Abstract Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Research Articles

Anti-oxidant Containing Nanostructured Lipid Carriers of Ritonavir: Development, Optimization, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluations

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a condition caused by the infection of a retrovirus namely, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Currently, highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), a combination of anti-viral drugs belonging to different classes is considered to be effective in the management of HIV. Ritonavir, a protease inhibitor (PI), is one of the most important components of the HAART regimen. Because of its lower bioavailability and severe side effects, presently, ritonavir is not being used as a PI. However, this drug is being used as a pharmacokinetic boosting agent for other PIs such as lopinavir and in lower doses. The current study aimed to develop nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) encapsulating ritonavir to reduce its side effects and enhance oral bioavailability. Ritonavir-loaded NLCs were developed using a combination of two different solid lipids and liquid lipids. Alpha-tocopherol, a well-known anti-oxidant, was used as an excipient (liquid lipid) in the development of NLCs which were prepared using a simple hot-emulsion and ultrasonication method. Drug-excipient studies were performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). QbD approach was followed for the screening and optimization of different variables. The developed NLCs were characterized for their particle size (PS), polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential (ZP), and entrapment efficiency (EE). Furthermore, NLCs were studied for their in vitro drug release profile, and finally, pharmacokinetic parameters were determined using in vivo pharmacokinetic studies. The optimized NLC size was in the range of 273.9 to 458.7 nm, PDI of 0.314 to 0.480, ZP of −52.2 to − 40.9 mV, and EE in the range of 47.37 to 74.51%. From in vitro drug release, it was found that the release of drug in acidic medium was higher than phosphate buffer pH 6.8. Finally, in vivo pharmacokinetic studies revealed a 7-fold enhancement in the area under the curve (AUC) and more than 10-fold higher Cmax with the optimized formulation in comparison to pure drug suspension.Graphical

Dynamic analysis of an HIV/AIDS treatment model incorporating MSM

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has a serious impact on human health and life safety. In order to study its related factors, this paper establishes an HIV/AIDS model with treatment individuals based on heterosexual contact and male-to-male sexual contact. Using the method of next generation matrix, the threshold [Formula: see text] of the model is given. When [Formula: see text], it proves the global stability of the disease-free equilibrium. When [Formula: see text], it studies the dynamics of the boundary equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium under different conditions. Finally, through numerical simulations, the correctness of the theoretical results is verified. The key parameters affecting the spread of HIV are found through parameter sensitivity analysis, which provides a theoretical basis for effective control of the spread of HIV.

Chinese Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (2021 Edition)

Abstract Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an important public health problem in China. In 2005, the first edition of the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of AIDS was formulated by the AIDS Professional Group of Society of Infectious Diseases of Chinese Medical Association, which was updated in 2011, 2015, and 2018, respectively. The 2021 edition of the guidelines has been revised based on the fourth edition and updated according to the national clinical practice and the latest research findings on opportunistic infections, antiretroviral therapy, post-exposure prophylaxis, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), whole-course management of human immunodeficiency virus infections, and prevention of mother to child transmission. The 2021 edition also introduces in detail the indications, medication regimen, follow-up and monitoring, and precautions for PrEP. This guide will be updated regularly according to the latest clinical evidence.

Aids Case Study

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging immune system, HIV interferes with your body's ability to fight infection and disease. AIDS incidences are increasing by nearly 2.6 million every year. Objective: The purpose of this study to understand the cause, clinical manifestations and treatment course for AIDS. Material and methods: detailed clinical history and physical examination was done. All the pertinent investigations were studied thoroughly of the selected case. Results: the AIDS is confirmed with the help of Western Blot, Viral Load Test, ELISA Test Conclusion: AIDS is the serious chronic, potentially life-threatening disease Western Blot, Viral Load Test, ELISA Test are the diagnostics methods. The prognosis is depend usually better if treatment received on time.

