality, and LOS among survivors. Corroborating our findings in large prospective cohort studies would have strong implications for the management of CAP in HIV-infected populations especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Funding

This study was sponsored by the Pan-African Thoracic Society Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical and Operations Research (MECOR) programme funded by Nuffield Foundation, American Thoracic Society and the Medical Research Council of UK (Grant no. MR/L009242/1)

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Hospitalization for community-acquired pneumonia in Alberta patients with human immunodeficiency virus infections: a case control study.
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Epidemiology of community-acquired pneumonia in adults: a population-based study.
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HIV infection does not influence clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with bacterial community-acquired pneumonia: results from the CAPO international cohort study.
Clin Infect Dis, 41 (2005), pp. 554-556
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The CURB-65 scoring system in severity assessment of Eastern Nigerian patients with community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective observational study.
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