HIV/AIDS News

In a study conducted among nearly 500 influenza vaccine-naive mother-infant pairs in Malawi, researchers found that maternal HIV infection was associated with lower antibody responses to influenza A viruses in both mothers and their infants, suggesting that influenza vaccines “may have variable efficacy in sub-Saharan Africa” where there is a high burden of HIV, researchers said.

Combination HIV interventions in HIV-hyperendemic fishing communities in Uganda resulted in increased testing, male circumcision and ART coverage, as well as increased population HIV viral load suppression, according to findings from a prospective cohort study published in The Lancet HIV.

A tuberculosis prediction score based on diagnostic models may enable prompt treatment decisions in HIV-infected children with suspected TB and a high risk for mortality, according to research published in Pediatrics. Implementing the score would likely have significant public health benefits, the researchers noted.

Almost a quarter of at-risk women screened at family planning clinics in Kenya initiated pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, for HIV prevention, and more than 40% of them returned for at least one refill, suggesting that integrating universal screening and counseling for PrEP in family planning clinics is feasible, researchers said.

According to results from the ongoing Tsepamo study in Botswana, infants born to women who took the integrase inhibitor dolutegravir for HIV infection from conception remained at an elevated risk for neural tube defects, with three in 1,000 born with these conditions. However, the findings, which were presented at the International AIDS Society Conference in Mexico City and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the risk is significantly lower than previously estimated.

The Merck Foundation recently committed $7 million to promote access to HIV care and improve outcomes of vulnerable and underserved patients with HIV living in the southeastern United States, according to a news release.

In the United States, children born to mothers with HIV but who are not infected with the virus are hospitalized at more than twice the rate of children born to mothers without HIV, according to research published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. They also face twice the rate of hospitalization from infections.

WHO revised its recommendations on hormonal contraceptive use to say that women at high risk for HIV can use any form of reversible contraception — including implants, intrauterine devices and progestogen-only injectables — without an increased risk for infection.

Improving social support and cultivating the self-management skills of young adults with perinatally acquired HIV can increase retention in care and improve clinical health during their transition to adult care, according to a recent study.

An injectable two-drug regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine administered every 2 months is noninferior to the same injection received monthly, according to results from the phase 3 ATLAS-2M trial.