Function of Serum Adenosine Deaminase as an Indicator of Immune Status in HIV Patients treated with Combination Antiretroviral Therapy

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the greatest public health and social problems threatening the human race. The trend of annual AIDS deaths is showing a steady decline since the implementation of the free Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) program in India (2004). HIV infection is characterized by replication of virus by abnormal non specific immune activation and persistent inflammation. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) has a cytokine-like co-stimulatory role in T cell proliferation which is independent of catalytic activity. Therefore, we decided to study the role of ADA as an indicator of immune status in HIV patients treated with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Adenosine deaminase activity (ADA) in HIV patients was estimated before and after 3 months interval of antiretroviral therapy (ART) up to 9 months. The study included 150 HIV positive patients between age group of 20-50 years from ICTC (Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre) and ART centre. Venous blood samples were collected in plain bulb to estimate serum ADA activity before and after 3 months interval upto 9 months of ART. Serum ADA activity was estimated using colorimetric method of Giusti and Galanti. Activity of serum ADA was significantly raised before and after 3 months interval of ART with decrease in CD4 cell count. After 6 months, increased ADA activity started declining and comes to near normal after 9 months of ART (p<0.001). Elevated serum adenosine deaminase activity in HIV patients is an indicator of T-cell activation. Serum ADA activity along with other markers can be used as a prognostic marker to monitor response to antiretroviral therapy and immunocompetence in HIV patients.

Análise da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca em pessoas vivendo com HIV submetidos à terapia antirretroviral (TARV) após a prática de atividade física

A Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida (AIDS) é uma doença causada pelo vírus da Imunodeficiência Humana (HIV) que ataca as células de defesa do indivíduo, os linfócitos TCD4+ causando um distúrbio grave do sistema imunológico. Seu tratamento é baseado em terapia combinada com medicações antirretrovirais que conseguem controlar a carga viral e diminuir as taxas de mortalidade da doença. Como alternativa, estratégias de intervenção através da prática de exercícios físicos com a finalidade de auxiliar no tratamento e qualidade de vida de pessoas vivendo com HIV vem sendo utilizadas pelos benefícios à saúde. Este estudo tem como objetivo comparar a variabilidade da frequência cardíaca (VFC) medida por um cardiofrequêncímetro, em pacientes HIV positivos submetidos a terapia antirretroviral (TARV) em repouso e após a realização de um treinamento concorrente (TC). O presente estudo constitui-se de uma pesquisa analítica, observacional e transversal. A amostra será composta por 15 pessoas que vivem com HIV e que se encontram em acompanhamento clínico ambulatorial do Serviço de Atendimento Especializado (SAE) (Casa Rosa) em Barretos interior do estado de São Paulo. Para apresentação dos dados foi utilizado o teste de Wilcoxon para encontrar quais foram diferentes, o nível de significância adotado foi de p<0,05. Para verificar a relação dos resultados, foi utilizado o teste coeficiente de correlação de Spearman. O tamanho de efeito também foi calculado utilizando o teste de Cohen (d). Os dados analisados correlacionaram nível de significância em todas as variáveis no domínio da frequência e do tempo, excetuando SDNN e SD2. Houve tamanho de efeito grande somente para o parâmetro HF (Δ% = 279,92% de redução) no domínio da frequência e nos parâmetros RMSSD (Δ% = 79,58% de redução) e SD1 (Δ% = 79,62% de redução) no domínio do tempo no TC, nos outros parâmetros não houve efeito grande. Dessa forma, observa-se um que a retomada vagal, que normalmente ocorre após um treinamento físico, não ocorreu ou está retornando lentamente. Enquanto no parâmetro LF houve uma redução significativa, ou seja, uma retirada simpática após o TC, mesmo assim a retirada simpática não foi total, pois o parâmetro LF/HF (Δ% = 42,31% de aumento e TE = 0,70), que seu aumento significa atividade simpática, mostrou um aumento significativo após o TC. Em conclusão a variabilidade da frequência cardíaca dos pacientes em estudo diminuiu após o treinamento concorrente possivelmente pela disfunção autonômica evidenciada na literatura para pessoas vivendo com HIV.

