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Abstract Background The impact of extended use of ART in developing countries has been enormous. A thorough understanding of all factors contributing to the success of antiretroviral therapy is required. The current study aims to investigate the value of cross-sectional drug resistance monitoring using DNA and RNA oligonucleotide ligation assays (OLA) in treatment cohorts in low-resource settings. The study was conducted in the first cohort of children gaining access to structured ART in Peru. Methods Between 2002–5, 46 eligible children started the standard regimen of AZT, 3TC and NFV Patients had a median age of 5.6 years (range: 0.7-14y), a median viral load of 1.7·105 RNA/ml (range: 2.1·103 – 1.2·106), and a median CD4-count of 232 cells/μL (range: 1–1591). Of these, 20 patients were classified as CDC clinical category C and 31/46 as CDC immune category 3. At the time of cross-sectional analysis in 2005, adherence questionnaires were administered. DNA OLAs and RNA OLAs were performed from frozen PBMC and plasma, RNA genotyping from dried blood spots. Results During the first year of ART, 44% of children experienced virologic failure, with an additional 9% failing by the end of the second year. Virologic failure was significantly associated with the number of resistance mutations detected by DNA-OLA (p < 0.001) during cross-sectional analysis, but also with low immunologic CDC-scores at baseline (p < 0.001). Children who had been exposed to unsupervised short-term antiretrovirals before starting structured ART showed significantly higher numbers of resistance mutations by DNA-OLA (p = 0.01). Detection of M184V (3TC resistance) by RNA-OLA and DNA-OLA demonstrated a sensitivity of 0.93 and 0.86 and specificity of 0.67 and 0.7, respectively, for the identification of virologic failure. The RT mutations N88D and L90M (NFV resistance) detected by DNA-OLA correlated with virologic failure, whereas mutations at RT position 215 (AZT resistance) were not associated with virologic failure. Conclusions Advanced immunosuppression at baseline and previous exposures to unsupervised brief cycles of ART significantly impaired treatment outcomes at a time when structured ART was finally introduced in his cohort. Brief maternal exposures to with AZT +/− NVP for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission did not affect treatment outcomes in this group of children. DNA-OLA from frozen PBMC provided a highly specific tool to detect archived drug resistance. RNA consensus genotyping from dried blood spots and RNA-OLA from plasma consistently detected drug resistance mutations, but merely in association with virologic failure.

Background: In many resource-poor settings such as Peru, children affected by HIV have a high prevalence of neurodevelopmental delays (NDDs) and remain excluded from adequate treatment.Methods: Community health workers (CHWs) administered NDD screening instruments to assess child development and associated caregiver and household factors in 14 HIV-affected parent-child dyads. Focus group discussion with caregivers was conducted to explore their needs and behaviors around early child stimulation and to assess their perceptions of the screening experience.Results: Over 70% of the children had abnormal classification in at least 1 (out of 5) developmental domains according to Ages and States Questionnaire-provided cutoff scores. Caregiver depression and stress were associated with abnormal development as were some parenting behavior factors. Knowledge about child development was low. Caregivers felt testing and discussing results with a CHW were very insightful. Reported caregiver behavior differed between caregivers with HIV-infected children and those with uninfected children.Conclusion: Taken together, these exploratory quantitative data suggest that parenting behaviors associated with low child development scores may be modifiable and that community-based testing is well received and informative to these HIV-infected caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To determine the clinical and demographic characteristics of pneumonia with influenza virus AH1N1/2009 pandemic at the National Institute of Child. Methods. Retrospective case series in children hospitalized for influenza pneumonia pandemic AH1N1/2009 in a pediatric hospital. Reviewed the medical records between the months of June to September 2009. All cases had virological confirmation, we describe the clinical characteristics and conditions of severity. Results. A total of 74 children of pneumonia with influenza virus AH1N1/2009 pandemic (NVIp), of those 50 were community acquire pneumonia viral (NACv) and 24 pneumonia nosocomial viral (NNv), 16 required mechanical ventilation. 