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Background: In the context of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on HIV testing in the emergency department (ED) setting, we evaluated preferences for survey modality and data quality arising from each modality. Methods: Enrolled participants were offered the choice of answering a survey via audio computer assisted self-interview (ACASI) or pen and paper self-administered questionnaire (SAQ). We evaluated factors influencing choice of survey modality. We defined unusable data for a particular survey domain as answering fewer than 75% of the questions in the domain. We then compared ACASI and SAQ with respect to unusable data for domains that address sensitive topics. Results: Of 758 enrolled ED patients, 218 (29%) chose ACASI, 343 chose SAQ (45%) and 197 (26%) opted not to complete either. Results of the log-binomial regression indicated that older (RR = 1.08 per decade) and less educated participants (RR = 1.25) were more likely to choose SAQ over ACASI. ACASI yielded substantially less unusable data than SAQ. Conclusions: In the ED setting there may be a tradeoff between increased participation with SAQ versus better data quality with ACASI. Future studies of novel approaches to maximize the use of ACASI in the ED setting are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, despite the increasing poverty and inequalities, policies should be designed to deal with population heterogeneity and environmental changes. Bottom-up designs, such as the Agent-Based Model (ABM), can model these features, dealing with such complexity. HIV/AIDS has a complex dynamic of structural factors, risk behaviors, biomedical characteristics and interventions. All embedded in unequal, stigmatized and heterogeneous social structure. To understand how ABMs can model this complexity, we performed a scoping review of HIV applications, highlighting their potentialities. Methods: We searched on PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus repositories following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. Our inclusion criteria were HIV/AIDS studies with an ABM application. We identified the main articles using a local co-citation analysis and categorized the overall literature aims, (sub)populations, regions, and if the papers declared the use of ODD protocol and limitations. Results: We found 154 articles. We identified eleven main papers, and discussed them using the overall category results. Most studies model Transmission Dynamics (37/154), about Men who have sex with Men (MSM) (41/154), or individuals living in the US or South Africa (84/154). Recent studies applied ABM to model PrEP interventions (17/154) and Racial Disparities (12/154). Only six papers declared the use of ODD Protocol (6/154), and 34/154 didn't mention the study limitations. Conclusions: While ABM is among the most sophisticated techniques available to model HIV/AIDS complexity. Their applications are still restricted to some realities. However, researchers are challenged to think about social structure due model characteristics, the inclusion of these features is still restricted to case-specific. Data and computational power availability can enhance this feature providing insightful results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Implementation science (IS) offers methods to systematically achieve the Ending the HIV Epidemic goals in the United States, as well as the global UNAIDS targets. Federal funders such as the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) have invested in implementation research to achieve these goals, including supporting the AIDS Research Centres (ARCs), which focus on high‐impact science in HIV and mental health (MH). To facilitate capacity building for the HIV/MH research workforce in IS, "grey areas," or areas of IS that are confusing, particularly for new investigators, should be addressed in the context of HIV/MH research. Discussion: A group of IS experts affiliated with NIMH‐funded ARCs convened to identify common and challenging grey areas. The group generated a preliminary list of 19 grey areas in HIV/MH‐related IS. From the list, the authors developed a survey which was distributed to all ARCs to prioritize grey areas to address in this paper. ARC members across the United States (N = 60) identified priority grey areas requiring clarification. This commentary discusses topics with 40% or more endorsement. The top grey areas that ARC members identified were: (1) Differentiating implementation strategies from interventions; (2) Determining when an intervention has sufficient evidence for adaptation; (3) Integrating recipient perspectives into HIV/MH implementation research; (4) Evaluating whether an implementation strategy is evidence‐based; (5) Identifying rigorous approaches for evaluating the impact of implementation strategies in the absence of a control group or randomization; and (6) Addressing innovation in HIV/MH IS grants. The commentary addresses each grey area by drawing from the existing literature (when available), providing expert guidance on addressing each in the context of HIV/MH research, and providing domestic and global HIV and HIV/MH case examples that address these grey areas. Conclusions: HIV/MH IS is key to achieving domestic and international goals for ending HIV transmission and mitigating its impact. Guidance offered in this paper can help to overcome challenges to rigorous and high‐impact HIV/MH implementation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco smoking undermines the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and potentially associates with other health problems. This study aimed to analyze the growth and content of research on smoking among PLWHA on Web of Science Database. Co-occurrence analysis and Jaccard's' similarity index calculation were performed to identify and visualize networks of countries collaboration, keywords co-occurrence, and research topics. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to the abstracts' contents to uncover research domains and landscapes. The number of publications increased by 14.55% annually in the period of 1991-2017, with 74% of total papers published within 2007-2017. A wide range of topics have been covered, notably co-morbidities, interventions on smoking abstinence and cessation, and the enforcing relationship of smoking cessation with antiretroviral treatment adherence. A shortage of studies on smoking among PLWHA in low-and middle-income countries, limited collaborations between countries outside of close geographical proximity and a lack of discussion on local contexts and psychosocial factors were found. Smoking among PLWHA has been being studied more extensively in recent years, enhancing our knowledge and awareness of the significant and specific effects smoking have on PLWHA, which, in turn, assisting the proposals and implementations of suitable solutions. However, more efforts should be made to examine and understand contextualized aspects, including culture and beliefs specific to each nation or smaller sub-population within a country, especially those currently