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.