Welcome to the forty-sixth issue of HIV This Week! In this issue, we cover human resources for health (how Botswana has taken the bull by the horns and avoided doctor poaching; what work force would it take for everyone who needed treatment in Mozambique to get it?; why effective HIV prevention is so critical for [...]
Dreesch N, Nyoni J, Mokopakgosi O, Seipone K, Kalilani JA, Kaluwa O, Musowe V. Public-private options for expanding access to human resources for HIV/AIDS in Botswana. Hum Resour Health 2007;5:25.
In responding to the goal of rapidly increasing access to antiretroviral treatment (ART), the government of Botswana undertook a major review of its health systems options [...]
Curioso WH, Kurth AE. Access, use and perceptions regarding Internet, cell phones and PDAs as a means for health promotion for people living with HIV in Peru. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2007;7:24.
Internet tools, cell phones, and other information and communication technologies are being used by HIV-positive people on their own initiative. Little is known [...]
Weiser B, Philpott S, Klimkait T, Burger H, Kitchen C, Burgisser P, Gorgievsk M, Perrin L, Piffaretti JC, Ledergerber B, the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. HIV-1 coreceptor usage and CXCR4-specific viral load predict clinical disease progression during combination antiretroviral therapy. AIDS 2008; 22(4):469-479.
Although combination antiretroviral therapy dramatically reduces rates of AIDS and death, a minority [...]
Braitstein P, Boulle A, Nash D, Brinkhof MW, Dabis F, Laurent C, Schechter M, Tuboi SH, Sprinz E, Miotti P, Hosseinipour M, May M, Egger M, Bangsberg DR, Low N; the Antiretroviral Therapy in Lower Income Countries (ART-LINC) Study Group. Gender and the Use of Antiretroviral Treatment in Resource-Constrained Settings: Findings from a Multicenter Collaboration. [...]
Turner AN, Morrison CS, Padian NS, Kaufman JS, Salata RA, Chipato T, Mmiro FA, Mugerwa RD, Behets FM, Miller WC. Men’s circumcision status and women’s risk of HIV acquisition in Zimbabwe and Uganda. AIDS 2007;21:1779-89.
Turner and colleagues aimed to assess whether male circumcision of the primary sex partner was associated with women’s risk of HIV. [...]
As to the first article’s editor’s comments, female partner’s of circumcised men may be less likely to harbor the HPV which in turn would lead to lower levels of cancer of the cervix. However, this varies greatly from country to country and region to region. In Europe HPV and cervix cancer rates are lower than the United States, the latter being a largely circumcised society. The editor’s comments hit upon the more important issue, health deficits in lower and middle income countries. Circumcision thus is unlikely a sound measure in light of the risks, costs, and complication rates attendant to its implementation.
As to the second article, we’ve already seen in three separate studies that circumcision holds no value in the prevention of HIV among men who have sex with men. This study would seem to continue that unbroken tendency towards uselessness. There is no use in beating a dead horse by recruiting men in South America for further studies. The prevention community needs to accept the limitations of circumcision and move on to more useful prevention efforts.
Benki S, Mostad SB, Richardson BA, Mandaliya K, Kreiss JK, Overbaugh J. Increased Levels of HIV-1-Infected Cells in Endocervical Secretions After the Luteinizing Hormone Surge. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008 Jan 17; Epub ahead of print.
Levels of HIV-1 RNA in endocervical specimens fluctuate with the menstrual cycle, suggesting that cell-free HIV-1 levels may vary [...]
Ncama BP. Acceptance and disclosure of HIV status through an integrated community/home-based care program in South Africa. Int Nurs Rev 2007;54(4):391-7.
This was a comparative study of acceptance and disclosure of the HIV status among people living with HIV (PLHIV) served by an integrated community/home-based care programme and those who are not in any home-based care [...]
Welcome to the forty-fifth issue of HIV This Week! In this issue, we cover HIV prevention (abstinence-only programmes don’t make the grade in the US; what we know and don’t know about virus in blood and semen; how important is nonoccupational postexposure prophylaxis?), basic science and the law (HIV forensics: ruling in and ruling out [...]
Underhill K, Montgomery P, Operario D. Sexual abstinence only programmes to prevent HIV infection in high income countries: systematic review. BMJ 2007;335:248.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/335/7613/248
A systematic review was conducted to assess the effects of sexual abstinence-only programmes for HIV prevention among participants in high-income countries. Data sources were 30 electronic databases without linguistic or geographical restrictions to February [...]
Bernard EJ, Azad Y, Vandamme AM, Weait M, Geretti AM. HIV forensics: pitfalls and acceptable standards in the use of phylogenetic analysis as evidence in criminal investigations of HIV transmission. HIV Med 2007;8:382-7.
Phylogenetic analysis - the study of the genetic relatedness between HIV strains - has recently been used in criminal prosecutions as evidence of [...]
Benard A, Bonnet F, Tessier JF, Fossoux H, Dupon M, Mercie P, Ragnaud JM, Viallard JF, Dabis F, Chene G; The Groupe D’epidemiologie Clinique Du Sida En Aquitaine (GECSA). Tobacco addiction and HIV infection: toward the implementation of cessation programs. ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort. AIDS Patient Care STDS 2007;21:458-468.
In treated HIV-positive patients, mortality is now [...]
Soto RJ, Ghee AE, Nuñez CA, Mayorga R, Tapia KA, Astete SG, Hughes JP, Buffardi AL, Holte SE, Holmes KK; and the Estudio Multicéntrico Study Team. Sentinel surveillance of sexually transmitted infection/HIV and risk behaviors in vulnerable populations in 5 Central American countries. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2007 Sep 1;46(1):101-11.
In El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, [...]
Moss WJ, Fisher C, Scott S, Monze M, Ryon JJ, Quinn TC, Griffin DE, Cutts FT. W. HIV type 1 infection is a risk factor for mortality in hospitalized Zambian children with measles. 15: Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Feb 15;46(4):523-7.
Measles remains a significant cause of vaccine-preventable mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, yet few studies have investigated [...]
Dougan S, Evans BG, Macdonald N, Goldberg DJ, Gill ON, Fenton KA, Elford J. HIV in gay and bisexual men in the United Kingdom: 25 years of public health surveillance. Epidemiol Infect 2008 Feb;136(2):145-56.
It is more than 25 years since the first case of AIDS was reported in the United Kingdom. In December 1981 a [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 am