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 regimen), HIV testing (radio role models influence pregnant women in Botswana; low interest and uptake of HIV testing in rural Tanzania), sexual transmission (receptive anal intercourse higher than many assume in African HIV prevention trial settings), antiretroviral treatment (rolling out the public health approach in Africa, Asia, and South America; more frequent CD4 count monitoring before treatment starts can save many more life years), post-exposure prophylaxis (one third of rape survivors who start prophylaxis in Ontario finish the 28-day course), trial design and conduct (community advisory boards in Peru, Zimbabwe, and Thailand demonstrate their value; vaccine trial site preparation: what is the Hawthorne effect anyway?; selecting futility stopping thresholds in clinical trials), cardiovascular disease and HIV (3 mechanisms may explain the risk of cardiovascular disease in people living with HIV; Brazilian children and adolescents with HIV need cardiovascular prevention programmes), molecular epidemiology (a window on the dynamics of the Bangladesh HIV epidemic), spirituality (Karmic healing in Thailand; secular, spiritual, and religious prayer among people living with HIV in the United Kingdom), hepatitis (much more to learn about co-infections in Africa), young people (13 years pass and not much changes among school children in Northern Tanzania), and malaria (placental malaria increases mother-to-child HIV, irrespective of viral load).

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For full PDF access to this issue: HIV This Week Issue #56