RESEARCH ARTICLE


Reduction in Hospitalisation for Cytomegalovirus Disease in HIV-Infected Patients Before and After the Introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy



Holly Seale*, 1, D.E. Dwyer2, C.R. MacIntyre3
1 School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
2 Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research (ICPMR), Westmead Hospital, New South Wales, Australia
3 National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance Preventable Disease, Children’s Hospital at Westmead, The University of Sydney, Australia

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2008
Volume: 1
First Page: 57
Last Page: 61
Publisher Id: TOEPIJ-1-57
DOI: 10.2174/1874297100801010057

Article History:

Received Date: 25/07/2008
Revision Received Date: 29/07/2008
Acceptance Date: 30/09/2008
Electronic publication date: 06/11/2008
Collection year: 2008

© 2008 Seale et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Tel: +61 2 9385 3129; Fax: +61 2 9313 6185; E-mail: h.seale@unsw.edu.au


Abstract

Objective:

The objective of this study was to describe trends in hospital admissions by HIV-infected patients for cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in Australia in the eight year period from 1993 (before highly active antiretroviral therapy) to 2001 (widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy).

Study Design:

Using data from the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) complied by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), we examined the rates of hospital admissions for CMV in HIV-infected patients, by year, sex, age group, length of stay and number of diagnoses.

Results:

Between 1993 and 2001, 21,846 patients were admitted with both HIV infection and CMV disease. 30.2% (6610/21846) of the HIV infected patients admitted to hospital were principally diagnosed with CMV disease. By 2000- 2001, the rate of hospital admissions was only 45cases per 1000 HIV-infected population.

Conclusion:

Dramatic decreases in the number of hospitalizations for CMV disease in HIV-infected patients have occurred over the eight-year study period in Australia, which may be related to the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Keywords: Cytomegalovirus, HIV/AIDS, epidemiology, highly active antiretroviral therapy, hospitalization.