BackgroundSepsis likely contributes to the high burden of infectious disease morbidity and mortality in low income countries. Data regarding sepsis management in sub-Saharan Africa are limited. We conducted a prospective observational study reporting the management and outcomes of severely septic patients in two Ugandan hospitals. We describe their epidemiology, management, and clinical correlates for mortality.Methodology/ResultsThree-hundred eighty-two patients fulfilled enrollment criteria for a severe sepsis syndrome. Vital signs, management and laboratory results were recorded. Outcomes measured included in-hospital and post-discharge mortality.Most patients were HIV-infected (320/377, 84.9%) with a median CD4+ T cell (CD4) count of 52 cells/mm3 (IQR, 16–131 cells/mm3). Overall mortality was 43.0%, with 23.7% in-hospital mortality (90/380) and 22.3% post-discharge mortality (55/247). Significant predictors of in-hospital mortality included admission Glasgow Coma Scale and Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS), tachypnea, leukocytosis and thrombocytopenia. Discharge KPS and early fluid resuscitation were significant predictors of post-discharge mortality. Among HIV-infected patients, CD4 count was a significant predictor of post-discharge mortality.Median volume of fluid resuscitation within the first 6 hours of presentation was 500 mLs (IQR 250–1000 mls). Fifty-two different empiric antibacterial regimens were used during the study. Bacteremic patients were more likely to die in hospital than non-bacteremic patients (OR 1.83, 95% CI = 1.01–3.33). Patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteremia (25/249) had higher in-hospital mortality (OR 1.97, 95% CI = 1.19–327) and lower median CD4 counts (p = 0.001) than patients without MTB bacteremia.ConclusionPatients presenting with sepsis syndromes to two Ugandan hospitals had late stage HIV infection and high mortality. Bacteremia, especially from MTB, was associated with increased in-hospital mortality. Most clinical predictors of in-hospital mortality were easily measurable and can be used for triaging patients in resource-constrained settings. Procurement of low cost and high impact treatments like intravenous fluids and empiric antibiotics may help decrease sepsis-associated mortality in resource-constrained settings.

In sub-Saharan Africa, sepsis is an important cause of mortality but optimal sepsis management including fluid resuscitation, early antibiotic administration and patient monitoring is limited by a lack of supplies and skilled health workers. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether early, monitored sepsis management provided by a study medical officer can improve survival among patients with severe sepsis admitted to two public hospitals in Uganda. DESIGN, SETTING and PATIENTS A prospective before and after study of an intervention cohort (n=426) with severe sepsis receiving early, monitored sepsis management compared to an observation cohort (n=245) of similarly ill patients with severe sepsis receiving standard management after admission to the medical wards of two Ugandan hospitals. INTERVENTION Early sepsis management provided by a dedicated study medical officer comprised of fluid resuscitation, early antibiotics and regular monitoring in the first 6 hours of hospitalization. MEASUREMENTS Kaplan-Meier survival and unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards analysis were used to compare the effect of early, monitored sepsis management on 30-day mortality between the intervention cohort (enrolled May 2008 to May 2009) and observation cohort (enrolled July 2006 to November 2006). RESULTS The majority (86%) of patients in both cohorts were HIV-infected. Median fluid volume provided in the first 6 hours of hospitalization was higher in intervention than observation cohort patients (3000 vs. 500 mL, p<0.001) and a greater proportion of intervention cohort patients received antibacterial therapy in less than one hour (67% vs 30.4%, p<0.001). Mortality at 30 days was significantly lower in the intervention cohort compared to the observation cohort (33.0% vs 45.7%, log-rank p=0.005). After adjustment for potential confounders, the hazard of 30-day mortality was 26% less in the intervention cohort compared to the observation cohort (adjusted HR=0.74, 95% CI=0.55–0.98). Mortality among the 13% of intervention patients who developed signs of respiratory distress was associated with baseline illness severity rather than fluid volume administered. CONCLUSION Early, monitored management of severely septic patients in Uganda improves survival and is feasible and safe even in a busy public referral hospital.

