• June Fabian, Heather Anne Maher, Chevon Clark, Saraladevi Naicker, Piet Becker, and Willem Daniel Francois Venter.
• Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, Parktown, Johannesburg, South Africa; Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. june.fabian@mweb.co.za.
• S. Afr. Med. J. 2015 Jan 7; 105 (2): 110-4.

IntroductionThere are few published data from South Africa (SA) on the outcomes of black HIV-positive patients receiving chronic haemodialysis.MethodsThis 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.ResultsThe 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.ConclusionThis 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.

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