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ABSTRACT
Background
Infectious diseases are prevalent in clinical autopsies. Despite its value, the use of autopsies has decreased, and infectious diseases are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed due to the lack of pathological understanding. The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and pattern of infectious disease from autopsy samples in our centre.
Method
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study which involved evaluation of all autopsies with the final cause of death as “infectious disease” for a period of 8 years. The clinicopathologic data was retrieved from the laboratory information system, captured in Excel and analyzed using STATA.
Result
The study enrolled 55 autopsies which comprised of 37 females (67.3%) and 18 males (32.7%) with mean aged 33 years, 96% were black, 3.64 % white and (18.2%) pediatric decedents (under the age of 14). HIV/AIDS (35.85%) was the most frequent comorbidity followed by hypertension (18.87%), cancer (11.32%), Diabetes Mellitus (9.43%), Chronic Bronchitis and congenital heart disease (3.77%). The most prevalent aetiology in this study was multilobar pneumonia (36.36%) followed by bronchopneumonia (21.82%), tuberculosis (12.73%), Cryptococcus infection (9.09%), Disseminated cytomegalovirus (5.36%), bacterial meningitis, disseminated candidiasis and mucormycosis (3.64%). Malaria, ineffective endocarditis and Covid-19 Infections were (1.82%).
Conclusion
The most prevalent infectious disease at autopsy is HIV/AIDS followed by pneumonia and tuberculosis. The use of autopsy has played a valuable role for establishing aetiology, the diagnosis and understanding of diseases. Autopsies have also informed public health strategies in the fight against these communicable diseases.