BackgroundHypertension and diabetes prevalence is high in Africans. Data from HIV infected populations are limited, especially from Malawi. Integrating care for chronic non-communicable co-morbidities in well-established HIV services may provide benefit for patients by preventing multiple hospital visits but will increase the burden of care for busy HIV clinics.MethodsCross-sectional study of adults (≥18 years) at an urban and a rural HIV clinic in Zomba district, Malawi, during 2014. Hypertension and diabetes were diagnosed according to stringent criteria. Proteinuria, non-fasting lipids and cardio/cerebro-vascular disease (CVD) risk scores (Framingham and World Health Organization/International Society for Hypertension) were determined. The association of patient characteristics with diagnoses of hypertension and diabetes was studied using multivariable analyses. We explored the additional burden of care for integrated drug treatment of hypertension and diabetes in HIV clinics. We defined that burden as patients with diabetes and/or stage II and III hypertension, but not with stage I hypertension unless they had proteinuria, previous stroke or high Framingham CVD risk.ResultsNine hundred fifty-two patients were enrolled, 71.7% female, median age 43.0 years, 95.9% on antiretroviral therapy (ART), median duration 47.7 months. Rural and urban patients’ characteristics differed substantially. Hypertension prevalence was 23.7% (95%-confidence interval 21.1–26.6; rural 21.0% vs. urban 26.5%; p = 0.047), of whom 59.9% had stage I (mild) hypertension. Diabetes prevalence was 4.1% (95%-confidence interval 3.0–5.6) without significant difference between rural and urban settings. Prevalence of proteinuria, elevated total/high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ratio and high CVD risk score was low. Hypertension diagnosis was associated with increasing age, higher body mass index, presence of proteinuria, being on regimen zidovudine/lamivudine/nevirapine and inversely with World Health Organization clinical stage at ART initiation. Diabetes diagnosis was associated with higher age and being on non-standard first-line or second-line ART regimens.ConclusionAmong patients in HIV care 26.6% had hypertension and/or diabetes. Close to two-thirds of hypertension diagnoses was stage I and of those few had an indication for antihypertensive pharmacotherapy. According to our criteria, 13.0% of HIV patients in care required drug treatment for hypertension and/or diabetes.
Background: Since the declaration of the 10th Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in DRC on 1st Aug 2018, several neighboring countries have been developing and implementing preparedness efforts to prevent EVD cross-border transmission to enable timely detection, investigation, and response in the event of a confirmed EVD outbreak in the country. We describe Uganda's experience in EVD preparedness.
Integrated HIV-NCD services provision was feasible in our clinic.
BackgroundHIV treatment models in Africa are labour intensive and require a high number of skilled staff. In this context, task-shifting is considered a feasible alternative for ART service delivery. In 2006, a lay health cadre of expert patients (EPs) at a tertiary referral HIV clinic in Zomba, Malawi was capacitated. There are few evaluations of EP program efficacy in this setting. Triage is the process of prioritizing patients in terms of the severity of their condition and ensures that no harmful delays occur to treatment and care. This study evaluates the safety of task-shifting triage, in an ambulatory low resource setting, to EPs.MethodsAs a quality improvement exercise in April 2010, formal triage training was conducted by adapting the World Health Organization Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Triage Module Guidelines. A cross sectional observation study was conducted 2 years after the intervention. Triage assessments performed by EPs were repeated by a clinical officer (gold standard) to assess sensitivities, specificities, positive and negative predictive values for EP triage scores. Proportions were calculated for categories of disposition by stratifying by EP and clinician triage scores.ResultsA total of 467 patients were triaged by 7 EPs and re-triaged by clinical officers. With combined triage scores for emergency and priority patients we report a sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 74% for the EP scoring, with a low positive predictive value (41%) and a high negative predictive value (96%). We calculate a serious miss rate of EP scoring (i.e. missed priority or emergency patients) as 2.2%. Admission rates to hospital were highest among those patients triaged as emergency cases either by the EP’s (21%) or the clinicians (83%). Fewer patients triaged as priority by either EPs (5%) or clinicians (15%) were admitted to hospital, however these patients had the highest prevalence of same day lab testing and/or specialty referral.ConclusionsOur study provides reassurance that in the context of adequate training and ongoing supervision, task-shifting triage to lay health care workers does not necessarily lead to less accurate triaging. EPs have a tendency to be more conservative in over-triaging patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2291-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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