Morbidity and mortality of black HIV-positive patients with end-stage kidney disease receiving chronic haemodialysis in South Africa
Abstract
Introduction. There are few published data from South Africa (SA) on the outcomes of black HIV-positive patients receiving chronic haemodialysis.
Methods. This retrospective study compared the incidences of vascular and infectious morbidity and mortality in black HIV-positive patients with those in a group of HIV-negative patients matched for ethnicity, age and gender. All the patients were receiving chronic haemodialysis in the medically insured healthcare sector of SA.
Results. The incidence of tuberculosis and hospital admission rates for vascular access-related infections were significantly higher in the HIV-positive group than the HIV-negative group. The HIV-positive group had significantly lower albumin (p<0.05) and haemoglobin levels (p<0.01), but this did not impact on mortality. Survival in both groups was excellent. In the HIV-positive group, viral suppression rates were suboptimal with <50% of patients on antiretroviral therapy completely virally suppressed.
Conclusion. This study has shown that black HIV-positive patients receiving chronic haemodialysis in a healthcare-funded environment in SA have excellent overall survival in spite of higher hospital admission rates and higher infectious morbidity compared with HIV-negative patients.
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the SAMJ is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAMJ does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.
