Rate, Indications and Outcome of Blood Transfusion in Neonates at Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Blood transfusion is a lifesaving procedure with varying indications. Neonates, especially the extremely preterm are among the most frequent recipients of blood products. The indications could be from anaemia of prematurity or pathological causes such as haemolysis from ABO or rhesus incompatibility, neonatal sepsis and acute haemorrhage, among others.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the rate, indications and outcome of blood transfusion in neonates at Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY

The study was retrospective and included 96 neonates who received blood transfusion at the SCBU of Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe from January, 2015 to December, 2019. Data was extracted from patients' medical records and analysed using IBM SPSS statistics version 24.

RESULTS

The prevalence of blood transfusion was 3.5% with top up blood transfusion being the most frequent, 63 (65.6%), form. Half of the patients, 48(50%), received fresh whole blood while 45 (46.9%) received packed red cells, other types of blood products accounted for 3.1%. The most common indication for exchange blood transfusion was severe hyperbilirubinaemia followed by severe anaemia. Similarly, severe anaemia and acute haemorrhage were the main indications for top-up transfusion. Seventy-four (77.1%) patients who received transfusion were discharged while 22 (22.9%) died. Blood transfusion was significantly related to the place of delivery and admitting unit.

CONCLUSION

The rate of blood transfusion was low, severe hyperbilirubinaemia and severe anaemia were the main indications for blood transfusion in this study. Mortality among transfused neonates was high.

Citrobacter freundii: A Cause of Cardiac Tamponade and Empyema Thoracis in a Nigerian Child

Citrobacter infection is an uncommon but serious, difficult to treat infection associated with high mortality. Accumulation of pus or fluid in a pericardial space causes restriction of cardiac filling and consequent decrease in cardiac output. We herein report Citrobacter freundii, a rare infectious cause of this uncommon disorder. Our patient is a 10yr old male referred with complaints of cough productive of mucoid sputum and associated chest pain of two weeks duration, difficulty in breathing and orthopnoea for one week. He was acutely ill looking in respiratory distress with tachypnoea and tachycardia. Blood pressure was normal with pulsus alternans, there was increased jugular venous pressure, diffused apex beat and distant heart sounds with pericardial rub. Retroviral screening and gene Xpert for Mycobacterium tuberculosis were negative. Chest radiograph showed enlarged heart of "water bottle" appearance with cardiothoracic ratio of 0.77 and right sided pleural effusion which was drained. Transthoracic Echocardiogram confirm pyopericardium with multiples echoes in cardiac temponade. Echo-guided percutaneous pericardiocentesis yielded 600mls of purulent aspirates. Citrobacter freundii Sensitive to gentamycin, co-amoxiclav but resistant to cefuroxime and cefixime was cultured from pericardial aspirates and sputum. Patient recovered fully after pericardiocentesis and intravenous antibiotics. In this case report, we describe Citrobacter freundii causing cardiac temponade and empyema in a Nigerian immunocompetent child which to our knowledge has thus far not been reported. Pyopericardium may follow rare causes as Citrobacter freundii which require high index of suspicion.

"What will my child think of me if he hears I gave him HIV?": a sequential, explanatory, mixed-methods approach on the predictors and experience of caregivers on disclosure of HIV status to infected children in Gombe, Northeast Nigeria

Background

With increasing access to effective Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), the proportion of children who survive into later childhood with HIV has increased. Consequently, caregivers are constantly being confronted with the dilemma of ‘if’, ‘when’, and ‘how’ to tell their children living with HIV their status. We aimed to determine the prevalence and predictors of disclosure and explore the barriers caregivers face in disclosing HIV status to children living with HIV in Gombe, northeast Nigeria.

Methods

We conducted a sequential, explanatory, mixed-methods study at the specialist Paediatric HIV clinic of the Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, northeast Nigeria. The quantitative component was a cross sectional, questionnaire-based study that consecutively recruited 120 eligible primary caregivers of children (6–17 years) living with HIV. The qualitative component adopted an in-depth one-on-one interview approach with 17 primary caregivers. Primary caregivers were purposively selected to include views of those who had made disclosure and those who have not done so to gain an enhanced understanding of the quantitative findings. We examined the predictors of HIV status disclosure to infected children using binary logistic regression. The qualitative data was analysed using a combined deductive and inductive thematic analysis approach.

Results

The mean age of the index child living with HIV was 12.2 ± 3.2 years. The prevalence of disclosure to children living with HIV was 35.8%. Children living with HIV were 10 times more likely to have been told their status if their caregivers believed that disclosure had benefits [AOR = 9.9 (95% CI = 3.2–15.1)], while HIV-negative compared to HIV-positive caregivers were twice more likely to make disclosures [AOR = 1.8 (95%CI = 0.7–4.9)]. Girls were 1.45 times more likely than boys to have been disclosed their HIV positive status even after adjusting for other variables [AOR = 1.45 (95% CI = 0.6–3.5)].

Caregivers expressed deep-seated feeling of guilt and self-blame, HIV-related stigma, cultural sensitivity around HIV, and fears that the child might not cope as barriers to non-disclosure. These feeling were more prominent among HIV-positive caregivers.

Conclusion

The process of disclosure is a complex one and caregivers of HIV positive children should be supported emotionally and psychologically to facilitate disclosure of HIV status to their children. This study further emphasises the need to address HIV-related stigma in resource constrained settings.