RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: In sub-Saharan Africa, the use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDT) has raised awareness of alternative fever causes in children but few studies have included adults. To address this gap, we conducted a study of mRDT-negative fever aetiologies among children and adults in Tanzania. METHODS: A total of 1028 patients aged 3 months to 50 years with a febrile illness and negative mRDT were enrolled from a Tanzanian hospital outpatient department. All had a physical examination and cultures from blood, nasopharynx/throat and urine. Patients were followed on Days 7 and 14 and children meeting WHO criteria for pneumonia were followed on Day 2 with chest radiology. RESULTS: Respiratory symptoms were the most frequent presenting complaint, reported by 20.3% of adults and 64.0% (339/530) of children. Of 38 X-rayed children meeting WHO pneumonia criteria, 47.4% had a normal X-ray. Overall, only 1.3% of 1028 blood cultures were positive. Salmonella typhi was the most prevalent pathogen isolated (7/13, 53.8%) and S. typhi patients reported fever for a median of 7 days (range 2-14). Children with bacteraemia did not present with WHO symptoms requiring antibiotic treatment. Young children and adults had similar prevalences of positive urine cultures (24/428 and 29/498, respectively). CONCLUSION: Few outpatient fevers are caused by blood stream bacterial infection, and most adult bacteraemia would be identified by current clinical guidelines although paediatric bacteraemia may be more difficult to diagnose. While pneumonia may be overdiagnosed, urinary tract infection was relatively common. Our results emphasise the difficulty in identifying African children in need of antibiotics among the majority who do not.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: We determined outcomes in hospitalized patients in Uganda with World Health Organization's Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness (IMAI) defined septic shock (IMAI-shock) or severe respiratory distress without shock (IMAI-SRD) based on whether they received recommended fluid resuscitation according to IMAI guidelines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort of adult septic patients in Uganda that included the volume of fluids patients received during the first 6h of resuscitation. We used logistic regression to determine predictors of outcomes. RESULTS: We evaluated 122 patients with IMAI-shock and 32 patients with IMAI-SRD. For patients with IMAI-shock or IMAI-SRD, there was no difference in mortality between those that received IMAI recommended fluid volume and those that did not (30% vs 36%, p=0.788; 22% vs 57%, p=0.08). For patients with IMAI-shock, in-hospital mortality was associated with mid-upper arm circumference (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.841, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.722-0.979, p=0.026) and ambulation (aOR 0.247, 95%CI 0.084-0.727, p=0.011). We found no associations with in-hospital mortality for patients with IMAI-SRD. CONCLUSION: IMAI recommended fluid resuscitation was not associated with better outcomes for patients with IMAI-shock or IMAI-SRD. Further studies are needed to optimize resuscitation for patients with severe infection in resource-limited settings such as Uganda.