Consequences Of AIDS Research Articles

Anaerobic conditions are a major influence on Candida albicans chlamydospore formation.

Candidiasis now represents the fourth most frequent nosocomial infection both in the USA and worldwide. Candida albicans is an increasingly common threat to human health as a consequence of AIDS, steroid therapy, organ and tissue transplantation, cancer therapy, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and other immune defects. Unfortunately, these infections carry unacceptably high morbidity, mortality rates and important economic repercussions (estimated total direct cost of approximately 2 billion dollars in 1998 in US hospitals alone). This pathogen can grow both in yeast and filamentous forms and the pathogenic potential of C. albicans is intimately related to certain key processes including filamentation. Chlamydospores are considered to be a dormant form of C. albicans that remain understudied. Chlamydospores have been widely used as a diagnostic tool to separate C. albicans and C. dubliniensis from other Candida species. More recently, media have been developed that use chlamydopsore formation to separate C. albicans and C. dubliniensis from each other. Chlamydospore formation can be stimulated by hypoxic conditions but only on limited specific media types. Here, we show that anaerobic conditions are enough to drive chlamydospore formation in C. albicans on the surface of nutrient-rich agar.

Detective doctor decodes AIDS mystery

Fourty years ago, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first published a report about a cluster of five cases of Pneumocystis jirovecii (formerly Pneumocytis carinii) pneumonia; this syndrome was rare and only found in immunocompromised patients, but were found in otherwise healthy homosexual men in Los Angeles. Since this first announcement of what we now know to be a consequence of AIDS, publications on the scientific, psychosocial, historical, political, economic, and geographic nature of AIDS continue to appear.

Inequalities in HAART uptake and differential survival according to exposure category in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Despite substantial improvement in prognosis and quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Brazil, inequalities in access to treatment remain. We assessed the impact of these inequalities on survival in Rio de Janeiro over a 12-year period (2000/11). Data were merged from four databases that comprise the national AIDS monitoring system: SINAN-AIDS (Brazilian Information System for Notificable Diseases; AIDS cases), SISCEL (laboratory tests), SICLOM (electronic dispensing system), and SIM (Brazilian Mortality Information System), using probabilistic linkage. Cox regressions were fitted to assess the impact of HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) on AIDS-related mortality among men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PWID), and heterosexuals diagnosed with AIDS, between 2000 and 2011, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Among 15,420 cases, 60.7% were heterosexuals, 36.1% MSM and 3.2% PWID. There were 2,807 (18.2%) deaths and the median survival time was 6.29. HAART and CD4+ > 200 at baseline were associated with important protective effects. Non-whites had a 33% higher risk of dying in consequence of AIDS than whites. PWID had a 56% higher risk and MSM a 11% lower risk of dying of AIDS than heterosexuals. Non-white individuals, those with less than eight years of formal education, and PWID, were more likely to die of AIDS and less likely to receive HAART. Important inequalities persist in access to treatment, resulting in disparate impacts on mortality among exposure categories. Despite these persistent disparities, mortality decreased significantly during the period for all categories under analysis, and the overall positive impact of HAART on survival has been dramatic.

To ‘feel good’, or to ‘do good’? Why we need institutional changes to ensure a results focus in Norwegian development assistance

Norway is a generous donor in terms of funding and has been categorised as a donor mainly motivated by altruism. Nevertheless, the Norwegian aid administration has been criticised for not sufficiently measuring and demonstrating the effects of its development assistance. This is unfortunate as we may miss opportunities for learning and end up with lower aid effectiveness. In this article, we discuss why an altruistic donor may fail to document the consequences of aid for beneficiaries. The crux of our argument is that there are two types of altruistic motivation for aid: a ‘feel good’ type where focus is on the virtue of donating and a ‘do good’ type where focus is on the effects of aid for beneficiaries. We use the agency framework to analyse these dynamics and argue that if the ‘feel good’ motivation dominates, the institutions within which the aid administration operates will favour disbursements, whereas if the ‘do good’ motivation dominates, institutions will be geared towards documenting consequences and effects. The first may result in lower welfare for beneficiaries if aid is less effective. While altruism cannot be observed, the current institutional set-up of the Norwegian aid administration is compatible with the ‘feel good’ type as the dominant motivation for development assistance. However, a stronger results focus may not improve matters unless also accompanied with institutional changes to ensure the evaluability of aid. As long as the dominant motivation is to ‘feel good’, stronger results focus may simply shift aid to where it can most easily be measured rather than where potential to do good is greatest.