under-researched, as well as psycho-behavioral factors to implement more effective interventions to reduce smoking among PLWHA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitigating the impacts of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and substance use requires comprehensive and systematic thinking in designing interventions and developing policies. This study describes the growth of research publications from 1991 to 2021 in the Web of Science database and points out current research landscapes in the fields of HIV/AIDS and substance use. Latent Dirichlet Allocation was used for classifying 21 359 papers into corresponding topics. The most common topics were HIV transmission, HIV infection, quality of life and mental health of substance users, and the biomedical effect of substance use. Emerging research landscapes include vulnerabilities of people who inject drugs to HIV transmission and related health problems. This study found a lack of research on health services, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral in combination with clinical evaluation and treatment services. Future investment and implementation of HIV/AIDS and substance use programs should focus on research of health services and clinical evaluation, especially context-specific interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have identified and analyzed the emergence, structure and dynamics of the paradigmatic research fronts that established the fundamentals of the biomedical knowledge on HIV/AIDS. A search of papers with the identifiers "HIV/AIDS", "Human Immunodeficiency Virus", “HIV-1” and "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome" in the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters), was carried out. A citation network of those papers was constructed. Then, a sub-network of the papers with the highest number of inter-citations (with a minimal in-degree of 28) was selected to perform a combination of network clustering and text mining to identify the paradigmatic research fronts and analyze their dynamics. Thirteen research fronts were identified in this sub-network. The biggest and oldest front is related to the clinical knowledge on the disease in the patient. Nine of the fronts are related to the study of specific molecular structures and mechanisms and two of these fronts are related to the development of drugs. The rest of the fronts are related to the study of the disease at the cellular level. Interestingly, the emergence of these fronts occurred in successive "waves" over the time which suggest a transition in the paradigmatic focus. The emergence and evolution of the biomedical fronts in HIV/AIDS research is explained not just by the partition of the problem in elements and interactions leading to increasingly specialized communities, but also by changes in the technological context of this health problem and the dramatic changes in the epidemiological reality of HIV/AIDS that occurred between 1993 and 1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide is one of the main causes of mortality in the world, accounting for more fatalities than homicide, war, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), breast cancer, and malaria. Significantly, the biggest risk factors for suicide in the general population are having already attempted suicide and suicidal ideation. Despite the availability of studies on suicidal ideation among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Ethiopia, the results are inconsistent. Thus, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of suicidal ideation among people living with HIV/AIDS. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. To find papers published in the English language before 20 May 2023, the electronic databases of Medline, Science Direct, Excerpta Medica Database, Cochrane Library, African Journals Online (AJOL), and Google Scholar were searched. The DerSimonian and Laird method for random effects models was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of suicidal ideation with a 95% confidence interval in STATA V.14.0 statistical software. To test for heterogeneity between studies and publication bias, respectively, forest plots and funnel plots were used. Additionally, leave-one-out sensitivity was conducted. Results: A total of nine studies with 3,411 study participants were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of suicidal ideation among PLWHA was 20.55% (95% CI 14.76, 26.33). Being female (Odds ratio (OR) = 4.27, 95% CI = 2.29, 7.97), living alone (OR = 5.02, 95% CI = 2.15, 11.64), poor social support (OR = 3.80, 95% CI = 2.56, 5.65), perceived stigma (OR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.55, 7.87), depression (OR = 5.08, 95% CI = 2.55, 11.48), undisclosed HIV status (OR = 4.8, 95% CI = 2.10, 10.93), and World Health Organization HIV clinical stages of III or IV (OR = 4.40, 95% CI = 2.95, 6.58) were significantly associated with suicidal ideation. Conclusion: Suicidal ideation among PLWHA is high in Ethiopia. Therefore, emphasis should be given to psychiatric assessment and interventions with a special focus on individuals having the associated factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there have been numerous calls by researchers to adopt multi-disciplinary and international perspectives to address the HIV pandemic. Meaningful and prudent public health policy should be based on sound empirical data and research. Henceforth, our study aims to contribute to the current literature by conducting a comprehensive global mapping and determine the landscapes of HIV/AIDS research covering the years between 1983 and 2017. Bibliometric and content analysis was used to describe trends in research productivity, usages, research collaborations, and clusters of research topics. Exploratory factor analysis, Jaccard's similarity index, and Ward dendrogram were applied to abstracts' contents to determine the development of interdisciplinary research landscapes. The United States of America continues to lead in research production and be main hub for author- and countrylevel collaborations. Research employing an epidemiological, social, and/or behavioral perspective for studying HIV/AIDS was found to dwarf in the presence of basic and biomedical HIV research. Interdisciplinary approaches to HIV research have been increasing with the creation of various research landscapes: strong constructs of studies examining health status, clinical responses, and HIV treatment, risk behaviors have been formed, while research topics relating to psycho-behavioral and cultural aspects as well as services have emerged along. To effectively prevent and control the disease, more researches are needed to provide culturally relevant and/or contextualized evidence of effective inter pracventions. It is also necessary to enhance the ability and partnership of local researchers as well as invest in research infrastructure at national and regional levels to implement high-quality studies since they are the "gate-keepers" who could respond to local changes in a timely manner. These types of research could be a helpful guide for international donors, governments, and academicians to set up research priorities in target groups and settings, and to develop future research agendas globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitigating the impacts of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and substance use requires comprehensive and systematic thinking in designing interventions and developing policies. This study describes the growth of research publications from 1991 to 2021 in the Web of Science database and points out current research landscapes in the fields of HIV/AIDS and substance use. Latent Dirichlet Allocation was used for classifying 21 359 papers into corresponding topics. The most common topics were HIV transmission, HIV infection, quality of life and mental health of substance users, and the biomedical effect of substance use. Emerging research landscapes include vulnerabilities of people who inject drugs to HIV transmission and related health problems. This study found a lack of research on health services, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral in combination with clinical evaluation and treatment services. Future investment and implementation of HIV/AIDS and substance use programs should focus on research of health services and clinical evaluation, especially context-specific interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a compartmental model on the co-infection of pneumonia and HIV/AIDS with optimal control strategies was formulated using the system of ordinary differential equations. Using qualitative methods, we have analysed the mono-infection and HIV/AIDS and pneumonia co-infection models. We have computed effective reproduction numbers by applying the next-generation matrix method, applying Castillo Chavez criteria the models disease-free equilibrium points global stabilities were shown, while we have used the Centre manifold criteria to determine that the pneumonia infection and pneumonia and HIV/AIDS co-infection exhibit the phenomenon of backward bifurcation whenever the corresponding effective reproduction number is less than unity. We carried out the numerical simulations to investigate the behaviour of the co-infection model solutions. Furthermore,wehave investigated various optimal control strategies to predict the best control strategy to minimize and possibly to eradicate the HIV/AIDS and pneumonia co-infection from the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Antiretroviral therapy has led to AIDS being a chronic disease. Nevertheless, the presence of constantly emerging drug resistance mutations poses a challenge to clinical treatment. A systematic analysis to summarize the advancements and uncharted territory of drug resistance mutations is urgently needed and may provide new clues for solving this problem. Methods: We gathered 3,694 publications on drug resistance mutations from the Web of Science Core Collection with CiteSpace software and performed an analysis to visualize the results and predict future new directions and emerging trends. Betweenness centrality, count, and burst value were taken as standards. Results: The number of papers on HIV medication resistance mutations during the last 10 years shows a wave-like trend. In terms of nation, organization, and author, the United States (1449), University of London (193), and Mark A. Wainberg (66) are the most significant contributors. The most frequently cited article is "Drug resistance mutations for surveillance of transmitted HIV-1 drug-resistance: 2009 update." Hot topics in this field include "next-generation sequencing," "tenofovir alafenamide," "children," "regimens," "accumulation," "dolutegravir," "rilpivirine," "sex," "pretreatment drug resistance," and "open label." Research on drug resistance in teenagers, novel mutation detection techniques, and drug development is ongoing, and numerous publications have indicated the presence of mutations related to current medications. Therefore, testing must be performed regularly for patients who have used medications for a long period. Additionally, by choosing medications with a longer half-life, patients can take fewer doses of their prescription, increasing patient compliance. Conclusion: This study involved a bibliometric visualization analysis of the literature on drug resistance mutations, providing insight into the field's evolution and emerging patterns and offering academics a resource to better understand HIV drug resistance mutations and contribute to the field's advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to determine the volume and extent of general human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) research in Turkey as well as the coverage of national HIV/AIDS research agenda. Material and methods: Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection advanced search engine was applied to conduct bibliometric search. "HIV or AIDS or HIV/AIDS or Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV-1 or HIV-2 or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" and "Turkey" were used as search key words. In addition, the study included "Language = English", "Document area = medicine" and "Document type = Article". We also selected science citation index expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and social sciences citation index (SSCI) as Web of Science indexes. The data in WoS improved all information on publications, including fields of study, institutions, group authors, funding agencies, journals, citations, and co-authorship. Results: In total, 313 articles were found. The first document was published in 1996, and 310 (99%) papers were published in the last 20 years. The documents were mostly (62.300%) published in science citation index expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) indexed journals. Most of the publications were from medicine general internal (33.866%) area. The top-ranked affiliations from Turkey in HIV/AIDS research were Istanbul University (19.169%), Ege University (10.863%), University of Health Sciences (9.265%), and Hacettepe University (8.626%). ACTHIV-IST (ACTion against HIV in Istanbul) study group (n = 3, 0.958) was Turkey's most productive HIV/AIDS research group. 