SEVERITY OF OUTCOMES ASSOCIATED TO ILLNESSES FUNDED BY GFATM INITIATIVE AND SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HIV/AIDS, TB AND MALARIA MORTALITY IN KINSHASA HOSPITALS, DRC

Abstract

BACKGROUND: For the past decades, developing countries have received considerable support to fightinfectious illnesses in their homelands. This global effort has tremendously reduced case fatality ratesassociated with illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in many countries. However, thisinformation is still missing in some developing countries, hindering international effort for controlprograms; we designed this study in effort to close this gap.METHODS: Data on 23,487 inpatients from Kinshasa hospitals were gathered and analyzed usingEpiData and SPSS. Major illnesses affecting inpatients were identified; mortality and case fatality ratesassociated with each such illness were estimated. Case fatality rates associated with each illness werecompared between consecutive years. Socio demographic and economic factors associated with mortalitydue to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria were investigated using logistic regression.RESULTS: The outstanding findings were that case fatality rates associated with major illnesses wererelatively higher in 2008 than in the previous year; inpatients hospitalized for HIV/AIDS, TB andmalaria in 2008 were more likely to die than those hospitalized in the previous year. Low socioeconomicstatus inpatients hospitalized for malaria, HIV/AIDS or TB were more likely to die than highsocioeconomic status inpatients (AOR 0.29, 95% CI 0.22–0.40; AOR 0.20, 95%CI0.12–0.33; AOR 0.33,95%CI 0.21–0.53), even though both groups presumably had access to free life-saving treatment andcare.CONCLUSION: These results indicate that while improvement in health indicators greatly depends onfunds availability and sustainability, these alone might not be enough in resource poor developingcountries. Other factors, i.e., population SES also need to be addressed before needed changes mayoccur.