Category Archives: Prevention, Engagement and Care Cascade
Experience of persistent psychological symptoms and perceived stigma among people with HIV on antiretroviral therapy (ART): A systematic review
BACKGROUND: Advances in HIV care have resulted in increasing numbers of HIV patients receiving antiretroviral therapy and achieving viral control. This has led to a focus on the biomedical aspects...
Effectiveness of ART and condom use for prevention of sexual HIV transmission in serodiscordant couples: A systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Consistent and correct condom use and suppressive antiretroviral therapy for the infected partner are two of the primary strategies recommended for prevention of heterosexual HIV transmission in serodiscordant couples...
The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and clinical efficacy of elvitegravir + cobicistat + emtricitabine + tenofovir combination therapy for the treatment of HIV
INTRODUCTION: Co-formulated elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir (EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF or Stribild(TM)) is the latest antiretroviral tablet approved in the EU. This review aims to provide an overview of its role in...
Geographic and temporal trends in the molecular epidemiology and genetic mechanisms of transmitted HIV-1 drug resistance: An individual-patient- and sequence-level meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND: Regional and subtype-specific mutational patterns of HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance (TDR) are essential for informing first-line antiretroviral (ARV) therapy guidelines and designing diagnostic assays for use in regions where...
Drug-drug interactions with antiviral agents in people who inject drugs (PWID) requiring substitution therapy
OBJECTIVE: To describe potential drug-drug interactions in the area of HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection and injection drug use, including those between antiretrovirals (ARVs), direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), and opioid-agonist therapy,...
Impact of support groups for people living with HIV on clinical outcomes: A systematic review of the literature
BACKGROUND: Support groups for people living with HIV are integrated into HIV care and treatment programs as a modality for increasing patient literacy and as an intervention to address the...
Treatment of acute hepatitis C infection with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus: A systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Of the 35 million human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients worldwide, 10-40% are coinfected with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Compared to HCV-monoinfected patients, those coinfected experience decreased spontaneous HCV...
Behavioral interventions improve condom use and HIV testing uptake among female sex workers in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Condomless commercial sex work is a common mode of HIV transmission in China. This study systematically reviews the impacts of behavioral interventions on condom use and HIV testing uptake among...
CD4:CD8 ratio as a frontier marker for clinical outcome, immune dysfunction and viral reservoir size in virologically suppressed HIV-positive patients
INTRODUCTION: Absolute CD4 T cell count and plasma viral load have been established as predictors of HIV disease progression, and CD4 T cell count is used as an indicator for...
Causes of hospital admission among people living with HIV worldwide: A systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Morbidity associated with HIV infection is poorly characterised, so we aimed to investigate the contribution of different comorbidities to hospital admission and in-hospital mortality in adults and children living...
Gender difference in advanced HIV disease and late presentation according to European consensus definitions
Effectiveness of highly active antiretroviral therapy is limited for a large proportion of individuals living with HIV presenting for medical care at an advanced stage. Controversial results of gender differences...
Initial highly-active antiretroviral therapy with a protease inhibitor versus a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor: Discrepancies between direct and indirect meta-analyses
BACKGROUND: The optimum treatment choice between initial highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with a protease inhibitor (PI) versus a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) is uncertain. An indirect analysis reported that...