Importance of pharmacist in pharmacotherapeutic adhesion of patients with HIV/AIDS

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease characterized by progressive stages after the vulnerability of the immune system to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, which can affect the worldwide population. The antiretroviral therapy (ART) indicated for infected patients improves the patient's quality of life by preventing disease progression. The health team, including the pharmacist, is essential to assist and ensure the safety and efficacy of pharmacotherapeutic treatment. This work aims to present the importance of pharmaceutical care in pharmacotherapeutic follow-up for HIV/AIDS patients through an integrative literature review. 14 articles were analyzed, which showed a prevalence of the disease in a male patient over 30 years old, with an incidence always greater than 50%. The main causes that hinder adherence to antiretrovirals are disinformation on the risk of non-adherence, lack of understanding about prescription drugs, low education, drug, and alcohol use among male patients. Studies have shown that pharmaceutical care and the multidisciplinary team can positively assist in increasing adherence to antiretrovirals. Therefore, the interventions and guidelines carried out by the pharmaceutical professional together with the health team show promising results that favor adherence to medications by patients with HIV/AIDS. However, greater commitment and collaboration between health professionals is necessary to improve the quality of life of these patients, working mainly in the process of adhering to treatment.

ACQUIRED IMMUNODEFICIENCY SYNDROME ORAL MANIFESTATIONS: A CASE SERIES

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic systemic disease. This condition can be manifested if the patient is infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This virus attacks the immune system and interferes in the host resistance. Consequently, infected organisms become immunosuppressed and susceptible to acquiring other opportunistic infections and injuries. The HIV-related diseases most frequent in the oral cavity are candidiasis, gingivitis, oral hairy leukoplakia, herpes simplex, and Kaposi sarcoma. The objective of this study is to report 4 clinical cases of patients with the oral disorders listed above. AIDS oral manifestations may represent the first clinical signs of HIV infection. Therefore, knowledge of oral lesions associated with HIV infection is extremely important for the oral surgeon. Based on this, the health professional can make the HIV diagnosis of this complex systemic disease, in some cases not previously diagnosed.

An epidemiological model for HIV infection in a population using type-2 fuzzy sets and cellular automaton

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an infectious and contagious disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is a global health problem. This study presents a cellular automaton (CA) model of HIV that uses an adaptation of the system of ordinary differential equations proposed by Anderson et al. (J Math Appl Med Biol 3:229–263, 1986) and an interval type-2 fuzzy rule-based system (FRBS). The aim of this study is to show that this CA model is consistent with known statistical results of HIV patients. The novelty of this research is not only the use of CA with a type-2 FRBS to model the HIV in a way that is consistent with the data, its adaptation and improvement of the standard dynamical system model of Anderson et al. (J Math Appl Med Biol 3:229–263, 1986) by adding three phases of viral evolution of the HIV infection in the absence of antiretroviral treatment. One of the features of the CA is its randomness due to the movement of its cells, the infection period in which the individuals are, the places and partners that represent the activity of the HIV population. This feature is efficiently modeled using FRBS with interval type-2 fuzzy sets. The output of our model favorably compares to the data from the period of 1980–1995, when the use of antiretroviral drug was not available.

A novel dual-luciferase assay for anti-HIV drug screening based on the CCR5/CXCR4 promoters

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a serious worldwide disease caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). C-C chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) and C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) are important coreceptors mediating HIV-1 cell entry. Many new anti-HIV drugs are currently in preclinical and clinical trials; however, drug development has proceeded slowly partly because of the lack of a high-throughput system to screen these drugs. Here, we describe the development of a novel dual-luciferase assay using a CCR5/CXCR4 promoter-driven firefly and Renilla luciferase vector (pGL4.10-RLUC-CCR5/CXCR4). Drugs were screened for the ability to regulate CCR5 and CXCR4 promoter activities. The CCR5 and CXCR4 promoters were inserted separately into the recombinant vector and transfected into the acute T lymphocyte leukemia cell line H9. Treatment of stable transfected cells with four traditional Chinese medicine compounds resulted in the dose-dependent inhibition of the CXCR4 and CCR5 promoter activities. The dual-luciferase reporter assay provides a rapid and direct method to screen anti-AIDS/HIV drugs.