87.220% of the studies were not funded. Conclusions: According to the findings, Turkey has limited HIV/AIDS research output. Furthermore, the majority of investigations were conducted by only a few centers. Because the study covered the entire country, and there are more centers that follow HIV/AIDS patients, these centers should also take part in the research. As a result, the current study emphasizes the importance of increasing targeted financing for HIV/AIDS research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is a chronic and sometimes fatal illness. HIV reduces an individual's capability against infection and illness by demolishing his or her immunity. This paper presents a new model that governs the dynamical behavior of HIV/AIDS by integrating new compartments, i.e., the treatment class T. The steady-state solutions of the model are investigated, and accordingly, the threshold quantity R 0 is calculated, which describes the global dynamics of the proposed model. It is proved that for R 0 less than one, the infection-free state of the model is globally asymptotically stable. However, as the threshold number increases by one, the endemic equilibrium becomes globally asymptotically stable, and in such case, the disease-free state is unstable. At the end of the paper, the analytic conclusions obtained from the analysis of the ordinary differential equation (ODE) model are supported through numerical simulations. The paper also addresses a comprehensive analysis of a fractional-order HIV model utilizing the Caputo fractional differential operator. The model's qualitative analysis is investigated, and computational modeling is used to examine the system's long-term behavior. The existence/uniqueness of the solution to the model is determined by applying some results from the fixed points of the theory. The stability results for the system are established by incorporating the Ulam–Hyers method. For numerical treatment and simulations, we apply Newton's polynomial and the Toufik–Atangana numerical method. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the fractional-order approach in capturing the dynamics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and provide valuable insights for designing effective control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that suppresses the immune system by reducing the CD4+ T lymphocytes level. It has become a global challenge with fast prevalence ratio. Like other developing countries, Pakistan is also struggling for overcoming this viral disease since very first reported case in 1987. Aim: To update the society on the alarming rise in HIV cases in Pakistan: challenges and future recommendations at hand. Materials and Methods: The review paper utilized different search engines such pubmed central, scopus, web of science, google scholar etc. to conduct this review paper. Results: Lack of awareness, low literacy rate, practice of unhygienic equipment in healthcare departments, unstable economy, and unsafe sexual practices are the major factors behind the increasing rate of AIDS in Pakistan. Conclusion: By regulating healthcare practices and policies, promoting psychological counseling to HIV positive patients, educating the society and minimizing commercial sex practices, Pakistan can overcome this viral disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents author's comments on the maternal health of women related to the maternal health task force (MHTF). It mentions that the maternal health of women are influenced before pregnancy. It offers information on the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV in women. It states that HIV/AIDS is an indirect cause of maternal death.

Background: The residual life of a patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is of major interest to patients and their physicians. While existing analyses of HIV patient survival focus mostly on data collected at baseline, residual life analysis allows for dynamic analysis based on additional data collected over a period of time. As survival times typically exhibit a right-skewed distribution, the median provides a more useful summary of the underlying distribution than the mean. In this paper, we propose an efficient inference procedure that fits a semiparametric quantile regression model assessing the effect of longitudinal biomarkers on the residual life of HIV patients until the development of dyslipidemia, a disease becoming more prevalent among those with HIV. Methods: For estimation of model parameters, we propose an induced smoothing method that smooths nonsmooth estimating functions based on check functions. For variance estimation, we propose an efficient resampling-based estimator. The proposed estimators are theoretically justified. Simulation studies are used to evaluate their finite sample performances, including their prediction accuracy. We analyze the Korea HIV/AIDS cohort study data to examine the effects of CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) cell count on the residual life of HIV patients to the onset of dyslipidemia. Results: The proposed estimator is shown to be consistent and normally distributed asymptotically. Under various simulation settings, our estimates are approximately unbiased. Their variances estimates are close to the empirical variances and their computational efficiency is superior to that of the nonsmooth counterparts. Two measures of prediction performance indicate that our method adequately reflects the dynamic character of longitudinal biomarkers and residual life. The analysis of the Korea HIV/AIDS cohort study data shows that CD4 cell count is positively associated with residual life to the onset of dyslipidemia but the effect is not statistically significant. Conclusions: Our method enables direct prediction of residual lifetimes with a dynamic feature that accommodates data accumulated at different times. Our estimator significantly improves computational efficiency in variance estimation compared to the existing nonsmooth estimator. Analysis of the HIV/AIDS cohort study data reveals dynamic effects of CD4 cell count on the residual life to the onset of dyslipidemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The rapid decrease in international funding for HIV/AIDS has been challenging for many nations to effectively mobilize and allocate their limited resources for HIV/AIDS programs. Economic evaluations can help inform decisions and strategic planning. This study aims to examine the trends and patterns in economic evaluation studies in the field of HIV/AIDS and determine their research landscapes.Methods: Using the Web of Science databases, we synthesized the number of papers and citations on HIV/AIDS and economic evaluation from 1990 to 2017. Collaborations between authors and countries, networks of keywords and research topics were visualized using frequency of co-occurrence and Jaccards' similarity index. A Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) analysis to categorize papers into different topics/themes.Results: A total of 372 economic evaluation papers were selected, including 351 cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA), 11 cost-utility analyses (CUA), 12 cost-benefit analyses (CBA). The growth of publications, their citations and usages have increased remarkably over the years. Major research topics in economic evaluation studies consisted of antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and treatment; drug use prevention interventions and prevention of mother-to-child transmission interventions. Moreover, lack of contextualized evidence was found in specific settings with high burden HIV epidemics, as well as emerging most-at-risk populations such as trans-genders or migrants.Conclusion: This study highlights the knowledge and geographical discrepancies in HIV/AIDS economic evaluation literature. Future research directions are also informed for advancing economic evaluation in HIV/AIDS research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood recipients, particularly frequent receivers, are at high-risk of receiving human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and no current serologic tests eliminate this transmission risk. The current paper aimed to provide an updated comprehensive report on the prevalence of HIV infection among blood donors in different parts of the world. HIV infection prevalence in blood donors was determined based on electronically published data through a systematic review of literature in international databases until February 2020. Studies published in Farsi and English reporting the prevalence of HIV were included. Meta-analysis was performed, and final results were classified according to World Health Organization (WHO) divisions of the world. Out of 1,859 articles, 241 met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of HIV was higher in first-time donors, males, and replacement therapy receivers. The pooled prevalence was 502.74 in 100,000. AFRO with 2,384.99 and Europe with 19.04 in 100,000 had the highest and the lowest rates, respectively. Gabon represented the highest rate of 20,623, while the USA showed the lowest rate, i.e., 4.33, among the countries. Updated reports on the prevalence of HIV among blood donors help policy-makers and care providers realize the possible need for improving the screening, diagnostics, and treatment protocols. Although the prevalence has decreased in many parts of the world, improving the current protocols is still necessary to minimize the risks in transfusion systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems worldwide has been compromising the progress made in the fight against HIV. This paper aims to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted HIV comprehensive care service delivery globally as well as to consolidate the evidence and recommendations that may be useful in averting future crisis. Methods: This review adheres to PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, DOAJ, Science Direct and other sources like Google Scholar and citations from included studies were searched methodically to locate studies evaluating the effects of COVID on services for HIV care. The NIH and JBI quality assessment tools were used for the quality assessment of individual studies. Results: In the present review 31 eligible studies were included and the impact on HIV care cascade were summarised under six themes: Lab services, Treatment and allied services, Counselling services, Outreach services, Psycho-social impact and Implementation of sustainable strategies. The studies also presented many innovative alternatives which were lucidly highlighted in the present article. Conclusion: Current evidence depicts multiple factors are responsible for the interruption of HIV care service delivery during the pandemic, especially in low resources settings. The prospective, alternative solutions that have been used to circumvent the threat have also been addressed in this review, in addition to the negative aspects that have been observed. Transition with new innovative, sustainable care paradigms may prove to be the building blocks in removing HIV-AIDS as a public health threat. Registration: Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/74GHM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a mathematical analysis of the HIV/AIDS deterministic model studied in the paper called Mathematical Model of HIV/AIDS Considering Sexual Preferences Under Antiretroviral Therapy, a case study in the previous works preformed by Espitia is performed. The objective is to gain insight into the qualitative dynamics of the model determining the conditions for the persistence or effective control of the disease in the community through the study of basic properties such as positiveness and boundedness; the calculus of the basic reproduction number; stationary points such as disease-free equilibrium (DFE), boundary equilibrium (BE) and endemic equilibrium (EE); and the local stability (LAS) of disease-free equilibrium. The findings allow us to conclude that the best way to reduce contagion and consequently reach a DFE is thought to be the reduction in the rate of homosexual partners, as they are the most affected population by the virus and are therefore the most likely to become infected and spread it. Increasing the departure rate of infected individuals leads to a decrease in untreated infected heterosexual men and untreated infected women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-diagnosis of HIV and tuberculosis presents a treatment dilemma. Starting both treatments at the same time can cause a flood of immune response called immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) which can be lethal. But, how long to delay HIV treatment is less understood. In 2011, based on the conclusions of three separate studies, WHO recommended starting HIV treatment earlier for those with later HIV disease progression. This paper conducts a replication study of one of the three studies, by Havlir and colleagues. Using their publicly available data, we were able to replicate most of the results presented in the original paper. In our measurement and estimation analyses we use different estimation techniques to assess the robustness of the results. We find that adjusting for loss to follow-up does not affect the main results of the paper. However, an ANCOVA estimation and an instrumental variable model weaken the main result of the paper of better outcomes with early HIV treatment only for those who are sicker, reducing significance from the 5% to the 10% level. A change-point analysis also detects no changes in effect by timing of HIV treatment initiation or different thresholds of CD4 count for the primary outcome. This result suggests that the choice of start time for HIV treatment initiation should be based on other factors including potential drug interactions, overlapping side effects, a high pill burden and severity of illness rather than CD4 threshold and preset timeframes. While we caution against overgeneralizing, the result of this replication is aligned with more recent studies that show no evidence that early initiation of HIV treatment reduces mortality for any patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Advancement in biomedical science has led to the discovery of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) as new strategies for prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This current study was a quantitative analysis that sought to evaluate the awareness and willingness to use PrEP and PEP by sexually active adults in Ghana. Material and methods: The study respondents consisted of 365 sexually active adults in Ghana. A questionnaire was designed and administered to participants online using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) approach. A Χ² test and logistic regression were employed for the analysis. Results: The study revealed a generally low awareness of PrEP and PEP. Only 25.2% of the respondents were aware of PrEP, while 20.3% were aware of PEP. Despite the low awareness rate, majority of respondents (69.3%) were willing to use PrEP and PEP for prevention of HIV. On the other hand, 30.7% of the respondents indicated their unwillingness to use PrEP and PEP citing the