1887

Abstract

Background:

Guidelines recommend HIV testing in indicator conditions in which the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV exceeds 0.1%. We assessed adherence to national recommendations on HIV testing within the acute medical unit in NHS Fife. Secondly, we performed a look-back exercise to identify missed opportunities for HIV diagnosis in individuals who presented at a late stage of infection.

Methods:

Data were collected on admissions over a 24-hour-period during four consecutive weeks in 2018. Case records were reviewed and diagnoses were screened against a list of indicators. Additionally, data were obtained from HPS on late HIV diagnoses within NHS Fife from 2013-2018. Records were interrogated for presentations to healthcare services within the 5 years prior to HIV diagnosis.

Results:

In total, 226 patients were admitted during the study period. All patients were white, with median age 68yrs. 101 indicator conditions were identified, relating to 83 patients (36.7%). Bacterial pneumonia was the most frequently identified indicator (n=40). Only 3 patients were offered HIV testing (3.6%).

From 2013-2018, 23 patients were diagnosed with HIV at late stage. The median age at diagnosis was 41yrs and the median CD4 count was 161 cells/mm3. Fifteen patients (65.2%) had presented to hospital in the 5 years preceding diagnosis with an indicator. The most frequently missed indicator was chronic diarrhoea (n=6). Three patients (13%) have died since diagnosis.

Conclusions:

* Opportunities to increase uptake of HIV testing among people who may have undiagnosed HIV are being missed

* Further educational initiatives and review of local HIV testing protocols are indicated

  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.fis2019.po0013
2020-02-28
2024-11-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.fis2019.po0013
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error