By Kuda Pembere
MPILO Hospital AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Centre of Excellence medical doctor Dr Nkazimulo Tshumo’s research on causes and clinical determinants of deaths among people living with HIV at her hospital earned her a Track B award for the best abstract.
Her research, an analysis of Causes and Clinical Determinants of Mortality among People Living with HIV at Mpilo Centre of Excellence in Bulawayo, in Zimbabwe won the Track B focusing on Clinical Science, Treatment and Care.
She said the majority of deaths at her facility were people on ART with another portion being on the medication
“So, we did an analysis on mortality among people living with HIV for the period of January to December 2022.
“And we noted that from our analysis, maybe just to mention, we had 129 deaths during that year, and a majority of the death among people already on antiretroviral therapy, we had a portion which was contributed by people who not yet on antiretroviral therapy,” Dr Tshuma said.
While people with HIV are highly susceptible to TB, in terms of deaths they ranked the top followed by cryptococcal meningitis.
“So in terms of causes of death, we noted that TB and also pneumonia, which most likely would be TB, under investigation with the top cause of mortality. This was followed by a cryptococcal melangitis. If you notice that we had quite a number of mortality which was NCDs, non-communicative disease related, and they seem to be emerging and contributing significantly towards mortality,” she said.
She said in terms of mortality there were more females compared to men as they succumbed to cervical cancer.
“And among the cancers, the females were top list with cervical cancer is a cause of death. The adrenal failure we didn’t really disaggregate to see whether it was treatment related or it was related to HIV or other causes.
“So in terms of mortality related to NCDs, we actually had cancers being top on the list with 11 clients who had cancer as a cause of death. And when we then look at the cancers separately, we notice that cervical cancer was top on followed by breast cancer.
“Then the other cancers contributed a similar proportion, that is, hepatocarcinomas, gastric, oesophageal, squamous cell carcinomas, but top on the list was cervical cancer followed by breast cancer.
“Then going back to NCDS, what then follows cancers was renal failure and cerebrovascular accident strokes. So those were top on the in terms of mortality and also cardiac related conditions. And when we looked at the cardiac related conditions, it was mainly to do with complications of hypertension. So top on the list cancers, renal failure, strokes and cardiac related with temperatures, complications of hypertension,” she said.
Aside from documentation and replication of similar research at a larger scale, she recommended that said incorporating NCDs screening was important to reduce the burden of advanced HIV.
“And also if you really look at our results you see that more than 50% of people are still dying of advanced HIV disease. So this speaks to that AIDS is not over. So it was the theme of the conference.
“So it causes and terminates, okay so the title of the research was causes and terminates of mortality among people living with HIV at Mpilo Centre of Excellence in Bulawayo over the period January to December 2022,” Dr Tshuma added.