fear of undesirable side effects of the medications as the main reason for their decision. Conclusions: This paper calls on policy-makers to intensify advocacy for the usefulness of PrEP and PEP. The Ghana Health Service and Ghana AIDS Commission should also ensure that PrEP and PEP services are increased and include all sexually active persons in Ghana. This will ensure a great success in mitigating HIV infections in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Discrimination by some healthcare providers toward people living with HIV/AIDS has been documented. Differences in cultural backgrounds make it harder for future doctors, who need a lot of knowledge and a positive attitude to treat patients. In conservative countries like Saudi Arabia, not enough is known about how much medical interns know about HIV and how they feel about people living with HIV/AIDS.Methods: From April to September 2021, this cross-sectional study use non-probability random sampling and utilized a self-administered questionnaire to collected the data from 346 medical interns who had graduated from five different medical schools.Results: Most of the subjects correctly identified the main transmission routes, such as unprotected sex (94.57%), blood and body fluid exchange (94.19%), and sharing needles or syringes (91.47%). But they did not know what the most common co-infections were for HIV patients or how to protect themselves after exposure. This paper showed that medical interns have some stigmatizing behaviors toward patients living with HIV, as 31.1% and 22.9% agreed, respectively, that they would feel more sympathetic toward people who get AIDS from blood transfusions compared to IV drug users (IDU).Conclusion: Medical interns also showed some positive attitudes, as more than half of the sample (56.2%) would not isolate beds for people living with HIV/AIDS. The study's conclusion is that HIV education and training programs should be added for medical interns, which might have a significant positive impact on their attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the historiography of the global response to HIV/AIDS. Since 1981, when the disease was first identified, there have been great strides in the medical and biological sciences in understanding the impact of the new virus on the human immune system. Although there is still no successful vaccine, antiretroviral (ART) treatment continues to improve the likelihood of HIV-positive people living long and healthy lives. We have also seen a few exciting cases of full recovery, which will allow scientists to explore new avenues towards a cure. Yet the AIDS pandemic is by no means over: 40 million have died and over 35 million individuals still live with HIV. More importantly, as historians and scholars in the humanities and social sciences have been pointing out since the early 1980s, HIV brought to light how non-medical factors play a critical role in a successful disease response. As the global community faces the aftermath of a new pandemic, it is timely to examine how broader social, economic, political, and cultural factors influence individual experiences of disease at local, national, international, and global scales. This essay examines how scholars have written historically about the HIV pandemic, using a variety of methods and approaches: from traditional histories of medicine to anthropologies of development. While HIV has sparked a massive corpus of historical reflection from a variety of disciplines, its contemporaneity means that "global AIDS historiography" cannot yet be described as a cohesive academic conversation. Yet what unites the scholarship, this essay argues, is its use of HIV to examine how and why post-war social and economic systems have achieved health objectives for some populations and not others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the increasing incidence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in rural America, in an issue paper by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). What is included in the paper; Information on the conference being held by the NRHA; Contact information.

The article discusses the controversy regarding the origins of the AIDS viruses, HIV-1 and HIV-2. According to some theories and explanation, HIV-1 and HIV-2 are ancient human viruses originated in central and west Africa which spread throughout Europe. In addition, it is plausible that AIDS epidemic started through a hostile power in 1970 in the U.S.

Background: Lack of dependable morbidity and mortality data complicates efforts to measure the demographic or population-level impact of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mortuary-based mortality surveillance can address gaps in vital statistics in low-resource settings by improving accuracy of measuring HIV-associated mortality and indicators of access to treatment services among decedents. This paper describes the process and considerations taken in conducting mortuary and hospital-based HIV mortality surveillance among decedents in Kenya.Main Text: We conducted HIV mortuary and hospital-based mortality surveillance at two of the largest mortuaries in Kisumu County, Kenya (April 16-July 12, 2019). Medical charts were reviewed for documentation of HIV status among eligible decedents. HIV testing was done on blood and oral fluid samples from decedents with undocumented HIV status and those whose medical records indicated HIV-negative test results > 3 months before death. A panel of experts established the cause of death according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision rules. Civil registry data for the year 2017 were abstracted and coded to corresponding ICD-10 codes. Of the 1004 decedents admitted to the two mortuaries during the study period, 49 (4.9%) were unavailable because they had been transferred to other facilities or dispatched for burial before enrolment. Of the 955 available decedents, 104 (10.9%) were ineligible for the study. Blood samples were collected from 659 (77.4%) decedents, and 654 (99.2%) were tested for HIV. Of the 564 decedents eligible for the OraQuick® validation sub-study, 154 were eligible for oral sample collection, and 132 (85.7%) matched pre- and post-embalming oral samples were collected and tested. Of the 851 eligible decedents, 241 (28.3%) had evidence of HIV infection: 119 had a diagnosis of HIV infection recorded in their patient files, and 122 had serological evidence of HIV infection.Conclusion: This study shows that in low-resource settings, conducting hospital and mortuary-based surveillance is feasible and can be an alternative source of mortality data when civil registry data are inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study aimed to assess the current situation of Chinese dental bachelor interns on HIV/AIDS-related knowledge and their attitudes towards HIV/AIDS patients.