AIDS on the internet

Abstract

Entering the terms “HIV” or “AIDS” into most search engines may produce in excess of 500 000 000 sites. Potentially bewildering for both doctor and patient, fortunately some search engines now sort the sites into categories such as diagnosis, treatment, etc, and also specify which sites are more aimed at health professionals and which at patients. Both health professionals and patients worldwide may find the World Health Organisation's web page on HIV infections (http://www.who.int/topics/hiv_infections/) of value. The web site is multilingual (click on the menu at the top of the page for translation into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, or Spanish), and provides a large number of links to further pages outlining the situation with regard to infection with HIV/AIDS in different parts of the world, fact sheets particularly focusing on issues that primarily affect women, and information about other issues including how the condition may be diagnosed. Much of the information is very general however, and patients wishing to find out more about the condition and how they themselves may be affected may find http://www.aidsmeds.com/ useful. This American site (available in English and Spanish) provides a wide range of easy to read information about many different aspects of HIV/AIDS, including diagnosis and current treatments available, BLOGS written by people living with HIV/AIDS, and the web site even provides the facility for patients to produce graphs to track their own blood test results. Although some of the details particularly with regard to the treatments will be more applicable to the American audience, patients everywhere may find the site helpful. The site does have some pharmaceutical sponsorship, but this is discrete and non-promotional. Patients wanting to use a UK based web site may wish to see the web site of the Terence Higgins Trust (http://www.tht.org.uk/), which provides information on services available particularly for those living in England and Wales, although much of the information on the web site is likely to be of interest to people in Scotland and Ireland also. A brief assessment of a number of the sites labelled as being more suited to health professionals shows that the general information provided is probably equally suited to patients and health professionals wishing a general overview of HIV/AIDS, and often do not provide a great wealth of medical detail, which is probably best found within a text book or by searching peer reviewed journals. What is covered is some detail however, are the various groups running clinical trials for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Many of these again are US based, and provide general information for patients interested in participating in trials, and for those doctors and other health professionals already involved in their care. For those treating children with HIV/AIDS, the web site of PENTA (Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS) http://www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk/penta/ provides guidelines for the treatment of children, details of clinical trials currently running, and lists of publications that the group has produced. To summarise, the internet provides a wealth of information on HIV/AIDS. This is only a small selection of the web sites that may be useful both to ourselves and to our patients.