Current HIV Research - Volume 7, Issue 6, 2009

The use of intensive care units (ICU) resources for HIV-Infected patients has been controversial since the first reported cases, raising practical ethical and economic issues about aggressive treatment. The aim of this review of the literature is to provide current information on the epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients admitted to ICU during the era of highly active antiretroviral ther Read More

Screening everyone for HIV at least once is estimated to be cost-effective. Screening in health care settings is recommended to help achieve that goal. Health care settings often encounter the same patient repeatedly, and it is unknown if limited resources are better allocated to conduct repeat screening, or to screen patients not yet tested. We reviewed data for a targeted ED based HIV screening program for 2003-2007 Read More

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a life-threatening complication of HIV infection. The prevalence of HIV-associated PAH (HIV-PAH) seems not to be changed over time, regardless of the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HIV-PAH treatment is similar to that for all PAH conditions and includes lifestyle modifications, general treatments, and disease-specific treatments. We reviewed the cases of HI Read More

We designed a multicenter cross-sectional study to describe the epidemiological characteristics of the HIV-1- infected population aged 70 years or more in our setting. 179 individuals from eight university hospitals in Barcelona, Spain, were included, representing 1.5% of HIV-1 infected subjects followed during 2008. Most subjects were male (76%) and had acquired HIV infection through sexual intercourse (87%); 69% had been d Read More

We described differential selective pressures along codon sites of the RT and PR genes of HIV-1 from HAART-failing and naive-treated individuals, through the comparison of the ratio of non-synonymous mutations (dN) to synonymous mutations (dS) substitution per site. Resistance-associated mutations were found in 1/71 (1.4%) and 109/117 (93.1%) samples from naive-treated and HAART-failing individuals, respectively, althou Read More

Stigma within health care settings poses a considerable barrier to the provision of treatment and care for patients with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Southern China is located in a region with one of the world's fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemics. Attitudes towards PLWHA amongst health workers are currently under-researched in this region. This paper examines the inter-relationships between prejudicial attitudes among Chinese medi Read More

A proportion of HIV-patients does not normally restore their CD4 counts despite virological response to HAART. Those whose CD4 counts persistently remain closed to the critical threshold for opportunistic infections deserve special interest. To study the risk factors, the long-term CD4 counts evolution, and the risk of death of patients who persistently maintain low CD4 counts, despite virological response to HAART, with Read More

Although it is well known that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) across the placenta in different extents, few data are available concerning the impact of the transplacental passage of ARVs on newborn outcome. The aim of this study is to evaluate the transplacental diffusion of ARVs and the clinical assessment of the newborn. Mother and cord lopinavir, nelfinavir, atazanavir and nevirapine plasma levels were determined by high-per Read More

In HIV clinical research, participants are typically sampled based on demographic and/or disease characteristics. As little is known about HIV-specific disability, we did not know whether this purposive type of sampling would be helpful and what characteristics (if any) should guide our sampling strategy. We describe using exploratory focus groups to determine a sampling strategy to investigate disability from the persp Read More

In the HAART era Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) remains the second most frequent tumor in HIV-infected patients worldwide, and it has become the most common cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. In western countries the risk for KS in men having sex with men (MSM) is 5 to 10 times higher compared to other groups of individuals practicing other HIVrisk behaviors. Patients with KS in Sub-Saharan Africa have very high tumor burdens and Read More

Despite availability of successful prevention strategies, HIV continues to spread at alarming rates, especially among women in developing countries. Vaginal microbicides offer a promising approach for blocking transmission of HIV when condom use cannot be negotiated with male partners. A major problem in the development of vaginal microbicides is chemically induced vaginal irritation, which can enhance the risk of HIV tra Read More

α-defensins are reported to be a soluble component of innate immunity actively participating in host defense against HIV. In order to further investigate the role of α-defensins in innate immunity during HIV infection, we analyzed CD8+ T lymphocytes and neutrophils obtained from 34 HIV-infected and 14 uninfected subjects. CD8+ T cells and neutrophils were labelled for evaluating α-defensin expression by flow cytometric Read More

Objective: To evaluate the potential impact of the current global economic crisis (GEC) on the spread of HIV. Design: To evaluate the impact of the economic downturn we studied two distinct HIV epidemics in Southeast Asia: the generalized epidemic in Cambodia where incidence is declining and the epidemic in Papua New Guinea (PNG) which is in an expansion phase. Methods: Major HIV-related risk factors that may change d Read More