Autocorrelation and spatiotemporal clusters of HIV/AIDS patients in Rongchang District, Chongqing

HIV Disease and Aging

Objective To investigate the distribution and amount of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in gastric mucosa from untreated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) treated patients.Methods Thirty-five AIDS patients (14 untreated patients and 21 patients receiving HAART) and 10 HIV-1 seronegative patients with gastrointestinal symptoms were enrolled and examined by upper endoscopy.The labeled HIV-1 double-stranded cDNA probe was a PCR product corresponding to the LTR and gag gene of the HIV-1 genome.HIV in gastric mucosal tissues from AIDS patients was detected using in situ hybridization (ISH) and compared with that in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).Results ① No obvious character was found in gastrointestinal symptoms,endoscopy examination and pathology results of AIDS patients.② The expression of HIV gene was mainly detected in the gastric mucosal mononuclear cell (MMC).Other cells were also observed with HIV expression including mucosal epithelial cells,gland epithelial cells and interstitial cells.③There was no difference in HIV expression between sinus ventriculi and gastric body.④ HIV gene expression from AIDS patients was (1.97±3.25)% in gastric mucosa,no difference in HIV gene expression between two groups (P＞0.05).⑤ HIV gene expression in PBMC smear from AIDS patients was (12.38 ± 9.17)%.HIV expreesion in PBMC from patients who had received HAART for 1-4 years were markedly lower than that from patients who had not received HAART (P＜0.05).Conclusions The gastric mueosa is one of HIV infected sites.The potential effect of HAART on the decrease of HIV infected cells in gastric mucosa was unsatisfactory. Key words: HIV infections; Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; Gastric mucosa; Antiretroviral therapy,highly active

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the leading cause of death in sub-Sahara Africa. A major focal point of the epidemiology and spread of HIV infection and AIDS is HIV/AIDS related knowledge, especially as these affect AIDS risk behaviors in vulnerable populations of Africa. While HIV testing serves as the gateway to treatment, care, and prevention of HIV/AIDS; uptake of HIV testing is very low in sub-Saharan Africa. This study was conducted to assess the HIV/AIDS related knowledge, risk perception and practice of HIV confidential counseling and testing among patients in Sokoto. A descriptive cross-sectional study among 184 randomly selected patients attending the medical outpatient clinic of Specialist Hospital Sokoto, Nigeria was conducted in September 2010. Informed consent was taken and information was collected by a pre-designed questionnaire, data analysis was done using computer software, SPSS version 17. Almost all the patients (97.8%) have heard about HIV/AIDS. Although only 18.3% knew the causative agent, majority had adequate knowledge of transmission (71.1%) and prevention (62.2%) of the disease, with a few among them having some misconceptions. Most (89.4%) perceived the disease to be a serious threat to them, but some still engaged in sharing needle with another person (12.2%), and casual sex (8.3%). Barely half (57.2%) knew where to do HIV test, and only 23.9% have been tested for HIV. Inadequate awareness and poor practice of HIV testing was demonstrated in this study despite adequate knowledge and perception of risk of HIV/AIDS. This suggests the need for all the stakeholders to intensify health education aimed at removing misconceptions about the disease and improving uptake of HIV testing. Key words: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS), knowledge, risk perception, confidential counseling and testing.

Objective To investigate the situation of sexual transmitted diseases (STD) prevalence among human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)patients and to analyze its impact on HIV transmission between couples. Methods Under voluntary counseling and testing, 1 871 clinically confirmed HIV/AIDS patients underwent common STD testing, with synchronous test of HIV infection on their couples. Continuous variables were compared using t-test, and categorical variables were compared using variance analysis. Chi-square test was used for comparison between groups. Results Among 1 871 HIV/AIDS patients, 571 patients (30.5%) were co-infected with STD. The HIV transmission rates between couples in STD co-infection group and non-STD co-infection group were 49.2% (281/571) and 23.6% (307/1 300), respectively, which was statistically different (χ2=120.6, P<0.01). Among the 571 HIV/STD co-infection patients, HIV transmission rates between couples with genital herpes, condyloma acuminatum, gonorrhoea or nongonococcal urethritis and syphilis were 84.2% (80/95), 72.2% (78/108), 45.0% (27/60) and 31.2% (96/308), respectively. There was statistically significant among multiple groups comparisons (χ2=110.0, P<0.01). Among the comparison between two groups, there were statistically significant differences between genital herpes group and condyloma acuminatum group (χ2=4.210, P=0.040), between pointed condyloma group and gonorrhoea or nongonococcal urethritis group (χ2=12.196, P<0.01), between gonorrhoea or nongonococcal urethritis group and syphilis group (χ2=4.317, P=0.038). Conclusions STD co-infection rate is high among HIV/AIDS patients. STD can facilitate the HIV transmission between couples, and different STD has different impact on the transmission. Key words: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; Herpes genitalis; Condylomata acuminata; Syphilis; Human papillomavirus; Gonorrhea; Nongonococcal urethritis

