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Introduction: In Senegal, the decentralization of Health Care Centers has contributed significantly to the intensification of antiretroviral treatment. However, Care providers are still facing the treatment optimizing challenge. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of virologic failures of PLHIV monitored in a decentralized Health care center and to determine associated factors. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study of PLHIV, aged 18 years and over, on first-line treatment, monitored onsite from February 1st to December 31st, 2018. A data collection form was completed from medical records (clinical, immuno-virologic and evolutionary). Any VL > 1000 cp/ml after 6 months of antiretroviral therapy (ART) was considered as virologic failure. Data were captured and analysed using the EPI INFO 2002software. Chi-square test and the Fisher test were used to compare the proportions; a value of p ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 331 patients were treated with HIV-1 profile in 89% of cases. A proportion of 55% was married and 97% came from rural areas. 80% were either not or poorly educated. The median of age was 44 ± 11 years with a F/M ratio of 3.4. At baseline, 56% were symptomatic at stage 3 or 4 of WHO. They had severe immunosuppression with a median CD4 count of 217 ± 187 cells/mm3, the viral load was detectable in half of the patients with a median VL of 97,000 cp/ml ± 70,569. The antiretroviral regimen combined 2 NRTIs with 1 NNRTI in 88% of cases. The median of follow-up was estimated at 60 ± 43 months. The prevalence of virologic failure was 19%. This prevalence was associated with age less than 25 years (p = 0.04), late diagnosis (CD4 at baseline less than 200 cel/mm3 (p = 0.002), stage 3 or 4 WHO (p = 0.04) High viral load greater than 10,000 (p = 0.04) at baseline. Conclusion: These results suggest making the new therapeutic classes accessible for first-line treatment.

Background Programmatic treatment outcome data for people living with human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) in West Africa, where the virus is most prevalent, are scarce. Methods Adults with HIV-2 initiating or receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) through the Senegalese national AIDS program were invited to participate in this prospective, longitudinal observational cohort study. We analyzed HIV-2 viral loads, CD4 cell counts, antiretroviral drug resistance, loss to follow-up, and mortality. We also examined changes in treatment guidelines over time and assessed progress toward the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets for HIV-2. Results We enrolled 291 participants at 2 sites for 926.0 person-years of follow-up over 13 years. Median follow-up time was 2.2 years per participant. There were 21 deaths reported (7.2%), and 117 individuals (40.2%) were lost to follow-up, including 43 (14.7%) who had an initial visit but never returned for follow-up. CD4 counts and HIV-2 viral suppression ( Conclusions Participants in the Senegalese national AIDS program are initiating ART earlier in the course of disease, and more modern therapeutic regimens have improved outcomes among those receiving therapy. Despite these achievements, HIV-2 treatment remains suboptimal, and significant challenges to improving care remain.

Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) is a traditional practice that affects a significant portion of women in sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, areas of the Middle East and some countries in Asia. While clinical and epidemiological studies have established a close association between inflammation and carcinogenesis, particularly in epithelial cancers, the relationship between FGM/C and cervical cancer is not well known. We performed a secondary analysis using combined data from six research studies conducted in and around Dakar, Senegal from 1994 to 2012. Study subjects included both asymptomatic women who presented to outpatient clinics but were screened for cervical cancer, and women with cancer symptoms who were referred for cervical cancer treatment. We used unconditional logistic regression to estimate adjusted pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between FGM/C and (1) Invasive cervical cancer (ICC) and (2) noninvasive cervical abnormalities. After adjusting for confounding, women with ICC were 2.50 times more likely to have undergone FGM/C than women without cervical abnormalities (95% CI, 1.28-4.91). Restricting to HPV-positive women increased the strength of the association (OR = 4.23; 95% CI 1.73-10.32). No significant associations between FGM/C and noninvasive cervical abnormalities were observed, except in commercial sex workers with FGM/C (OR = 2.01; 95% CI 1.19-3.40). The potential increased risk for ICC suggested by our study warrants further examination. Study results may impact cancer prevention efforts in populations where FGM/C is practiced and draw awareness to the additional health risks associated with FGM/C.