BackgroundCritical illness is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Identifying patients with the highest risk of death could help with resource allocation and clinical decision making. Accordingly, we derived and validated a universal vital assessment (UVA) score for use in SSA.MethodsWe pooled data from hospital-based cohort studies conducted in six countries in SSA spanning the years 2009–2015. We derived and internally validated a UVA score using decision trees and linear regression and compared its performance with the modified early warning score (MEWS) and the quick sepsis-related organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score.ResultsOf 5573 patients included in the analysis, 2829 (50.8%) were female, the median (IQR) age was 36 (27–49) years, 2122 (38.1%) were HIV-infected and 996 (17.3%) died in-hospital. The UVA score included points for temperature, heart and respiratory rates, systolic blood pressure, oxygen saturation, Glasgow Coma Scale score and HIV serostatus, and had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.77 (95% CI 0.75 to 0.79), which outperformed MEWS (AUC 0.70 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.71)) and qSOFA (AUC 0.69 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.72)).ConclusionWe identified predictors of in-hospital mortality irrespective of the underlying condition(s) in a large population of hospitalised patients in SSA and derived and internally validated a UVA score to assist clinicians in risk-stratifying patients for in-hospital mortality. The UVA score could help improve patient triage in resource-limited environments and serve as a standard for mortality risk in future studies.

BackgroundWhen manifested as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteremia, disseminated MTB infection clinically mimics other serious blood stream infections often hindering early diagnosis and initiation of potentially life-saving anti-tuberculosis therapy. In a cohort of hospitalized HIV-infected Ugandan patients with severe sepsis, we report the frequency, management and outcomes of patients with MTB bacteremia and propose a risk score based on clinical predictors of MTB bacteremia.MethodsWe prospectively enrolled adult patients with severe sepsis at two Ugandan hospitals and obtained blood cultures for MTB identification. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to determine predictors of MTB bacteremia and to inform the stratification of patients into MTB bacteremia risk categories based on relevant patient characteristics.ResultsAmong 368 HIV-infected patients with a syndrome of severe sepsis, eighty-six (23%) had MTB bacteremia. Patients with MTB bacteremia had a significantly lower median CD4 count (17 vs 64 lymphocytes/mm3, p<0.001) and a higher 30-day mortality (53% vs 32%, p = 0.001) than patients without MTB bacteremia. A minority of patients with MTB bacteremia underwent standard MTB diagnostic testing (24%) or received empiric anti-tuberculosis therapy (15%). Independent factors associated with MTB bacteremia included male sex, increased heart rate, low CD4 count, absence of highly active anti-retroviral therapy, chief complaint of fever, low serum sodium and low hemoglobin. A risk score derived from a model containing these independent predictors had good predictive accuracy [area under the curve = 0.85, 95% CI 0.80–0.89].ConclusionsNearly 1 in 4 adult HIV-infected patients hospitalized with severe sepsis in 2 Ugandan hospitals had MTB bacteremia. Among patients in whom MTB was suspected, standard tests for diagnosing pulmonary MTB were inaccurate for correctly classifying patients with or without bloodstream MTB infection. A MTB bacteremia risk score can improve early diagnosis of MTB bacteremia particularly in settings with increased HIV and MTB co-infection.

Acute febrile illness (AFI) is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, yet an etiologic agent is often not identified. Convalescent-phase serology is impractical, blood culture is slow, and many pathogens are fastidious or impossible to cultivate. We developed a real-time PCR-based TaqMan array card (TAC) that can test six to eight samples within 2. Fever is a symptom common to a wide variety of infectious diseases, including some of the leading causes of death in subSaharan Africa (SSA). Many etiologic studies have been performed for respiratory infections, diarrheal illness, and meningitis (1, 2). However, the incidence and etiology of undifferentiated fever are less clear (3). Most research has examined individual agents such as Plasmodium, Salmonella, and specific zoonotic or arboviral pathogens (4-6) by utilizing blood culture (7) or a complex mixture of rapid, serologic, culture, and molecular assays and algorithms to determine an etiologic agent (8).We describe our initial development and validation of a TaqMan array card (TAC) that uses quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) for the simultaneous detection of 15 viruses, 8 bacteria, and 3 protozoa of particular relevance to SSA (5, 9-13), with the intended use for outbreak investigation and acute febrile illness (AFI) surveillance. Previous TAC assays have been developed for respiratory diseases, enteric diseases, and etiologies of neonatal sepsis (14-16), and we have shown their robust and comparable performance across several countries (17). Once developed, TaqMan array cards are stable at 4°C for 2 years, can be shipped at ambient temperature, and minimize several cumbersome steps in the field, such that they are as easy to perform as individual quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays.This work was primarily a development exercise since clinical

Several factors contribute to the high mortality attributed to severe infections in resource-limited settings. While improvements in survival and processes of care have been made in high-income settings among patients with severe conditions, such as sepsis, guidelines necessary for achieving these improvements may lack applicability or have not been tested in resource-limited settings. The World Health Organization’s recent publication of the Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness District Clinician Manual provides details on how to optimize management of severely ill, hospitalized patients in such settings, including specific guidance on the management of patients with septic shock and respiratory failure without shock. This manuscript provides the context, process and underpinnings of these sepsis guidelines. In light of the current deficits in care and the limitations associated with these guidelines, the authors propose implementing these standardized best practice guidelines while using them as a foundation for sepsis research undertaken in, and directly relevant to, resource-limited settings.

Using qPCR TAC on direct blood specimens, CMV and TB were the most commonly identified targets and were independently associated with increased in-hospital mortality. qPCR TAC screening of blood for multiple targets may be useful to guide triage and treatment of sepsis in sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective Dysglycemia during sepsis is associated with poor outcomes in resource-rich settings. In resource-limited settings, hypoglycemia is often diagnosed clinically without the benefit of laboratory support. We studied the utility of point-of-care glucose monitoring to predict mortality in severely septic patients in Uganda. Design Prospective observational study. Setting One national and two regional referral hospitals in Uganda. Patients We enrolled 532 patients with sepsis at three hospitals in Uganda. The analysis included 418 patients from the three sites with inhospital mortality data, a documented admission blood glucose concentration, and evidence of organ dysfunction at admission (systolic blood pressure ≤100 mm Hg, lactate > 4 mmol/L, platelet number <100,000/µL, or altered mental status). Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results We evaluated the association between admission point-of-care blood glucose concentration and inhospital mortality. We also assessed the accuracy of altered mental status as a predictor of hypoglycemia. Euglycemia occurred in 33.5% (140 of 418) of patients, whereas 16.3% (68 of 418) of patients were hypoglycemic and 50.2% (210 of 418) were hyperglycemic. Univariate Cox regression analyses comparing inhospital mortality among hypoglycemic (35.3% [24 of 68], hazard ratio 2.0, 95% confidence interval 1.2–3.6, p = .013) and hyperglycemic (29.5% [62 of 210], hazard ratio 1.5, 95% confidence interval 0.96–2.4, p = .08) patients to euglycemic (19.3% [27 of 140]) patients showed statistically significantly higher rates of inhospital mortality for patients with hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia (adjusted hazard ratio 1.9, 95% confidence interval 1.1–3.3, p = .03) remained significantly and independently associated with inhospital mortality in the multivariate model. The sensitivity and specificity of altered mental status for hypoglycemia were 25% and 86%, respectively. Conclusion Hypoglycemia is an independent risk factor for inhospital mortality in patients with severe sepsis and cannot be adequately assessed by clinical examination. Correction of hypoglycemia may improve outcomes of critically ill patients in resource-limited settings.