Category Archives: Testing
HIV/AIDS late presentation and its associated factors in China from 2010 to 2020: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Background Late presentation to HIV/AIDS care presents serious health concerns, like increased transmission and high healthcare costs, increased mortality, early development of opportunistic infection, increased risk of antiretroviral therapy drug...
HIV test coverage among pregnant women in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Introduction: A human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test during pregnancy is the gateway to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Estimating the national uptake of HIV tests among pregnant...
Validity of digital assessments in screening for HIV-related cognitive impairment: A review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: While traditional neuropsychological tests are the gold standard in screening for HIV-related cognitive impairment, computerized neuropsychological assessment devices (CNADs) offer an alternative to these time- and resource-intensive...
Non-invasive diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is an opportunistic infection commonly affecting immunocompromised people. Diagnosis usually requires invasive techniques to obtain respiratory specimens. Minimally invasive detection tests have been proposed, but...
Decade of research into the acceptability of interventions aimed at improving adolescent and youth health and social outcomes in Africa: A systematic review and evidence map
OBJECTIVE: Interventions aimed at improving adolescent health and social outcomes are more likely to be successful if the young people they target find them acceptable. However, no standard definitions or...
Reproductive justice in the time of COVID-19: A systematic review of the indirect impacts of COVID-19 on sexual and reproductive health
OBJECTIVE: Despite gendered dimensions of COVID-19 becoming increasingly apparent, the impact of COVID-19 and other respiratory epidemics on women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) have yet to be...
Diagnostic value of Lipoarabinomannan antigen for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in adults and children with or without HIV infection
Objectives: Even today, tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading public health problem; yet, the current diagnostic methods still have a few shortcomings. Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) provides an opportunity for TB diagnosis, and urine...
Community-based ART service delivery for key populations in sub-Saharan Africa: Scoping review of outcomes along the continuum of HIV care
HIV positive key population (KP) often face health system and social barriers to HIV care. KP include sex workers, men who have sex with men, persons who inject drugs, transgender...
A systematic review of linkage-to-care and antiretroviral initiation implementation strategies in low- and middle-income countries across sub-Saharan Africa
Linkage to care (LTC) and initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are key components in the longitudinal care cascade for people living with HIV. Many strategies to optimize these stages of...
Risk of vertical transmission of chronic viral infections after invasive prenatal procedures
OBJECTIVES: Invasive prenatal procedures including amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling (CVS) can be prenatally indicated for diagnostic purposes. Chronic viral infections with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis...