Causes of fever in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus who were admitted to Boston City Hospital.

We prospectively studied causes of fever in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection that required admission to a municipal hospital. A total of 168 HIV-infected persons were admitted for 220 episodes of fever: 72% were male, 80% were nonwhite, 65% reported prior injection drug use, and 74% had a baseline CD4 lymphocyte count of < 200/mm3. Bacterial infections, principally pneumonia, accounted for > 60% of the episodes; Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were most commonly isolated. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and disseminated infection with Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) comprised 53% of the remaining sources of fever. In comparison with episodes of fever due to nonbacterial causes, those associated with common bacterial infections were significantly more likely to involve patients with a history of injection drug use (P = .02), higher admission leukocyte count (P < .004), shorter duration of fever (P = .003), shorter hospital stays (P = .0001), and a CD4 count of > 100/mm3 (P = .002). We conclude that bacterial infection, especially pneumonia, is a common cause of fever in HIV-infected patients admitted to our hospital. Patients with bacterial infections are more likely to report a history of injection drug use and have CD4 counts of > 100/mm3, shorter duration of fever, decreased length of hospitalization, and lower mortality than patients with fever due to PCP, disseminated MAC infection, or other causes.