The records of all patients who died in the medical wards of the University Teaching Hospital in Papua New Guinea during a 6-month period between 1st January and 1st July 1984 were reviewed. Deaths were classified as early or late and subclassified as preventable, treatable, untreatable or undetermined. There were 120 deaths among 1242 adult patients admitted to the medical wards during the period under study (overall case fatality rate 10%). 35 patients died within 24 hours after admission (early death), 2 of preventable, 7 of treatable, 8 of untreatable and 18 of undetermined causes. Of patients who stayed alive in the hospital for more than one day, 5 died of preventable, 28 of treatable, 23 of untreatable and 29 of undetermined causes. Autopsy was performed on 3 patients (2.5%). Age of the deceased patients ranged from 13 to 67 years (median: 37). Male to female ratio was 1.86. The length of hospital stay ranged from 1 to 77 days (median: 4). Infectious diseases were found to be the major cause of death with pneumonia and tuberculosis leading the list. The emergency procedures, laboratory facilities and autopsy rate need to be improved to reduce the number of deaths from undetermined and preventable causes in Papua New Guinea.

PIP: By mid-1995, a total of 308 HIV cases had been reported in Papua New Guinea. The majority (74%) of these cases were diagnosed in Port Moresby. This article describes the clinical characteristics of HIV infection in 67 adults who presented to Port Moresby General Hospital in 1990-95. The median age at presentation was 27 years in men and 28 years in women, with an equal distribution of cases by sex. The major presenting symptoms were wasting and weight loss exceeding 10% of body weight (94%), chronic diarrhea (47%), prolonged fever (77%), and oropharyngeal candidiasis (66%). Pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed on the basis of chest X-ray and history in 37 patients (56%), but only 3 had sputum positive for acid-fast bacilli. Anemia was present in 75%. 65 patients (97%) fulfilled the World Health Organization criteria for AIDS. The inpatient mortality rate in this series was 43%, and 13 of these 29 patients died within a month of their first presentation.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - diagnosis ; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - epidemiology ; HIV Infections - diagnosis ; HIV Infections - epidemiology ; Humans ; Papua New Guinea - epidemiology ; Risk Factors