HIV

BACKGROUND: Approximately 15-20 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis delta virus (HDV), which is approximately 5 % of people with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV). Sub-Saharan Africa has high HDV prevalence, leading to worse clinical outcomes among people who are HIV/HBV/HDV tri-infected. There are limited data on HDV prevalence among people with HIV (PWH) who are HBV-infected and uninfected in Botswana. We, therefore, determined HDV prevalence among PWH in Botswana. METHODS: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study utilizing archived plasma samples from PWH with results for HBV markers such as hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc), immunoglobulin M antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (IgM anti-HBc) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)...

BACKGROUND: Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can occur intrauterine, intrapartum, and postpartum. Currently, infants with confirmed positive results in virological tests before 48 h of age are defined as having intrauterine infection. AIM: We herein review the literature that identifies emerging challenges in diagnosing intrauterine HIV infection to rethink the current diagnostic criteria. FINDINGS: A number of reports have shown that some infants who were diagnosed with intrauterine HIV infection after birth became negative for HIV in the subsequent follow-ups, including negative HIV antibodies at the age of 12-18 months...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. Tuberculosis remains a significant health concern for HIV-positive children in Ethiopia. There is a paucity of data on the incidence and predictors of tuberculosis among children living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in the Wolaita zone. Hence, this study aimed to assess the incidence and predictors of tuberculosis among children living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in the Wolaita zone between January 2010 to December 2020...

BACKGROUND: Underweight affects the overall clinical outcome and quality of life and increases the risk of mortalities in Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) patients. Though studies have examined the various determinants of being underweight in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), scanty evidence exists about the influence of dietary diversity scores and dietary counseling on underweight HIV patients in Ethiopia. This study aimed to identify the determinants of being underweight among adult patients receiving antiretroviral therapy at Bishoftu General Hospital, central Ethiopia...

Productively infected cells are generally thought to arise by HIV infection of activated CD4+ T cells, and these infected activated cells are also thought to be a recurring source of latently infected cells when a portion of the population transitions to a resting state. We discovered and report here that productively and latently infected cells can instead originate by direct infection of resting CD4+ T cell populations in lymphoid tissues in Fiebig I, the earliest stage of detectable HIV infection. We found that direct infection of resting CD4+ T cells was correlated with the availability of susceptible target cells in lymphoid tissues restricted to resting CD4+ T cells and expression of pTEFb in these resting cells to enable productive infection, and we documented persistence of HIV producing resting T cells during ART...

BACKGROUND: Transmasculine people are at risk for HIV; yet few HIV prevention interventions have been developed for this population. We adapted an existing HIV prevention smartphone app for cisgender men who have sex with men to meet the sexual health needs of transmasculine people. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the acceptability of the adapted app, Transpire, among transmasculine people living in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington, DC, via in-depth interviews of participants in a pilot feasibility trial...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Despite the availability of safe and effective oral combination antiretroviral therapy, barriers to maintaining viral suppression remain a challenge to ending the HIV epidemic. Long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy was developed as an alternative to daily oral therapy. This review summarizes the current literature on the efficacy of long-acting cabotegravir plus rilpivirine for the treatment of HIV-1, reasons to switch to injectable therapy, and barriers to switching...

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials of dapivirine vaginal ring have shown it is safe, effective, and desired by women as an HIV prevention option. The risk of drug resistance is a potential concern for dapivirine ring users who acquire HIV. We conducted a comprehensive resistance evaluation of plasma samples from the women who seroconverted during the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN)-025/HOPE open-label study of dapivirine ring. METHODS: Plasma collected on the visit at which seroconversion was detected was tested by next-generation sequencing with unique molecular identifiers (NGS-UMI) for non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) drug resistance mutations (DRM) present at ≥1% frequency...

BACKGROUND: The Covid-19 pandemic has created substantial and profound barriers to several forms of healthcare engagement. For Black sexual minority men, this may include engagement with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection, with significant implications for HIV disparities. Our study explored how the Covid-19 pandemic affected Black sexual minority men, with a focus on relationships between Covid-19 and PrEP engagement. SETTING: We sampled 24 Black sexual minority men attending HIV prevention-related events in the greater D...

BACKGROUND: Lifelong ART use is recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV (WLWH) to prevent perinatal HIV transmission and improve maternal health. We address two objectives in this analysis: (1) determine timing and factors associated with breastfeeding cessation, and (2) assess the impact of breastfeeding on health of women living with HIV on ART. SETTING: Multi-country study of eight sites in Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. METHODS: Prospective study of WLWH on lifelong ART...

