The Presentation and Outcome of HIV-related Disease in Nairobi

The range of clinical presentations of HIV-related disease inAfrica has not been adequately described, despite the fact thatmany hospitals have to rely heavily on clinical diagnosis. Sixhundred adult medical patients seen in the Casualty Departmentof the main Government hospital in Nairobi were enrolled ina study of the presentation and outcome of HIV-related disease:506 of these patients were admitted, of whom 19 per cent (95)were HIV seropositive. The remaining 94 were dealt with as outpatients:11 percent (10) of these were seropositive. A history of priortreatment for sexually transmitted disease and, if male, beinguncircumcised, were associated with being seropositive. Threepresentations were strongly associated with HIV infection: acutefever with no focus except the gastrointestinal tract (entericfever-like illness), acute cough with fever (community-acquiredpneumonia) and chronic diarrhoea with wasting. The WHO clinicalcase definition (CCD) for AIDS missed a substantial amount ofHIV-related morbidity (sensitivity 39 per cent) and misidentifiedmany seronegative patients (positive predictive value 59 percent). In comparison with the Centers for Disease Control surveillancedefinition for AIDS, the CCD was specific (91 per cent) andsensitive (79 per cent) but only had a positive predictive valuesof 30 per cent: the CCD may therefore be a poor surveillancetool for AIDS. Seropositive patients were much more likely todie than were seronegative patients (39 per cent vs. 15 percent mortality). Enteric fever-like illness was the presentationwhich most commonly proved fatal. A wider spectrum of diseaseis associated with underlying HIV immunosuppression than haspreviously been described in Africa.