Category Archives: Health Systems

Many national guidelines recommend annual influenza vaccination of immunocompromised patients, although the decision to vaccinate is usually at clinical discretion. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to assess the...

OBJECTIVE: A ‘test and treat’ strategy to reduce HIV transmission hinges on linking and retaining HIV patients in care to achieve the full benefit of antiretroviral therapy. We integrated empirical...

BACKGROUND: In 2007 WHO/UNAIDS issued new HIV testing guidelines recommending ‘provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling’ (PITC). In contrast to existing ‘voluntary counselling and testing’ guidelines (whereby individuals self refer for...

Background: Providing care for people who are co-infected with both HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) is becoming increasingly complex and requires integrated prevention, screening, support and programming efforts. We...

The authors performed a meta-analysis to derive pooled utilities for HIV/AIDS and to assess the relative importance of study design characteristics in predicting utilities. Twenty-five articles were identified reporting 74...

OBJECTIVES: To review the evidence on the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of non-occupational postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV. DATA SOURCES: Eleven electronic databases were searched from inception to December 2007....

INTRODUCTION: Many people diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) do not have symptoms, and may not inform their past or current sexual partners of their diagnosis or routinely use...

Community services comprise an important part of a country’s HIV response. English language cost and cost-effectiveness studies of HIV community services published between 1986 and 2011 were reviewed but only...

BACKGROUND: Social marketing interventions have been shown to both promote and change many health-related behaviours and issues. As the HIV epidemic continues to disproportionately affect MSM and transgender women around...

BACKGROUND: The barriers to HIV testing and counselling that migrants encounter can jeopardize proactive HIV testing that relies on the fact that HIV testing must be linked to care. We...

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV but few MSM-specific evidence-based interventions (EBIs) have been identified for this vulnerable group. We...

BACKGROUND: Immunocompromised patients are vulnerable to severe or complicated influenza infection. Vaccination is widely recommended for this group. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients in...