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) severely disrupted routine healthcare globally. This study assessed the impact of successive COVID-19 waves on HIV viral load (VL) suppression in South Africa, using the national public sector laboratory database. Guidelines recommend VL monitoring at 6 months after treatment initiation, and annually once suppressed, or more frequently if unsuppressed. METHODS: Specimen-level VL data was extracted for the period January 2019 to December 2021...

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BACKGROUND: Oral and anal sex with opposite-sex partners are common and associated with STI transmission. Trends in these behaviors over the last decade, during which bacterial STI diagnoses have reached historic highs while HIV diagnoses have decreased, are not well understood. We examined recent trends in oral and anal sex and associated condom use with opposite-sex partners among females and males. METHODS: We analyzed data from 16,926 female and 13,533 male respondents ages 15-44 who reported sex with an opposite-sex partner in the past 12 months from the National Survey of Family Growth, 2011-2019...

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections. The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant N. gonorrhoeae is an urgent public health threat. Currently, the diagnosis of N. gonorrhoeae infection requires expensive laboratory infrastructure, while antimicrobial susceptibility determination requires bacterial culture, both of which are infeasible in low-resource areas where the prevalence of infection is highest. Recent advances in molecular diagnostics, such as <u>s</u>pecific <u>h</u>igh-sensitivity <u>e</u>nzymatic <u>r</u>eporter un<u>lock</u>ing (SHERLOCK) using CRISPR-Cas13a and isothermal amplification, have the potential to provide low-cost detection of pathogen and antimicrobial resistance...

OBJECTIVE: Latinx people comprise 30% of all new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the United States and face many challenges to accessing and engaging with HIV care. To bridge these gaps in care, a Spanish-language mobile health (mHealth) intervention known as ConexionesPositivas (CP) was adapted from an established English-language platform called PositiveLinks (PL) to help improve engagement in care and reduce viral nonsuppression among its users. We aimed to determine how CP can address the challenges that Latinx people with HIV (PWH) in the United States face...

INTRODUCTION: In East and Southern Africa, people with HIV (PWH) experience worse cancer-related outcomes and are at higher risk of developing certain cancers. Siloed care delivery pathways pose a substantial barrier to co-management of HIV and cancer care delivery. METHODS: We conducted cross-sectional studies of adult cancer patients at public radiotherapy and oncology units in Malawi (Kamuzu Central Hospital), Zimbabwe (Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals), and South Africa (Charlotte Maxeke Hospital) between 2018-2019...

HIV-1 infection involves a selection bottleneck that leads to transmission of one or a few HIV variants, which nearly always use CCR5 as the coreceptor (R5 viruses) for viral entry as opposed to CXCR4 (X4 viruses). The host properties that drive this selection are not well understood and may hold keys to factors that govern HIV susceptibility. In this report, we identified SLC35A2, a transporter of UDP-galactose, as a candidate X4-specific restriction factor in CRISPR-knockout screens in primary target CD4 + T cells...

INTRODUCTION: Globally, 1.7 million children are living with HIV, with the majority of them residing in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to reduced rates of vertical transmission of HIV, there is an increasing population of children born to HIV-infected mothers who remain uninfected. There is a growing concern around the development of these children in the antiretroviral therapy era. This study examined the neurocognitive outcomes of children who are HIV-exposed infected (CHEI), HIV-exposed uninfected (CHEU) and HIV-unexposed uninfected (CHUU) and explored the relationship between child neurocognitive outcomes and child's biomedical and caregivers' psychosocial factors...

BACKGROUND: Adults with HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis have overlapping burdens of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and tuberculosis (TB) coinfections. CMV infection/reactivation is strongly associated with CMV-specific memory T-cell activation and upregulation of type 1 interferons, which may lead to increased risk of TB disease and poor outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of 2-week survivors of cryptococcal meningitis during 2010-2021 to determine TB incidence and all-cause mortality over time stratified by baseline CMV status...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a complex disease associated with other medical conditions, that may affect disease severity. This study aimed to investigate the impact of comorbidities on treatment outcomes and mortality rates in patients with TB in Poland. METHODS: We analyzed a national cohort of 19,217 adult TB patients diagnosed between 2011 and 2016 in Poland. We compared treatment success rates and mortality rates in patients with comorbidities and those without to assess the impact of various comorbidities on these outcomes...