AIDS Care : There is an urgent need to identify strategies that improve linkage of perinatally infected ART-naïve children to care, and earlier than what is currently observed.
Background: Controlled prescription drug use disorders are a growing global health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Effective supply chain regulations on dispensing and stock control are important for controlling this epidemic. Since compliance with these regulations in resource-limited countries...
CID: Analyzing efficacy and safety separately in clinical trials could yield misleading study conclusions if there's an increase in efficacy and a decrease in safety
Background: International and global organisations advocate targeting interventions to areas of high HIV prevalence (ie, hotspots). To better understand the potential benefits of geo-targeted control, we assessed the extent to which HIV hotspots along Lake Victoria sustain transmission in...
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
IJTLD: Deshmukh and colleagues: High sensitivity and specificity of Xpert underscores need for rapid scale up for early detection of TB in settings with a high dual burden of TB and DM
Background: The novel Fujifilm SILVAMP TB-LAM (FujiLAM) assay detects mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan in urine and has demonstrated superior sensitivity to the Alere Determine TB-LAM Ag (AlereLAM) assay for detection of tuberculosis among hospitalized people with human immunodeficiency virus (PWH...
Lancet HIV: Dr. Bob Bollinger and colleagues discuss the urgent need and opportunity to include activity against Hepatitis B in formulations of long-acting drugs for HIV prevention and treatment
Journal of Infectious Diseases: Gene expression profiles among Indian children with confirmed TB were distinct from those of adults, highlighting the importance of including distinct populations in differential gene expression models
Recent studies have shown that more than half of HIV care is provided by primary care practitioners.However, clinicians with experience and expertise in HIV medicine are declining.
BACKGROUND: People with advanced HIV (CD4<50) remain at high risk of TB or death despite the initiation of antiretroviral therapy. We aimed to identify immunological profiles that were most predictive of incident TB disease and death. METHODS: The REMEMBER randomized clinical trial enrolled 850...
Individuals with concurrent tuberculosis (TB) and Type 2 diabetes (DM) have a higher risk of adverse outcomes. To better understand potential immunological differences, we utilized a comprehensive panel to characterize pro-inflammatory and pro-resolving (i.e., mediators involved in the resolution...
Infection, Genetics, and Evolution : We investigated the association of TIRAP variants with severity of TB disease and IP-10 production in humans, which may be useful in predicting poor clinical outcome
In this study among people living with HIV, Akshay Gupte and colleagues found that the risk of acquiring tuberculosis was higher in those receiving first-line antiretrovial therapy versus those receiving second-line medications.
Why is improving the diagnosis of tuberculosis important?
Tuberculosis causes more deaths in people living with HIV than any other disease. The lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LF-LAM, Alere Determine™ TB LAM Ag assay) is a World Health Organization-recommended rapid test to assist in detection of active tuberculosis in HIV-positive people with severe HIV disease. Rapid and early tuberculosis diagnosis may allow for prompt treatment and alleviate severe illness and death. An incorrect tuberculosis diagnosis may result in anxiety and unnecessary treatment.
BACKGROUND:
Targeting combination HIV interventions to locations and populations with high HIV burden is a global priority, but the impact of these strategies on HIV incidence is unclear. We assessed the impact of combination HIV interventions on HIV incidence in four HIV-hyperendemic...
New England Journal of Medicine: Dr. Amita Gupta and colleagues found that the current standard of care given to HIV+ pregnant women to prevent TB should wait until 12 weeks after delivery. The study underscores the need to include pregnant women in clinical trials.
Maunank Shah and colleagues invented HIV-ASSIST, an online decision-making tool that helps clinicians determine what antiretroviral therapies will best meet the needs of individual HIV patients. This paper in JAIDS discusses what they found in testing the tool's validity.
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease: Researchers describe the challenges associated with conducting the first randomized clinical trial of antimicrobial agents in pediatric tuberculosis meningitis.
International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
BACKGROUND: India accounts for 27% of global childhood tuberculosis (TB) burden. Understanding barriers to early diagnosis and treatment in children may improve care and outcomes. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed among 89 children initiated on anti-TB treatment from a public hospital...
Central nervous system tuberculosis (TB) is devastating and affects vulnerable populations. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculous meningitis (TBM) specifically are nearly uniformly fatal, with little information being available to guide the treatment of...
