OUTCOME OF HIV/AIDS ADMISSIONS IN THE MEDICAL WARDS OF A TERTIARY HEALTH FACILITY, SOUTH EAST NIGERIA: A 10 -YEAR REVIEW.

INTRODUCTION: About 9% of all persons living with HIV infection (PLWH) the world over were resident in Nigeria as of 2014 and Nigeria had the second largest HIV disease burden in the world after South Africa. Despite the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of HIV infection, PLWH was frequently admitted to the medical wards on account of opportunistic infections, advanced HIV disease, and other complications.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the HIV/AIDS treatment outcome in the medical wards of the only teaching hospital in Abia State, which in 2019, had a disease prevalence of 2% behind Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Rivers States in Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY: This was a 10-year retrospective descriptive study in which data about patients admitted for HIV/AIDS was extracted from the Admission/Discharge registers in the male and female medical wards. Data collected from each patient's record included - age, gender, definitive diagnosis, duration of hospital stay, and outcome during admission. In this study, the outcome measures were improved and discharged home, died, discharged against medical advice (DAMA) or transferred to another specialty. Relevant data thus obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 software.

RESULTS: A total of 6587 medical admissions were seen within the study period; 852 (12.9%) were admitted because of HIV/AIDS-related complications, made up of 365 (42.8%) males and 487 (57.2%) females. Young people (20-39 years) and the middle-aged population (40-59 years) were the predominant age groups admitted at 55.5% and 36.2% respectively Mortality among the HIV/AIDS admissions was 32.7% while only 45.9% improved and were discharged home. The mean duration of hospitalization was 8.48±7.08 with a range of 1-50 days and most deaths (77.1%) occurred within the first ten days of hospitalization.

CONCLUSION: HIV/AIDS contributes significantly to medical admissions in Aba, Nigeria. Mortality from HIV/AIDS is high despite scaled-up ART enrollment within the period under review. Public health measures aimed at preventing HIV infections are advised as prevention of HIV infection is much more cost-effective than attempting to treat HIV advanced disease.