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, paper-based survey involving 147 dental students from three Chinese dental schools was conducted. Students were recruited to complete the questionnaire regarding their knowledge, awareness and attitudes concerning HIV/AIDS anonymously and voluntarily.Results: A total of 144 students responded to the study, generating a response rate of 98.0%. Although 97.0% of the dental students believed dentists were at high risk of HIV infection, 97.2% of students expressed no prejudice towards HIV/AIDS patients and stated their willingness to provide oral healthcare service for such patients. No statistically significant differences in the responses on attitudes and some basic knowledge were found between students who had received the relevant education about infection control and the students who had not. However, regarding most questions about oral manifestations in adult and paediatric patients living with AIDS, the students who received relevant education showed more knowledge than the students who did not (p <0.05). The cognitive level about respecting HIV/AIDS patients' autonomy and privacy was generally low in all the students.Conclusions: Most of the dental students in this survey held positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS patients and good grasp of some basic knowledge about HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, the questionnaire results reflected gaps in education, such as respecting HIV/AIDS patients' privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The HIV/AIDS prevention program among pregnant mothers aims to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to baby. It also aims to reduce stigma and discrimination, as well as deaths due to HIV/AIDS. This paper aimed to find out obstacles that occur in the implementation of HIV/AIDS transmission program in Indonesia. Methods Online literature search was done on Google Scholar, Science Direct and PubMed databases with the keywords related to “HIV/AIDS” and transmission prevention program among mothers to children. The search resulted in a total of 343 articles. Results After the abstracts were reviewed, there were only 16 articles selected. Conclusions The implementation of the program in Indonesia has been run but is not yet optimal because of several obstacles i.e., the insufficient number of health workers and poor knowledge of health workers. Figuring out solutions to the obstacles could ease the program implementation to reduce the cases of HIV/AIDS. Obstacles were found in the implementation of the HIV/AIDS prevention program among mothers and children in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, the burden of hypertension has been rising at an alarming rate for the last two decades and is a major cause for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and morbidity. Hypertension is characterised by elevated blood pressure (BP) ≥ 140/90 mmHg. Current hypertension guidelines recommend the use of antihypertensives belonging to the following classes: calcium channel blockers (CCB), angiotensin converting inhibitors (ACEI), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), diuretics, β-blockers, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), to manage hypertension. Still, a considerable number of hypertensives in Africa have their BP uncontrolled due to poor drug response and remain at the risk of CVD events. Genetic factors are a major contributing factor, accounting for 20% to 80% of individual variability in therapy and poor response. Poor response to antihypertensive drug therapy is characterised by elevated BPs and occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). As a result, there have been numerous studies which have examined the role of genetic variation and its influence on antihypertensive drug response. These studies are predominantly carried out in non-African populations, including Europeans and Asians, with few or no Africans participating. It is important to note that the greatest genetic diversity is observed in African populations as well as the highest prevalence of hypertension. As a result, this warrants a need to focus on how genetic variation affects response to therapeutic interventions used to manage hypertension in African populations. In this paper, we discuss the implications of genetic diversity in CYP11B2, GRK4, NEDD4L, NPPA, SCNN1B, UMOD, CYP411, WNK, CYP3A4/5, ACE, ADBR1/2, GNB3, NOS3, B2, BEST3, SLC25A31, LRRC15 genes, and chromosome 12q loci on hypertension susceptibility and response to antihypertensive therapy. We show that African populations are poorly explored genetically, and for the few characterised genes, they exhibit qualitative and quantitative differences in the profile of pharmacogene variants when compared to other ethnic groups. We conclude by proposing prioritization of pharmacogenetics research in Africa and possible adoption of pharmacogenetic-guided therapies for hypertension in African patients. Finally, we outline the implications, challenges, and opportunities these studies present for populations of non-European descent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are numerous contagious diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, that have the propensity to culminate in fatal consequences. A communicable disease is an illness caused by a contagion agent or its toxins and spread directly or indirectly to a susceptible animal or human host by an infected person, animal, vector, or immaterial environment. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, hepatitis A, B, and C, and measles are all examples of communicable diseases. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a communicable disease caused by HIV infection that has become the most severe issue facing humanity. The research work in this paper is to numerically explore a mathematical model and demonstrate the dynamics of HIV/AIDS disease transmission using a continuous Galerkin–Petrov time discretization of a higher-order scheme, specifically the cGP(2)-scheme. Depict a graphical and tabular comparison between the outcomes of the mentioned scheme and those obtained through other classical schemes that exist in the literature. Further, a comparison is performed relative to the well-known fourth-order Ruge–Kutta (RK4) method with different step sizes. By contrast, the suggested approach provided more accurate results with a larger step size than RK4 with a smaller step size. After validation and confirmation of the suggested scheme and code, we implement the method to the extended model by introducing a treatment rate and show the impact of various non-linear source terms for the generation of new cells. We also determined the basic reproduction number and use the Routh-Hurwitz criterion to assess the stability of disease-free and unique endemic equilibrium states of the HIV model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human immunodeficiency viruses are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, a condition in which progressive immune system failure allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Human immunodeficiency virus infection came from a type of chimpanzee in Central Africa. Studies show that immunodeficiency viruses may have jumped from chimpanzees to humans as far back as the late 1800s. Over decades, human immunodeficiency viruses slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world. The Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) models are significant in studying disease dynamics. In this paper, we have studied the effect of irresponsible immigrants on HIV/AIDS dynamics by formulating and considering different methods. Euler, Runge Kutta, and a Non-standard finite difference (NSFD) method are developed for the same problem. Numerical experiments are performed at disease-free and endemic equilibria points at different time step sizes 'h'. The results reveal that, unlike Euler and Runge Kutta, which fail for large time step sizes, the proposed Non-standard finite difference (NSFD) method gives a convergence solution for any time step size. Our proposed numerical method is bounded, dynamically consistent, and preserves the positivity of the continuous solution, which are essential requirements when modeling a prevalent disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, women represent more than half the people living with HIV. This proportion varies by country, with an over-representation of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in some regions. For example, in Australia, MSM account for over 60% of transmissions, with heterosexual sex accounting for almost a quarter of transmissions. Irrespective of geographic region, there is evidence that women can have a different lived experience of HIV due to their unequal social and economic status in society, while MSM can have a different lived experience depending on the laws and customs of their geographic location. Gender differences related to risk factors, stigma, access to services, mental health, health-related quality of life and economic consequences have been consistently reported globally. This paper explores the subjective lived experience of gender and sexuality disparities among three individuals living with HIV in Australia: a male who identified as gay, and a male and female who each identified as heterosexual. Analysis of themes from these three case reports indicated discernible differences by gender and sexuality in four areas: access to medical services, social support, stigma and mental health. It is argued that knowledge and understanding of potential gender and sexuality disparities must be factored into supportive interventions for people living with HIV in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: With the prolongation of life span and increasing incidence of comorbidities, polypharmacy has become a challenge for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH). This review aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to maintaining a high level of polypharmacy adherence in people living with HIV/AIDS. Methods: Nine electronic databases were searched for studies from 1996 to October 2021. Studies were included if they were conducted with adults living with HIV/AIDS and reported barriers and facilitators to maintaining a high level of polypharmacy adherence. This review presents a conceptual framework model to help understand the barriers and facilitators. Results: Twenty-nine studies were included. The majority of publications were observational studies. Eighty specific factors were identified and further divided into five categories, including individual factors, treatment-related factors, condition-related factors, healthcare provider-related factors, and socioeconomic factors, based on the multidimensional adherence model (MAM). Conclusion: Eighty factors associated with polypharmacy adherence among people living with HIV/AIDS were identified and grouped into five major categories. Healthcare providers can make decisions based on the five categories of relevant factors described in this paper when developing interventions to enhance polypharmacy adherence. It is recommended that medications be evaluated separately and that an overall medication evaluation be conducted at the same time to prevent inappropriate polypharmacy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its clinical entity, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) continue to represent an important health burden worldwide. Although great advances have been made towards determining the way viral genetic diversity affects clinical outcome, genetic association studies have been hindered by the complexity of their interactions with the human host. This study provides an innovative approach for the identification and analysis of epidemiological associations between HIV Viral Infectivity Factor (Vif) protein mutations and four clinical endpoints (Viral load and CD4 T cell numbers at time of both clinical debut and on historical follow-up of patients. Furthermore, this study highlights an alternative approach to the analysis of imbalanced datasets, where patients without specific mutations outnumber those with mutations. Imbalanced datasets are still a challenge hindering the development of classification algorithms through machine learning. This research deals with Decision Trees, Naïve Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machines (SVMs), and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). This paper proposes a new methodology considering an undersampling approach to deal with imbalanced datasets and introduces two novel and differing approaches (MAREV-1 and MAREV-2). As theses approaches do not involve human pre-determined and hypothesis-driven combinations of motifs having functional or clinical relevance, they provide a unique opportunity to discover novel complex motif combinations of interest. Moreover, the motif combinations found can be analyzed through traditional statistical approaches avoiding statistical corrections for multiple tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With emerging contextual factors and epidemiological transition of HIV/AIDS, the role and contributions of health behavior theories (HBT) are a compelling question after three decades of efforts to eradicate HIV. This study aims at exploring the global and historical evolution of literature and suggesting the most frequent research topics and research gaps in relation to the use of HBT in HIV/AIDS. A cross-sectional analysis of global HIV/AIDS bibliography was conducted through Web of Science (WoS) up to December 31, 2017. We utilized exploratory factor analysis to test the likelihood of research domains and landscape from the abstracts. A total of 29,997 papers in 153 HIV-related research areas were retrieved from the WoS database. This study suggests that HIV/AIDS research based on HBTs is increasing, and mainly focuses on elucidating traditional HIV driven factors and consonant with western perspectives most HBTs tend to be individually focused. Despite its important advancement, more research based on HBTs is essential to provide cultural background, social value, and contextualized factors where the HIV pandemic is dynamic; where new cases are transmitted from high-risk subgroups to the general population; and where epidemiological, social, and behavioral transitions change new infection routes, new perspectives for health service delivery especially non-medical services, and resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]