A descriptive study of community acquired pneumonia as seen at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Over an eight-month period between the months of June 1988 and January 1989, 42 adult patients; 24 males and 18 females were studied at the Kenyatta National Hospital. The study was conducted to find out the bacterial causes of community acquired pneumonia, the antibiotic sensitivity of the causative organisms and the relationship between HIV infection and respiratory infections at Kenyatta National Hospital. The results showed that a bacteriological diagnosis was made in 40.5% of the cases with Streptococcus pneumoniae accounting for 23.8% and Mycobacterium tuberculosis accounting for 9.5% of the cases. Staphylococcus aureus. Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter anitratus each accounted for 2.4% of the cases, while Branhamella catarrhalis accounted for 4.8% of the cases. 76.2% of the patients studied improved on treatment with benzyl penicillin given as initial drug therapy. 9.5% improved on a combination of benzyl penicillin and gentamycin after failing to improve on benzyl penicillin alone. 11.9% did not improve on benzyl penicillin and gentamycin, but improved on streptomycin and thiazina. 19.1 % of the patients studied were found to have HIV infection. There was no association between the HIV status of the patients and their employment status, neither was there any association between the HIV status and response to antibiotic therapy.