Category Archives: Testing
A systematic review of interventions to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination from 2002 to 2013: How far have we come?
Introduction: HIV-related stigma and discrimination continue to hamper efforts to prevent new infections and engage people in HIV treatment, care and support programmes. The identification of effective interventions to reduce...
Definition of a core set of quality indicators for the assessment of HIV/AIDS clinical care: A systematic review
BACKGROUND: Several organizations and individual authors have been proposing quality indicators for the assessment of clinical care in HIV/AIDS patients. Nevertheless, the definition of a consensual core set of indicators...
Provider-initiated testing and counselling programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of their operational implementation
OBJECTIVE: The routine offer of an HIV test during patient-provider encounters is gaining momentum within HIV treatment and prevention programmes. This review examined the operational implementation of provider-initiated testing and...
Quantifying and addressing losses along the continuum of care for people living with HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review
INTRODUCTION: Recent years have seen an increasing recognition of the need to improve access and retention in care for people living with HIV/AIDS. This review aims to quantify patients along...
A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of alternative HIV counseling and testing methods to increase knowledge of HIV status
BACKGROUND: Alternatives to conventional HIV counseling and testing (HIV-CT) have been used to improve receipt of HIV test results. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of alternative HIV-CT methods on the...
HIV type-1 drug resistance in treatment-naive patients monitored using minority species assays: A systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: The detection of mutations associated with drug resistance in HIV type-1 might be increased by applying minority species assays capable of identifying low frequency mutations in comparison with the...
The cost-effectiveness of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in low- and middle-income countries: Systematic review
Background: Although highly effective prevention interventions exist, the epidemic of paediatric HIV continues to challenge control efforts in resource-limited settings. We reviewed the cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission...
Modeling the cost-effectiveness of HIV treatment: how to buy the most ‘health’ when resources are limited
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To summarize recent cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) that evaluate optimal treatment strategies for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). RECENT FINDINGS: Efforts to attain universal coverage of current treatment...
Low levels of HIV test coverage in clinical settings in the U.K.: A systematic review of adherence to 2008 guidelines
OBJECTIVES: To quantify the extent to which guideline recommendations for routine testing for HIV are adhered to outside of genitourinary medicine (GUM), sexual health (SH) and antenatal clinics. METHODS: A...
Role and outcomes of community health workers in HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review
Introduction: The provision of HIV treatment and care in sub-Saharan Africa faces multiple challenges, including weak health systems and attrition of trained health workers. One potential response to overcome these...
