HIV This Week

Welcome to the fifty-sixth issue of HIV This Week! In this issue we cover basic science (a real puzzler: how could not having DARC, a red blood cell receptor, increase risk of HIV infection while slowing HIV disease progression?; viral tropism affects CD4 cell counts and clinical progression but not response to the first treatment [...]

Weijing He, Stuart Neil, Hemant Kulkarni, Edward Wright, Brian K. Agan, Vincent C. Marconi, Matthew J. Dolan, Robin A. Weiss, and Sunil K. Ahuja. Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines Mediates trans-Infection of HIV-1 from Red Blood Cells to Target Cells and Affects HIV-AIDS Susceptibility. Cell Host & Microbe. 2008;4:52–62.

Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) expressed [...]

Sebert Kuhlmann AK, Kraft JM, Galavotti C, Creek TL, Mooki M, Ntumy R. Radio role models for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and HIV testing among pregnant women in Botswana. Health Promot Int. 2008 Apr 11 [Epub ahead of print]
Although Botswana supports a program for the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (PMTCT), many [...]

Grijsen ML, Graham SM, Mwangome M, Githua P, Mutimba S, Wamuyu L, Okuku HS, Price MA, McClelland SR, Smith AD, Sanders EJ. Screening for genital and anorectal sexually transmitted infections in HIV prevention trials in Africa. Sex Transm Infect. 2008 Mar 28 [Epub ahead of print]
Grijsen and co-authors’ objectives were (1) to demonstrate the value [...]

The ART-LINC Collaboration of the International Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). Antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings 1996 to 2006: patient characteristics, treatment regimens and monitoring in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. Trop Med Int Health. 2008;13(7):870-9
The collaboration set out to describe temporal trends in baseline clinical characteristics, initial treatment regimens, and monitoring of patients [...]

Loutfy MR, Macdonald S, Myhr T, Husson H, Du Mont J, Balla S, Antoniou T, Rachlis A. Prospective cohort study of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis for sexual assault survivors. Antivir Ther. 2008;13(1):87-95
There is a lack of standardized programs for HIV counselling and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in the setting of sexual assault. Loutfy and associates conducted an [...]

Morin SF, Morfit S, Maiorana A, Aramrattana A, Goicochea P, Mutsambi JM, Robbins JL, Richards TA. Building community partnerships: case studies of Community Advisory Boards at research sites in Peru, Zimbabwe, and Thailand. Clin Trials. 2008;5(2):147-56.
Differences in resources, knowledge, and infrastructure between countries initiating and countries hosting HIV prevention research trials frequently yield ethical dilemmas. [...]

Currier JS, Lundgren JD, Carr A, Klein D, Sabin CA, Sax PE, Schouten JT, Smieja M; Working Group 2. Epidemiological evidence for cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected patients and relationship to highly active antiretroviral therapy. Circulation. 2008;118(2):e29-35. 
In the mid-1990s, case reports of myocardial infarction in young patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sparked interest [...]

Sarker MS, Rahman M, Yirrell D, Campbell E, Rahman AS, Islam LN, Azim T. Molecular evidence for polyphyletic origin of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtype C in Bangladesh. Virus Res. 2008;135(1):89-94
HIV-1 positive blood samples were collected between 1999 and 2005 from population groups most at risk of HIV infection in Bangladesh through the national [...]

Nilmanat K, Street AF. Karmic quest: Thai family caregivers promoting a peaceful death for people with AIDS. Contemp Nurse. 2007;27(2):94-103.
Nilmanat and colleagues report the constructions of karma by four Thai family caregivers living with a dying person with AIDS in southern Thailand. These four families form a subset of a larger ethnographic case study exploring [...]

Modi AA, Feld JJ. Viral hepatitis and HIV in Africa. AIDS Rev. 2007;9(1):25-39.
With increasing access to antiretroviral therapy across sub-Saharan Africa, progress is finally being made in combating the devastating HIV epidemic. As HIV-infected individuals live longer, the effects of co-infection with chronic hepatitis B and C will likely become an increasingly relevant issue. Indeed, [...]

Bastien S, Sango W, Mnyika KS, Masatu MC, Klepp KI. Changes in exposure to information, communication and knowledge about AIDS among school children in Northern Tanzania, 1992-2005. AIDS Care. 2008;20(3):382-7.
Bastien and colleagues investigate changes in primary school students’ reported exposure to AIDS information and communication, and knowledge levels from 1992 to 2005. A repeated cross-sectional [...]

Brahmbhatt H, Sullivan D, Kigozi G, Askin F, Wabwire-Mangenm F, Serwadda D, Sewankambo N, Wawer M, Gray R. Association of HIV and Malaria With Mother-to-Child Transmission, Birth Outcomes, and Child Mortality. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008;47(4):472-476.
Brahmbhatt and colleagues set out to assess the impact of HIV and malaria coinfection on mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) [...]

Welcome to the fifty-fifth issue of HIV This Week! In this issue, we cover risk compensation (since it’s all about psychology, we need to think about how to influence risk set points and mindsets; the resurgent HIV-1 epidemic among men who have sex with men in the Netherlands: time to take a step back to [...]

Eaton LA, Kalichman S. Risk compensation in HIV prevention: implications for vaccines, microbicides, and other biomedical HIV prevention technologies. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2007;4:165-72.
Studies investigating the effects of biologic HIV prevention technologies have been reported with promising results for slowing the spread of the disease. Although they can reduce the rate of HIV transmission at varying [...]