Investigating the Function of Ddr48p in Candida albicans

Candidiasis now represents the fourth most frequent nosocomial infection both in the United States and worldwide. Candida albicans is an increasingly common threat to human health as a consequence of AIDS, steroid therapy, organ and tissue transplantation, cancer therapy, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and other immune defects. The pathogenic potential of C. albicans is intimately related to certain key processes, including biofilm formation and filamentation. Ddr48p is a damage response protein that is significantly upregulated during both biofilm formation and filamentation, but its actual function is unknown. Previous studies have indicated that this protein may be essential in C. albicans but not Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we examined the function of Ddr48p and investigated the role of this protein in biofilm formation and filamentation. We demonstrated that this protein is not essential in C. albicans and appears to be dispensable for filamentation. However, DDR48 is required for the flocculation response stimulated by 3-aminotriazole-induced amino acid starvation. Furthermore, we examined the response of this deletion strain to a wide variety of environmental stressors and antifungal compounds. We observed several mild sensitivity or resistance phenotypes and also found that Ddr48p contributes to the DNA damage response of C. albicans. The results of this study reveal that the role of this highly expressed protein goes beyond a general stress response and impinges on a key facet of pathogenesis, namely, the ability to sense and respond to changes in the host environment.

“I Can’t Use a Condom, I Am a Christian:” Salvation, Death, and… Naivety in Africa

The countries of the Southern African Development Community – Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – continue to be hardest hit by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. There is a whole range of social, biological, economic, and political factors responsible for such a situation. In most of the countries of the Southern African region, HIV infection prevalence estimates among adults are beyond 10%; and even higher in young women, especially pregnant ones. Besides being a consequence of AIDS, malnutrition contributes to HIV vulnerability, further deteriorating HIV infection. The common mode of HIV spread in Africa is heterosexual intercourse, as opposed to the Americas and Eastern Europe, where injecting drug use and male homosexual intercourse are the common mode. The extent of the contribution of heterosexual intercourse to the spread of HIV in Africa is not accepted by all medical scientists across the world. Gisselquist et al have suggested that the role of unsafe medical injections in the transmission of HIV within the health sector has been underestimated (1). This observation has been corroborated by other researchers (2,3). Lopman et al, however, have not found sufficient evidence to support the suggestion that medical injections could contribute the HIV infection in Zimbabwe (4).

Genetic correlates of protection against HIV infection: the ally within

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.

"We Are All Going to Die": Kinship, Belonging, and the Morality of HIV/AIDS-Related Illnesses and Deaths in Rural Tanzania

This article explores how moral perceptions of HIV/AIDS-related illness and death in rural Tanzania are related to social and cultural practices of disease interpretation, patient caring and burial in the context of rural-urban migration and HIV/AIDS. Drawing on anthropological discussions of the relationship between death, social reproduction, and HIV/AIDS I argue that moral discourses and practices surrounding the epidemic in Northwest Tanzania are intimately intertwined with local notions of order and disorder. Furthermore, they are tied to individual and collective concerns about the implications that the high numbers of premature deaths among young men and women are perceived to have on the continuity of whole families and communities. Focusing on the case studies of several young HIV-infected women and men who finally died from the consequences of AIDS I show that the infected persons themselves, as well as their relatives, draw on a wide range of-sometimes mutually contradictory-strategies in dealing with the disease in cultural, religious, or moral terms (including the reference to witchcraft or the violation of ritual prescriptions). In conclusion, I argue that the various strategies and practices surrounding HIV/AIDS-related illnesses and deaths have become an integral part of the negotiation of kinship relations in rural Tanzania, as well as of the moral state of "modern" society in general.

APA Continues Its Commitment To Fight Consequences of AIDS

APA Continues Its Commitment To Fight Consequences of AIDS

Costs attributable to AIDS at household level in Chad

This paper assesses the economic costs of AIDS at the household level in Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world. One hundred and ninety-three AIDS patients living in four different regions were found by case identification at hospital level and through community based organizations providing psycho-social relief. They were matched by age, sex, professional category and zone of residence with controls. Costs were evaluated through a standard questionnaire. Costs at household level attributable to AIDS up to death were US$836 per case. Costs related to productivity losses made up 28% of total costs. More than half of total costs (56%) were health care related expenditures, and funeral costs contributed 16%. AIDS cases relied more often on borrowing and the selling of household assets than controls for treatment. Household expenditures of AIDS cases were much higher than control households mainly due to health related expenditure. The response of concerned families to HIV/AIDS implies high costs and for most households, especially in low-income settings, the consequences of AIDS are devastating. Innovative strategies on how best to assist households are thus requested and may include the strengthening of care and treatment services being offered to AIDS cases.