Correlation between Abdominal Ultrasonographic Findings and CD4 Cell Count in Adult Patients with HIV/AIDS in Jos, Nigeria

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) resulting in progressive destruction of cell mediated immunity. The abdominal manifestations of AIDS are related to the level of CD+4 cells count as well as viral load. Abdominal ultrasound examination is easy to perform, non-invasive, inexpensive, readily available and reproducible investigation which provides valuable information about abdominal findings in AIDS. The objective of the study was to evaluate abdominal ultrasound findings in adult HIV/AIDS patients in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria and correlate these findings with the patients’ CD+4 counts. A cross-sectional study of abdominal ultrasound findings of adult patients with HIV/AIDS was conducted over a period of six months. The abdominal ultrasound findings and CD+4 counts were studied. Two hundred (40%) of the patients had normal abdominal ultrasound, while 60% (300) had various abnormalities. The common abnormalities included increased liver parenchymal echogenicity in 25.0%, hepatomegaly in 23.4%, splenomegaly in 6.6%, increased splenic echogenicity in 6.2% and thickened gallbladder wall in 12.6%, elevated renal parenchymal echogenicity in 6.4%, enlarged kidneys in 2.6%, lymphadenopathy in 6.0%, and ascites in 2.4%. Pelvic abscess was the least pathology in 0.2%. Most of the findings did not correlate with the patients’ CD+4 count except for lymphadenopathy and ascites. Although abdominal ultrasound examination is invaluable in the management of these patients, however, it has not shown to be useful in predicting the patients’ immune status.

Autoimmunity and dysmetabolism of human acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remains ill-defined by lists of symptoms, infections, tumors, and disorders in metabolism and immunity. Low CD4 cell count, severe loss of body weight, pneumocystis pneumonia, and Kaposi's sarcoma are the major disease indicators. Lines of evidence indicate that patients living with AIDS have both immunodeficiency and autoimmunity. Immunodeficiency is attributed to deficits in the skin- and mucosa-defined innate immunity, CD4 T cells and regulatory T cells, presumably relating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The autoimmunity in AIDS is evident by: (1) overproduction of autoantibodies, (2) impaired response of CD4 cells and CD8 cells, (3) failure of clinical trials of HIV vaccines, and (4) therapeutic benefits of immunosuppression following solid organ transplantation and bone marrow transplantation in patients at risk of AIDS. Autoantibodies are generated in response to antigens such as debris and molecules de novo released from dead cells, infectious agents, and catabolic events. Disturbances in metabolic homeostasis occur at the interface of immunodeficiency and autoimmunity in the development of AIDS. Optimal treatments favor therapeutics targeting on the regulation of metabolism to restore immune homeostasis.

Effect of Resilience and Social Support on Immune – Activation in HIV Positive People

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It is a disease of human system in which body‟s normal defense system breaks down. Immune –activation has emerged as a critical factor distinguishing pathogenic immunodeficiency virus infections – such as HIV infection. The level of social support given to an individual during a health crisis has been documented to have a profound impact on a person‟s physical and psychological well-being. The capacity to cope and feel competent is referred to as resilience. Psychological resilience refers to an individual‟s capacity to withstand stressors and manifest psychological dysfunction, such as mental illness or persistent negative mood. This study examines the effect of hardiness dimensions of commitment, challenge and control as resilience factors and social support on immune-activation among persons with symptomatic HIV disease and AIDS. The study has been conducted at ART Centre Department of Medicine, S.S. Hospital Banaras Hindu University Varanasi. Total samples of 40 HIV positive people in the age range of 21 to 55 years have been taken for the study. Dispositional Resilience (Hardiness) Scale is a self- report scale that is designed to measures three major component of hardiness (control, commitment and challenge) constructed by Bartone, P.T.(1989) and Multidimensional scale of social support constructed by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farlay (1988) were administered on the sample. The finding indicated that HIV positive people having high hardiness, gain more social support and their Immune-activation has been found also in increased level.