12 died, all had preexisting factors. NN cases showed statistical association with mortality. The most frequent factors were malnutrition, respiratory infections, congenital heart disease and neurological deficits In NACv cases the children under 6 years accounted for 72% (36/50). The median disease duration was 5 days. The most frequent symptoms were fever, cough, runny nose. Received oseltamivir 82%. The chest radiograph 48% of cases showed patchy infiltrates and 44% interstitial infiltrate on chest radiograph. Protein c reactive (CRP) more than 10mg / L was significantly associated with respiratory failure (p <0.05). Conclusions. Cases of NN found who had more mortality, even those who had the highest PCR and those with preexisting condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescents living with HIV are disproportionally affected by depression, which worsens antiretroviral therapy adherence, increases viral load, and doubles the risk of mortality. Because most adolescents living with HIV live in low- and middle-income countries, few receive depression treatment due to a lack of mental health services and specialists in low-resource settings. Chatbot technology, used increasingly in health service delivery, is a promising approach for delivering low-intensity depression care to adolescents living with HIV in resource-constrained settings., Objective: The goal of this study is to develop and pilot-test for the feasibility and acceptability of a prototype, optimized conversational agent (chatbot) to provide mental health education, self-help skills, and care linkage for adolescents living with HIV., Methods: Chatbot development comprises 3 phases conducted over 2 years. In the first phase (year 1), formative research will be conducted to understand the views, opinions, and preferences of up to 48 youths aged 10-19 years (6 focus groups of up to 8 adolescents living with HIV per group), their caregivers (5 in-depth interviews), and HIV program personnel (5 in-depth interviews) regarding depression among adolescents living with HIV. We will also investigate the perceived acceptability of a mental health chatbot, including barriers and facilitators to accessing and using a chatbot for depression care by adolescents living with HIV. In the second phase (year 1), we will iteratively program a chatbot using the SmartBot360 software with successive versions (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3), meeting regularly with a Youth Advisory Board comprised of adolescents living with HIV who will guide and inform the chatbot development and content to arrive at a prototype version (version 1.0) for pilot-testing. In the third phase (year 2), we will pilot-test the prototype chatbot among 50 adolescents living with HIV naïve to its development. Participants will interact with the chatbot for up to 2 weeks, and data will be collected on the acceptability of the chatbot-delivered depression education and self-help strategies, depression knowledge changes, and intention to seek care linkage., Results: The study was awarded in April 2022, received institutional review board approval in November 2022, received funding in December 2022, and commenced recruitment in March 2023. By the completion of study phases 1 and 2, we expect our chatbot to incorporate key needs and preferences gathered from focus groups and interviews to develop the chatbot. By the completion of study phase 3, we will have assessed the feasibility and acceptability of the prototype chatbot. Study phase 3 began in April 2024. Final results are expected by January 2025 and published thereafter., Conclusions: The study will produce a prototype mental health chatbot developed with and for adolescents living with HIV that will be ready for efficacy testing in a subsequent, larger study., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/55559., (©Jerome T Galea, Diego H Vasquez, Neil Rupani, Moya B Gordon, Milagros Tapia, Karah Y Greene, Lenka Kolevic, Molly F Franke, Carmen Contreras. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 07.05.2024.)

Objective: To determine the clinical and demographic characteristics of pneumonia with influenza virus AH1N1/2009 pandemic at the National Institute of Child., Methods: Retrospective case series in children hospitalized for influenza pneumonia pandemic AH1N1/2009 in a pediatric hospital. Reviewed the medical records between the months of June to September 2009. All cases had virological confirmation, we describe the clinical characteristics and conditions of severity., Results: A total of 74 children of pneumonia with influenza virus AH1N1/2009 pandemic (NVIp), of those 50 were community acquire pneumonia viral (NACv) and 24 pneumonia nosocomial viral (NNv), 16 required mechanical ventilation. 12 died, all had preexisting factors. NN cases showed statistical association with mortality. The most frequent factors were malnutrition, respiratory infections, congenital heart disease and neurological deficits In NACv cases the children under 6 years accounted for 72% (36/50). The median disease duration was 5 days. The most frequent symptoms were fever, cough, runny nose. Received oseltamivir 82%. The chest radiograph 48% of cases showed patchy infiltrates and 44% interstitial infiltrate on chest radiograph. Protein c reactive (CRP) more than 10mg / L was significantly associated with respiratory failure (p <0.05)., Conclusions: Cases of NN found who had more mortality, even those who had the highest PCR and those with preexisting condition.