BACKGROUND: There is an urgent need for safe and effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) for human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) infection. We undertook the first clinical trial of a single-tablet regimen containing elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (E/C/F/TDF) to assess its effectiveness in HIV-2–infected individuals in Senegal, West Africa. METHODS: HIV-2–infected, ART-naive adults with World Health Organization stage 3–4 disease or CD4 count

Background The Alere q HIV-1/2 Detect test (Alere Detect) is a rapid point-of-care (POC) nucleic acid test (NAT) that can detect and differentiate HIV-1 and HIV-2 in 25-μL whole blood or plasma samples. The Alere Detect test has been validated for early infant diagnosis of HIV-1 infection, and it is the only POC NAT device currently known to detect HIV-2, which is endemic in West Africa. Objectives To evaluate the sensitivity detecting HIV-2 RNA and the differential performance of the Alere Detect. Study design Plasma samples from non-HIV (n = 4), HIV-1 (n = 22), HIV-2 (n = 111; 29 Group A, 2 Group B) and HIV-1/HIV-2 dually-seropositive (n = 8) participants in Senegal and the United States and HIV-2 reference strains (3 Group A, 1 Group B) were tested by Alere Detect, Abbott RealTime HIV-1 and the University of Washington HIV-2 RNA quantitative (UW HIV-2) assays. Results The Alere Detect correctly differentiated between HIV-1 and HIV-2 in all 80 (100%) patient samples with detectable HIV RNA (n = 20 HIV-1, 60 HIV-2). The overall HIV-2 detection concordance between Alere Detect and the UW HIV-2 assay was 68% (54/80); the concordance improved to 100% (30/30) for samples with HIV-2 RNA >300copies/mL. Neither assay detected HIV-2 RNA in 31 of 111 HIV-2 seropositive samples. Conclusions The Alere Detect test is a novel device detecting HIV RNA in clinical samples, and differentiating HIV-1 and HIV-2 with a high level of specificity. It has the potential for use as a rapid HIV-2 NAT-based diagnosis tool in resource-limited settings and to confirm HIV-2 infection for the CDC 4th generation HIV-1/2 diagnostic algorithm.

The 2014 CDC 4th generation HIV screening algorithm includes an orthogonal immunoassay to confirm and discriminate HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies. Additional nucleic acid testing (NAT) is recommended to resolve indeterminate or undifferentiated HIV seroreactivity. HIV-2 NAT requires a second-line assay to detect HIV-2 total nucleic acid (TNA) in patients' blood cells, as a third of untreated patients have undetectable plasma HIV-2 RNA.To validate a qualitative HIV-2 TNA assay using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HIV-2-infected Senegalese study participants.We evaluated the assay precision, sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic performance of an HIV-2 TNA assay. Matched plasma and PBMC samples were collected from 25 HIV-1, 30 HIV-2, 8 HIV-1/-2 dual-seropositive and 25 HIV seronegative individuals. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by comparing the outcome of the TNA assay to the results obtained by the 4th generation HIV screening and confirmatory immunoassays.All PBMC from 30 HIV-2 seropositive participants tested positive for HIV-2 TNA including 23 patients with undetectable plasma RNA. Of the 30 matched plasma specimens, one was HIV non-reactive. Samples from 50 non-HIV-2 infected individuals were confirmed as non-reactive for HIV-2 Ab and negative for HIV-2 TNA. The agreement between HIV-2 TNA and the combined immunoassay results was 98.8% (79/80). Furthermore, HIV-2 TNA was detected in 7 of 8 PBMC specimens from HIV-1/HIV-2 dual-seropositive participants.Our TNA assay detected HIV-2 DNA/RNA in PBMC from serologically HIV-2 reactive, HIV indeterminate or HIV undifferentiated individuals with undetectable plasma RNA, and is suitable for confirming HIV-2 infection in the HIV testing algorithm.

