Category Archives: Testing
Highlighting and addressing barriers to widespread adaptation of HIV self-testing in the United States
INTRODUCTION: HIV self-testing (HIVST), whereby an individual performs and interprets their own rapid screening test at home, is another tool to increase the proportion of at-risk individuals who know their...
Interventions to reduce deaths in people living with HIV admitted to hospital in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review
People living with HIV (PLHIV) admitted to hospital have a high risk of death. We systematically appraised evidence for interventions to reduce mortality among hospitalised PLHIV in low- and middle-income...
Strategies to increase couples HIV testing and counselling in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review
INTRODUCTION: Couple HIV testing and counselling (CHTC) is associated with measurable benefits for HIV prevention and treatment. However, the uptake remains limited in much of sub-Saharan Africa, despite an expanded...
Pneumocystis jiroveci Pneumonia: A review of management in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and non-HIV immunocompromised patients
Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia is an opportunistic fungal infection that was mainly associated with pneumonia in patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. There has been a decline in Pneumocystis...
Strategies to increase HIV testing among men who have sex with men and transgender women: An integrative review
Background Men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) are disproportionately affected by HIV, with much higher incidence and prevalence rates than in the general population in...
Acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of telehealth interventions for HIV testing and treatment in adult populations
Introduction: The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) led to the rapid adoption of telehealth to provide HIV care and treatment. However, limited information exists about the...
Assessment of online self-testing and self-sampling service providers for sexually transmitted infections against national standards in the UK in 2020
OBJECTIVES: Online testing for STIs may help overcome barriers of traditional face-to-face testing, such as stigma and inconvenience. However, regulation of these online tests is lacking, and the quality of...
Diagnostic performance of the HCV core Antigen test to identify hepatitis C in HIV-infected patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
The standard algorithm for diagnosing hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has two steps, an HCV antibody test for screening and a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) for confirmation. However, the...
The effects of intimate partner violence on women’s risk of HIV acquisition and engagement in the HIV treatment and care cascade: A pooled analysis of nationally representative surveys in sub-Saharan Africa
Background Achieving the 95-95-95 targets for HIV diagnosis, treatment, and viral load suppression to end the HIV epidemic hinges on eliminating structural inequalities, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Sub-Saharan Africa...
Accuracy of self-diagnosis in conditions commonly managed in primary care: Diagnostic accuracy systematic review and meta-analysis
OBJECTIVES: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of self-diagnosis compared with a clinical diagnosis for common conditions in primary care. DESIGN: Systematic review. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, Cochrane Database...