Microbial aetiologic agents associated with pneumonia in immunocompromised hosts

Pulmonary infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the immunosuppressed patients. The aim of this study was to determine the etiologic agents and predisposing factors associated with pneumonia infections in immunocompromised patients. Cross-sectional survey of 100 immunocompromised patients due to HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections were enlisted for the study. The patients completed a structured questionnaire to abstract information on demographic features and risk factors. Sputum samples were collected from the patients with clinical suspicion of having pneumonia and the sputa examined by cultural methods. The tuberculosis patients had the highest number of isolates, 119 (70%) while those with co-infections of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis had 41(24.1%) and those with only HIV infection were 10 (5.9%). The distribution of isolates were as follows, Staphylococcus aureus 63 (37.9%), Streptococcus pyogenes 44 (25.9%), Streptococcus pneumoniae 27 (15.9%), Candida albicans 24 (14.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 7 (4.1%), Proteus mirabilis 4 (2.4%) and Escherichia coli 1 (0.5%). Those with previous history of alcoholism and tobacco smoking had relatively high isolates. This study demonstrated that secondary infections are prevalent in the immunocompromised patients due to HIV/AIDS and TB or co-infection with TB/HIV-AIDS. This may lead to drug resistance, DOTS or HAART programme, thereby leading to high mortality and morbidity.