Category Archives: Biomedical interventions
Strategies for the prevention of mother to child transmission in Western countries: An update
BACKGROUND: During the last decades remarkable scientific advances have been made toward the prevention of HIV mother-to-child transmission, in particular in developed nations. The aim of this review was to...
Safety and efficacy of lopinavir/ritonavir during pregnancy: A systematic review
The co-formulated, ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor lopinavir is a frequently used component of HAART for treatment of HIV-infected women during pregnancy and prevention of mother-to-child transmission. We performed a systematic review...
A systematic review of individual and contextual factors affecting ART initiation, adherence, and retention for HIV-infected pregnant and postpartum women
BACKGROUND: Despite progress reducing maternal mortality, HIV-related maternal deaths remain high, accounting, for example, for up to 24 percent of all pregnancy-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is...
The cost and impact of scaling up pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention: A systematic review of cost-effectiveness modelling studies
BACKGROUND: Cost-effectiveness studies inform resource allocation, strategy, and policy development. However, due to their complexity, dependence on assumptions made, and inherent uncertainty, synthesising, and generalising the results can be difficult....
Vitamin supplementation for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and pre-term delivery: A systematic review of randomized trial including more than 2800 women
Background: Observational studies have suggested that low serum vitamin levels are associated with increased mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV and increased preterm delivery. We aimed to determine the efficacy of...
Children who acquire HIV infection perinatally are at higher risk of early death than those acquiring infection through breastmilk: A meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Assumptions about survival of HIV-infected children in Africa without antiretroviral therapy need to be updated to inform ongoing UNAIDS modelling of paediatric HIV epidemics among children. Improved estimates of...
Weighing the gold in the gold standard: Challenges in HIV prevention research
OBJECTIVE(S): Few HIV prevention interventions have been evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We examined design, implementation, and contextual considerations that may limit detection of a positive or adverse effect...
Priority interventions to reduce HIV transmission in sex work settings in sub-Saharan Africa and delivery of these services
INTRODUCTION: Virtually no African country provides HIV prevention services in sex work settings with an adequate scale and intensity. Uncertainty remains about the optimal set of interventions and mode of...
Adherence to post-exposure prophylaxis for non-forcible sexual exposure to HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis
To characterize adherence to post-exposure prophylaxis after non-forcible sexual exposure to HIV, we conducted a review of the literature and meta-analysis. Articles were considered if they contained primary adherence data...
