Journal
TROPICAL MEDICINE & INTERNATIONAL HEALTH
Volume 8, Issue 8, Pages 733-739Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3156.2003.01088.x
Keywords
visceral leishmaniasis; HIV co-infection; mortality; Africa; Ethiopia
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OBJECTIVES To identify characteristics that increased the risk of mortality in Ethiopian visceral leishmaniasis patients in a treatment programme managed by Medecins sans Frontieres, in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. METHODS Retrospective review of a cohort of 791 patients treated for visceral leishmaniasis. RESULTS The cohort displayed all the classical signs and symptoms of the disease. The case fatality rate was 18.5% (146) (95% CI: 15.8-21.3%). Logistic regression showed that individuals who experienced at least one episode of vomiting or haemorrhage were more likely to die than those who did not. A subcohort of individuals who tested human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive were more than four times more likely to die than those who tested HIV-negative (OR 4.5, 95% CI: 1.8-11.4). CONCLUSION This study identifies characteristics associated with death in this population and highlights the devastating effect of co-infection with visceral leishmaniasis and HIV in the African context.
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