• Peter I Waitt, Mavuto Mukaka, Patrick Goodson, Felanji D SimuKonda, Catriona J Waitt, Nick Feasey, Theresa J Allain, Paul Downie, and Robert S Heyderman.
• Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Malawi.
• J. Infect. 2015 Jan 1; 70 (1): 11-9.

ObjectiveTo assess mortality risk among adults presenting to an African teaching hospital with sepsis and severe sepsis in a setting of high HIV prevalence and widespread ART uptake.MethodsProspective cohort study of adults (age ≥16 years) admitted with clinical suspicion of severe infection between November 2008 and January 2009 to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, a 1250-bed government-funded hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. Demographic, clinical and laboratory information, including blood and cerebrospinal fluid cultures were obtained on admission.ResultsData from 213 patients (181 with sepsis and 32 with severe sepsis; M:F = 2:3) were analysed. 161 (75.6%) patients were HIV-positive. Overall mortality was 22%, rising to 50% amongst patients with severe sepsis. The mortality of all sepsis patients commenced on antiretroviral therapy (ART) within 90 days was 11/28 (39.3%) compared with 7/42 (16.7%) among all sepsis patients on ART for greater than 90 days (p = 0.050). Independent associations with death were hypoxia (OR = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.1-5.1) and systolic hypotension (OR 7.0; 95% CI: 2.4-20.4).ConclusionsSepsis and severe sepsis carry high mortality among hospitalised adults in Malawi. Measures to reduce this, including early identification and targeted intervention in high-risk patients, especially HIV-positive individuals recently commenced on ART, are urgently required.Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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