Severe community-acquired pneumonia at a tertiary academic hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa

Purpose There is a paucity of data from sub-Saharan Africa describing Severe Community Acquired Pneumonia (SCAP), a condition with significant morbidity and mortality. Materials and methods This was a retrospective, single-centre, observational study of consecutive patients with SCAP admitted to the ICU at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, in South Africa between 1 July 2007 and 31 May 2019. Pneumonia was categorised as community-acquired if there had been no hospitalization in the preceding 2 weeks. Results We identified 931 patients, (median age 37 [IQR 30-48] years), with the predominant co-morbidity being HIV co-infection (77.1 %). The median CURB-65 and APACHE II scores were 3 (IQR 2-3) and 18 (IQR 14-23) respectively, and most patients had multilobar consolidation on chest X-ray. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was the most common aetiology, followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The latter, and Pneumocystis jirovecii were more common amongst survivors and non-survivors, respectively. ICU mortality was 50.1 % and 85 % of patients required ventilation, mostly invasive mechanical ventilation. Ventilated patients and those requiring inotropic support and/or dialysis were more likely to die. Conclusion We have described a cohort of patients with SCAP, with a comprehensive overview of all putative microbiological causes, which to our knowledge, is the largest reported in the literature.