Prevention, Management and Risk Factors for Diarrhoeal Disease in under-Fives in Cape Town.

Background: In South Africa, Cape Town's health facilities are stretched by the volume of cases of diarrhoea during the summer months, particularly with severely dehydrated children, who often require complex inpatient management. The prevalence of severe disease in children living in the settlements around Cape Town is particularly high.

Methods: An observational study of a systematic sample of children under 5 who presented to any primary care facility in Khayelitsha, an informal settlement of Cape Town, with diarrhoea and referred to secondary care between 1 November 2015 and 30 April 2016. We recruited participants from the sub-district office and identified risk factors associated with the index presentation, captured the triage and management of patients in primary care and investigated post-discharge follow-up.

Results: We recruited 87 children into the study, out of a total of 115 cases of severe dehydration. There was a significantly higher number of households in this group with no income than in Khayelitsha overall (65% vs. 47.4%; p < 0.001). In the sample, HIV-exposed, uninfected children were younger than unexposed children (median 9.44 months in exposed vs. 17.36 months in unexposed; p = 0.0015) and were more likely to be malnourished (weight-for-age Z-score; WAZ score < -2) [13 cases exposed vs. 8 cases unexposed (p = 0.04)]. Outreach staff were able to trace only 33.3% of children at home following discharge, yet 65% of children attended follow-up appointments in clinics.

Conclusions: This cohort of children with diarrhoeal disease complicated by severe dehydration was a particularly socially deprived group. The results demonstrating zero vertical transmission of HIV in this very socioeconomically deprived area of Cape Town are encouraging. In the HIV-exposed, uninfected group, children were younger and had a higher prevalence of malnutrition, which should be the subject of future research, especially given existing evidence for immunological differences in children exposed to HIV in utero. Locating children with severe diarrhoea post-discharge was challenging and further research is needed on the cost-effectiveness and outcomes of different follow-up approaches.