This study centres on the basic sociological concepts, attitudes, perception and its effects on propagating the message of the dreaded disease called human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention and control using engineering student from selected tertiary institution in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. HIV and AIDS prevention was examined prior and after HIV and AIDS education programme. It was discovered that majority of the students were aware of this deadly disease, but larger proportion of this class of students did not believe in necessity for the propagating the message of HIV and AIDS prevention due to either misconception or lack of proper awareness about the virus. This study revealed that HIV and AIDS education is essential to correct the students’ opinion, attitudes and perception about propagating the message of its prevention. The students’ levels of academic and awareness about the disease are also significant factors that could enhance their willingness to participate in propagating the message. Key words: Attitude, perception, propagation, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), control.

Is prior mycobacterial infection a common predisposing factor to aids in Haitians and Africans?

Objective To investigate strain distribution and antifungal susceptibility of fungus isolates from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients of Shanghai public health clinic center. Methods The funus isolates from clinical specimens of in-hospital AIDS patients in our hospital between January 2010 and December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Of the 3 155 hospitalized patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS, a total of 11 291 fungus culture specimens were collected, of which 1 786 (15.82%) were positive. Nine hundred and seventy-nine fungus strains were isolated, which were identified as 27 species or genus. The most common isolates were Candida albicans (503), Candida tropicalis (60), Candida glabrata (48), Candida krusei (41), Cryptococcus neoformans (179) and Penicillium marneffei (59). The majority positive samples were from respiratory tract (61.29%), followed by the feces (13.28%), cerebrospinal fluid (11.24%) and blood (11.13%). The positive isolation rate of sterile tissue specimens (mainly blood and cerebrospinal fluid) was 6.92%(558/8 052), and 96.24%(537/558) of the isolated fungi were Cryptococcus neoformans and Penicillium marneffei. The drug susceptibility rate of Candida to five antifungal drugs commonly used in clinical (amphotericin B, 5-fluorine cytosine, fluconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole) were 100.00%, 91.67%, 83.33%, 70.83% and 83.33%, respectively. The drug susceptibility rate of Cryptococcus neoformans to three antifungal drugs commonly used in clinical (amphotericin B, 5-fluorine cytosine, fluconazole) were 96.05%, 94.74% and 97.37%, respectively. Conclusions The predominant species of fungal pathogens in AIDS patient in our hospital include Candida, Cryptococcus neoformans and Penicillium marneffei. The pathogen distribution of blood and cerebrospinal fluid are different. Some of Candida and Cryptococcus neoformans are resistant to the commonly used antifungal drugs. Key words: Candida; Cryptococcus neoformans; Penicillium marneffei; Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; Drug susceptibility

Approximately 30 years ago, in June 1981, it was reported from theCenter forDiseaseControl andPrevention (CDC) that five, otherwise healthy, homosexual men in California had presented with pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, a rare disease seen exclusively in individualswith a severely suppressed immune system. Several reports confirmed the initial observation and lent support to the possibility that a new sexually transmitted, infectious agent was circulating within the gay community in the United States. The clinical condition was named acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Two years later, a research team at the Institut Pasteur under the guidance of Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier isolated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS, from a lymph node biopsy of a French patient. The isolation and characterization of HIV paved the way for the design of diagnosticmethods to identify the virus in blood andbloodproducts and towards the development of novel antiretroviral treatment (ART) to control HIV replication in infected patients. For their discoveries, Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2008.

Idiopathic AIDS Enteropathy and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Opportunistic Pathogens

Of the 93 acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients autopsied between 1983 and 1986, 27 had evidence of viral encephalitis of which 3 had progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), confirmed by electron microscopy. Using in situ hybridization with biotinylated JC virus probes, paraffin sections from the brains of these 27 patients were examined. JC virus was found only in those patients with histologically proven PML, while no evidence of JC virus was detected in the brains of the other 24 AIDS patients despite the presence of white matter pathology. Brain biopsies of the PML patients demonstrated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected macrophages infiltrating regions of demyelination. When the patients died (2 to 6 months after diagnosis of PML), many more macrophages contained HIV antigens and some had fused to form multinucleated giant cells. These findings suggest that in AIDS patients, papovaviruses not only cause damage by directly infecting oligodendroglia but causes additional damage by eliciting the ingress of macrophages latently infected with HIV. As was seen with other infections (e.g., cytomegalovirus) of the CNS this might be a general mechanism of HIV entry into the brain.

