Summary
Objectives
Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is an opportunistic infection that causes significant morbidity and
mortality in the immunocompromised population. This population is growing and diversifying,
yet contemporary epidemiology is lacking. We investigated the population-level incidence
of PCP over the past decade.
Methods
We conducted a descriptive study of all hospital admissions in England from April
2012 to March 2022. PCP episodes, age, median length of stay, gender and episodes
of other respiratory fungal infections were collected. Consumption of Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole
was obtained between January 2019 and May 2022.
Results
The incidence of PCP increased from 2·2–4·5/100,000 population between 2012/2013 and
2019/2020 (p < 0·0001). There was a drop in 2020/2021 to 2·7/100,000 before returning
to 3.9/100,000 in 2021/2022. PCP episodes rose as a proportion of all-cause admissions
as well as a proportion of episodes due to other fungal infections. The proportion
of PCP patients aged 75+ increased from 14% to 26%. The median length of stay was
13.5 days. Consumption of intravenous Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole increased from
0.24 × 100,000 to 0.30 × 100,000 defined daily doses.
Conclusions
The incidence of PCP is rising rapidly and represents a significant burden to the
healthcare system. Further study into who is at risk of PCP is needed to better determine
who should be given prophylaxis.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2023
Accepted:
February 8,
2023
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2023 The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