English

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cannot be transmitted by causal contact, air, food and water. People with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome have human immunodeficiency virus in their blood and body fluids that can enter the blood stream of an uninfected person upon contact with infected body fluids or sexual contact with an infected person. Primary data was collected by using structured questionnaire, interviewing and reviewing secondary data from Dilla Referral Hospita. Majority of students 137 (67.15%) had an idea on HIV virus that it is not curable and a deadly killer disease while 36 (17.64%) had an idea on HIV that it is curable. Majority of students (158, 77.46%) had discussed about HIV/AIDS with other people. Accordingly to the information in the questionnaire by the Dilla University students, most of the students (96.00%) had heard about HIV/AIDS. Majority of students heard and got information about HIV from mass media followed by health center, books, and combination of all lists, parents and friends: 46.00, 18.00, 12.00, 10.00, 6.00 and 2.00%, respectively. According to the secondary date obtained from Dilla Referral Hospital, the majority of the people that live with HIV virus were of the productive age (15-49 age) group in both male and female. Among these the number of female infected with HIV were higher than for male: 42.63, 44.35, 37.76, 44.37, 42.70, 37.62 and 40.40%, and 49.38, 52.17, 46.90, 44.70, 44.32, 52.47 and 39.40%, respectively for each year from 2008-2014. Therefore, HIV virus prevalence among Dilla Referral Hospital patients was on the decrease, and the students of Dilla University were very aware of HIV from well gathered information from different sources and also discussed with their partners. Key words: Dilla University, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), prevalence, sexual, students.

Role of Trim5α in the Suppression of Cross-Species Transmission and its Defence Against Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was discovered 30 years ago and was followed by the identification and characterization of its causative agent, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Increasing spread of retroviral infections has impelled science to understand the evolution of retroviruses from primates to humans. In the course of evolution, host cells have developed intracellular proteins to counteract the transforming viral defence system. Such inhibitory endogenous intracellular proteins are known as restriction factors. Tripartite motif protein isoform 5 alpha (TRIM5α), Apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC), and Tetherin proteins are few important restriction factors that have been extensively studied. Several evidences have conveyed information regarding specific adaptations occurring in HIV-1 and its relatives to inhibit these host defenses; making the study more interesting. The characteristic potential of restriction factors to restrict the replication of retroviruses was enticing when studies were found that HIV-1 virus cannot infect nonhuman primate species. This review emphasizes on TRIM5α as a restriction factor and its significance in the evolution of retroviruses. It also accentuates the role of polymorphism within the regions of TRIM5α in both human and primate species that eventually affect the cross-species transmission of immunodeficiency viruses.

Determination of Quality of Life and Their Perceived Social Support from Family of Patients with HIV/AIDS

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a significant disease which affects the individual physically, emotionally, and socially. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the quality of life and social support of patients with HIV/AIDS. 49 patients with HIV/AIDS who applied to the Infectious Diseases Polyclinics of the university hospital between November 2010 and December 2011 were enrolled in study. All the data were collected using a personal information form, SF 36 quality of life scale (QOL) and perceived social support from the family scale (PSS-Fa). Average age of patients was 41.23 ± 10.62, 65.3 % of them were male. It was found that the diagnosis period for 55.1 % of patients was 24 months or longer, and 55.1 % of them were diagnosed at a university hospital, 81.6 % received a treatment. When the average scores of QOL was analyzed, it was found that the average score of functional status subscale was 39.35 ± 8.90, well-being subscale was 42.59 ± 14.70, general health perception subscale was 19.18 ± 6.25 and global quality of life score was 33.70 ± 9.31. The mean PSS-Fa score of patients was 28.65 ± 9.56. Comparing socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients and average scores of QOL and PSS-Fa, there was not a statistically significant relation (p > 0.05). No statistically significant correlation was found between the average scores of QOL and PSS-Fa. These results showed that quality of life was poor and perceived social support was moderate in patients with HIV/AIDS. According to these results, it is recommended that patients with HIV/AIDS should be supported in this regard.

