Distance from care predicts in-hospital mortality in HIV-infected patients with severe sepsis from rural and semi-rural Virginia, USA

There are few data regarding outcomes from severe sepsis for HIV-infected patients living in rural or semi-rural settings. We aim to describe the characteristics and predictors of mortality in HIV-infected patients admitted with severe sepsis to the University of Virginia located in semi-rural Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. We queried the University of Virginia Clinical Data Repository for cases with ICD-9 codes that included: (1) infection, (2) acute organ dysfunction, and (3) HIV infection. We reviewed each case to confirm the presence of HIV infection and severe sepsis. We recorded socio-demographic, clinical, and laboratory data. We used a generalised linear mixed-effects model to assess pre-specified predictors of mortality. We identified 74 cases of severe sepsis in HIV-infected patients admitted to University of Virginia since 2001. The median (IQR) age was 44 (36-49), 32 (43%) were women, and 56 (76%) were from ethnic minorities. The median (IQR) CD4+ T-cell count was 81 (7-281) cells/µL. In-hospital mortality was 20%. When adjusted for severity of illness and respiratory failure, patients who lived >40 miles away from care or had a CD4+ T cell count four-fold increased risk of death compared to the rest of the study population (AOR = 4.18, 95% CI: 1.09-16.07, p = 0.037; AOR = 4.33, 95% CI: 1.15-16.29, p = 0.03). In HIV-infected patients from rural and semi-rural Virginia with severe sepsis, mortality was increased in those that lived far from University of Virginia or had a low CD4+ T cell counts. Our data suggest that rural HIV-infected patients may have limited access to care, which predisposes them to critical illness and a high associated mortality.