The HIV/AIDS grants economy in New York City, 1983-1992.

HIV and AIDSThe general public first acknowledgement of AIDS in the United States occurred in the early 1980s when Rock Hudson became infected and subsequently died. In the 1990s, largely due to categorization of the virus as Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), and subsequent neglect by the nation's political system, the virus quickly spread to previously uninfected populations (Shilts, 1986). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is caused by exposure to infected blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. When an individual's CD-4 or T cell count falls below 200 and/or the individual begins to experience serious complications, the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is diagnosed as a disease. [http://hopkinsaids. edu/publications/ pocketguide/pocketgd0105.pdf]. As the science of treatment improved and public health surveillance and treatment systems were established, HIV infected individuals with knowledge of the risks of infection and access to health care progressed much more slowly to AIDS. New AIDS cases experienced a dramatically curbed escalation in 1996 with the introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). [http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats/2003SurveillanceReport.pdf]. Although cases of AIDS decreased markedly due to improvements in treatment, overall HIV infections did not.Although modes of infection have been clear for some time, reporting mechanisms within the country have been obscured by many issues including the requirement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to report all HIV infections using a confidential, albeit not anonymous, system of name-based reporting, to which some states, like California, have objected. Due to the extensive window period that can average 10 to 15 years wherein HIV infected individuals experience no symptoms, comprehensive data collection and reporting on HIV infection becomes imperative if the US is to accurately target HIV prevention and management efforts, particularly among underserved populations.The Reporting System: HIV versus AIDSPublic health in the US begins at the local level and involves both private and public health providers. Early work with other sexually transmitted diseases such as Gonorrhea and Syphilis at the local level initiated and improved the reporting process from the local level to the state. [http://www.cdc.gov/std/Syphilis2003/SyphSurvSupp2003.pdf]. Nationally, the Atlantabased CDC initiated the collection of AIDS case data from the states.As an understanding of HIV's progression to AIDS matured, terms such as ARC, (AIDS Related Complex), were eliminated and the staging became reduced to HIV and AIDS as measured by T cell or CD-4 cell counts and more recently viral load. [http://hopkinsaids. edu/publications/ pocketguide/pocketgd0105.pdf]. Although AIDS cases are reported by each state to the CDC, many states have been slower in their progression to HIV reporting. A major issue among and between the states and the CDC arose as to the classification system to be used for reporting of HIV and AIDS cases, one that has still not been fully resolved for 19 states and the District of Columbia. Exposure categories for adults are further broken down into the two categories of HIV and AIDS. This paper analyzes the categories of exposure for adults, with emphasis placed on the emergence of HIV and AIDS in the Latino population, particularly among women.Due to HIV underreporting or reporting practices that do not meet the CDC requirements of name-based case identification, the most recent edition of the CDC's HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report includes HIV data from only 31 states. [http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats/2004SurveillanceReport.pdf]. The underreporting of HIV to the CDC is problematic for a number of reasons, as it fails to provide the nation with the information needed for an effective HIV/AIDS prevention and management strategy. This is particularly true among underserved populations such as Latinos, who are often uninsured or underinsured and may lack access to culturally and linguistically appropriate health care and HIV prevention information. …

Repeated exposure to HIV does not necessarily result in infection and HIV infection does not inevitably lead to the development of the AIDS. Multiple immunological and genetic features can confer resistance to HIV acquisition and progression at different steps in viral infection; a full understanding of these mechanisms could result in the development of novel therapeutic and vaccine approaches for HIV infection. In this review, we focus on the genetic mechanisms associated with resistance to HIV infection and to the progression to AIDS.

Although anabolic effects of GH supplementation have been reported in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients, the effects of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection per se on GH secretion are unknown. Therefore, we evaluated the characteristics of GH secretion in eight asymptomatic HIV-infected men, eight clinically stable male AIDS patients, and eight healthy controls. Wasting AIDS patients were not included to circumvent the confounding effects of opportunistic disease on GH secretion. Samples for GH analysis were taken at 10-min intervals over 24 h. GH was measured by immunoradiometric assay (detection limit, 0.08 mU/L). Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and IGF-binding protein-3 were measured every 6 h. The pulsatile secretion of GH was evaluated by Cluster and DESADE analyses. No differences in number of peaks, peak amplitude, peak length, peak interval, or GH secretion per 24 h were found among the studied groups. IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3 concentrations were not different among groups. Circadian GH secretion in asymptomatic HIV infection and AIDS without wasting is not different from that in healthy subjects. Therefore, anabolic effects documented in clinical trials with recombinant human GH in AIDS patients are not merely explained by alterations in the GH/IGF-I axis induced by HIV infection per se.

World AIDS Day 2021: highlighting the pulmonary complications of HIV/AIDS.