A new approach for HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction combined with feature selection

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a fatal disease which highly threatens the health of human being. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the pathogeny for this disease. Investigating HIV-1 protease cleavage sites can help researchers find or develop protease inhibitors which can restrain the replication of HIV-1, thus resisting AIDS. Feature selection is a new approach for solving the HIV-1 protease cleavage site prediction task and it’s a key point in our research. Comparing with the previous work, there are several advantages in our work. First, a filter method is used to eliminate the redundant features. Second, besides traditional orthogonal encoding (OE), two kinds of newly proposed features extracted by conducting principal component analysis (PCA) and non-linear Fisher transformation (NLF) on AAindex database are used. The two new features are proven to perform better than OE. Third, the data set used here is largely expanded to 1922 samples. Also to improve prediction performance, we conduct parameter optimization for SVM, thus the classifier can obtain better prediction capability. We also fuse the three kinds of features to make sure comprehensive feature representation and improve prediction performance. To effectively evaluate the prediction performance of our method, five parameters, which are much more than previous work, are used to conduct complete comparison. The experimental results of our method show that our method gain better performance than the state of art method. This means that the feature selection combined with feature fusion and classifier parameter optimization can effectively improve HIV-1 cleavage site prediction. Moreover, our work can provide useful help for HIV-1 protease inhibitor developing in the future.

Pediatric HIV Infection

ABSTRACT Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The pathologic hallmark of AIDS is severe immunosuppression; HIV infected infants and children suffer considerable morbidity and mortality. In addition to the catastrophic medical consequences, HIV infected infants and children along with their families suffer tremendous psychological upheaval owing to this chronic, often devastating illness. Because of the complexity and vast clinical spectrum of HIV infection, this article is limited to a general review of the pediatric HIV manifestations and management. How to cite this article Kaushal A, Upadhyay Y. Pediatric HIV Infection. World J Dent 2013;4(1):77-79.

Update on imaging of non-infectious musculoskeletal complications of HIV infection

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) results from infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), producing an immunodeficient state and severe pathology across multiple organ systems. Musculoskeletal involvement is particularly prevalent in this population with both infectious and non-infectious complications encountered, but it is suggested that the latter will affect 72% of HIV-infected individuals. In this review we aim to provide an update on the imaging characteristics of the non-infectious manifestations. The conditions include HIV-related arthritis as well as various malignancies, myositis, anaemia, osteonecrosis, rhabdomyolysis, hypertrophic osteoarthropathy and therapy-related side effects. For the clinician, the diagnostic challenge lies in differentiating disease-related symptoms from therapy-related side effects, particularly when clinical and laboratory features can be non-specific. This is especially difficult following the widespread introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). Imaging investigations and MRI in particular have proven vital for facilitating early diagnosis and enabling prompt treatment. Furthermore, wider availability of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) has allowed whole-body assessment for staging and treatment response of malignancy. Understanding the pathogenesis of the various conditions and recognising their imaging features is essential for the clinical radiologist.

What is the Real Prevalence of HIV-Infection in Saudi Arabia?

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) continues to be transmitted in the developing world. The World Health Organization (WHO) produces an annual report from the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) Epidemic Update declaring the new AIDS cases across the world. UNAIDS had to make an estimates from certain countries like Saudi Arabia (SA), due to the fact that there is no adequate reporting of AIDS cases to the WHO. In 2001, the Ministry of Health in SA had created the Saudi AIDS—National Program which became responsible for counting old and new HIV-infection in Saudis and non-Saudis cases and produce an annual report in SA. Data collection shows that obtaining number of AIDS from Saudi—National Program would be more accurate than UNAIDS estimate in SA.