Introduction HIV-2, endemic in West Africa, has a natural resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) which makes it difficult to treat it in developing countries. Methods We conducted a descriptive, longitudinal, prospective study over the period November 2005-June 2017. Virologic failure has been defined as any viral load greater than 50 copies/ml after 6 months of ARV treatment administered twice. Assays for detecting drug-resistance mutations was performed in the protease-coding region and in the reverse transcriptase-coding region. Results Data from a total of 110 patients were collected. The patients had a median age of 46 years (ranging from 18 to 67) with a sex-ratio F/M of 2.54. At inclusion, viral load could be assessed in 44% of cases with a median of 935cp/ml (ranging from 17 to 144038). Antiretroviral regimen consisted of a combination of 2 NRTIs and 1IP in 94% of cases. The median follow-up was 1200 days (ranging from 1 to 3840); 94 then 76 patients completed their 12-month and 24-month assessments respectively. At 24-month follow-up, 39 patients had virologic failure, reflecting a prevalence of 39% estimated at 33% at 12-month follow-up and at 11% at 24-month follow-up; NRTIs resistance was observed in 45% of patients, IP resistance in 41% of patients while multi-NRTIs resistance and multi-IP resistance in 30% of patients. Conclusion Currently, there is an urgent need to make available the new therapeutic classes of ARV for second line ART for patients living with HIV-2 with therapeutic failure in resource-limited settings.

We examined the antiviral activity of the integrase inhibitor (INI) cabotegravir against HIV-2 isolates from INI-naive individuals. HIV-2 was sensitive to cabotegravir in single-cycle and spreading-infection assays, with 50% effective concentrations (EC(50)s) in the low to subnanomolar range; comparable results were obtained for HIV-1 in both assay formats. Our findings suggest that cabotegravir should be evaluated in clinical trials as a potential option for antiretroviral therapy and preexposure prophylaxis in HIV-2-prevalent settings.

An understanding of the factors contributing to food insecurity and malnutrition among people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Senegal is urgently needed in order to develop effective interventions. The goals of this study were to identify differences in the dimensions of food security among PLHIV in Dakar versus Ziguinchor, Senegal, to determine which of these dimensions are most predictive of severe food insecurity, and to identify factors associated with malnutrition. We conducted a cross-sectional study at outpatient clinics in Dakar and Ziguinchor, Senegal. Data were collected using participant interviews, anthropometry, the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, the Individual Dietary Diversity Scale, and chart review. Interviews were conducted with ninety-five food insecure, HIV-infected subjects. Daily household income and daily food expenditure per household member were the strongest predictors of severe food insecurity. The practice of agriculture, livestock ownership, nutritional status, and HIV outcomes were not predictive of severe food insecurity. CD4 count

Background Malnutrition and food insecurity are associated with increased mortality and poor clinical outcomes among people living with HIV/AIDS; however, the prevalence of malnutrition and food insecurity among people living with HIV/AIDS in Senegal, West Africa is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of food insecurity and malnutrition among HIV-infected adults in Senegal, and to identify associations between food insecurity, malnutrition, and HIV outcomes. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study at outpatient clinics in Dakar and Ziguinchor, Senegal. Data were collected using participant interviews, anthropometry, the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale, the Individual Dietary Diversity Scale, and chart review. Results One hundred and nine HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 participants were enrolled. The prevalence of food insecurity was 84.6% in Dakar and 89.5% in Ziguinchor. The prevalence of severe food insecurity was 59.6% in Dakar and 75.4% in Ziguinchor. The prevalence of malnutrition (BMI

Background Antiretroviral therapy for HIV-2 infection is hampered by intrinsic resistance to many of the drugs used to treat HIV-1. Limited studies suggest that the integrase inhibitors (INIs) raltegravir and elvitegravir have potent activity against HIV-2 in culture and in infected patients. There is a paucity of data on genotypic variation in HIV-2 integrase that might confer intrinsic or transmitted INI resistance. Methods We PCR amplified and analyzed 122 HIV-2 integrase consensus sequences from 39 HIV-2–infected, INI-naive adults in Senegal, West Africa. We assessed genetic variation and canonical mutations known to confer INI-resistance in HIV-1. Results No amino acid-altering mutations were detected at sites known to be pivotal for INI resistance in HIV-1 (integrase positions 143, 148 and 155). Polymorphisms at several other HIV-1 INI resistance-associated sites were detected at positions 72, 95, 125, 154, 165, 201, 203, and 263 of the HIV-2 integrase protein. Conclusion Emerging genotypic and phenotypic data suggest that HIV-2 is susceptible to the new class of HIV integrase inhibitors. We hypothesize that intrinsic HIV-2 integrase variation at “secondary” HIV-1 INI-resistance sites may affect the genetic barrier to HIV-2 INI resistance. Further studies will be needed to assess INI efficacy as part of combination antiretroviral therapy in HIV-2–infected patients.