High prevalence of late-stage disease in newly diagnosed human immunodeficiency virus patients in Sierra Leone

Abstract

A high prevalence of late-stage disease (75.4%) and severe immunosuppression (23.3%) was observed in 155 newly diagnosed human immunodeficiency virus patients in Freetown, Sierra Leone during August to November 2017. Within the latestage diagnosis group, a significantly high proportion of patients reported fever (84.2% vs 65.2%; P =.01), weight loss (82.2% vs 63.5%; P =.01), and malaise (89.7% vs 71.7%; P =.05). Fever was identified as the only independent predictor of late-stage disease in this study.