Determinants of individual AIDS risk perception: knowledge, behavioural control and social influence

In sub-Saharan Africa an almost universal awareness of the serious consequences of AIDS and of the sexual transmission of HIV co-exists together with a reluctance in adopting consequent preventive measures, in the form of protected sexual intercourse. The socio-psychological literature on health-related behaviour emphasises the perception of being at risk of HIV infection as being one of the necessary conditions for preventive behaviour to be adopted. Analysing data from the Kenya Diffusion and Ideational Change (KDIC) Project, this paper investigates the determinants of the reported degree of risk perception of getting infected by HIV. In particular, adopting a social interaction approach, we argue that individual risk perception is shaped by social network influences. We use information on ego-centred networks in which individuals are involved in conversations about the risk of getting infected by HIV. We are able to show that the importance of AIDS related knowledge and behavioural factors risks to be mis-estimated if one neglects the role of individuals' reciprocal influences. We conclude that risk perception is as much a product of individual characteristics and behaviour as it is a collective feeling shared among interacting individuals. Results suggest that in our study men are more susceptible than women to network influence.

In vitro investigation of host resistance to Toxoplasma gondii infection in microglia of BALB/c and CBA/Ca mice.

Toxoplasmic encephalitis (TE) is a life-threatening disease of immunocompromised individuals and has increased in prevalence as a consequence of AIDS. TE has been modeled in inbred mice, with CBA/Ca mice being susceptible and BALB/c mice resistant to the development of TE. To better understand the innate mechanisms in the brain that play a role in resistance to TE, nitric oxide (NO)-dependent and NO-independent mechanisms were examined in microglia from BALB/c and CBA/Ca mice and correlated with the ability of these cells to inhibit Toxoplasma gondii replication. These parameters were measured 48 h after stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), or combinations of these inducers in T. gondii-infected microglia isolated from newborn mice. CBA/Ca microglia consistently produced less NO than did BALB/c microglia after stimulation with LPS or with IFN-gamma plus TNF-alpha, and they inhibited T. gondii replication significantly less than did BALB/c microglia. Cells of both strains treated with IFN-gamma alone significantly inhibited uracil incorporation by T. gondii, and N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine (NMMA) treatment did not reverse this effect. In cells treated with IFN-gamma in combination with other inducers, NMMA treatment resulted in only partial recovery of T. gondii replication. This IFN-gamma-dependent inhibition of replication was not due to generation of reactive oxygen species or to increased tryptophan degradation. These data suggest that NO production and an IFN-gamma-dependent mechanism contribute to the inhibition of T. gondii replication after in vitro stimulation with IFN-gamma plus TNF-alpha or with LPS. Differences in NO production but not in IFN-gamma-dependent inhibition of T. gondii replication were observed between CBA/Ca and BALB/c microglia.

A Review of Literature on Drug Use in Sub-Saharan Africa Countries and Its Economic and Social Implications

The drug problem in Africa cannot be seen as an isolated phenomenon but rather as part of the larger narcoscape which partakes of the fluid yet disjunctive qualities of Appadurai's landscapes. In this volatile environment, the transformation of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) nations from transit points in an international drug network to consumer countries seems inevitable. At the same time, Africa has undergone rapid economic and social changes that have facilitate this shift. A review of the literature reveals that there is a pressing need to investigate current trends and patterns of drug use in the countries of SSA. These nations, struggling with the consequences of AIDS, famine, refugees, and political unrest, could ill afford to address the consequences of widespread drug use. It is critical, therefore, that they address the drug problem before it reaches crisis proportions. To do so, they need information describing the magnitude of the problem as well as a firm understanding of the relationships between drug use and crime, unemployment, violence, and the breakdown of family life. The more that is known about the nature and complexity of drug use in Africa, the better policymakers can formulate a sound and effective strategy to curtail the drug “epidemic.”

Economic and demograhic consequences of AIDS in Namibia: rapid assessment of the costs

Economic and demograhic consequences of AIDS in Namibia: rapid assessment of the costs

Stigmatization of persons with HIV disease: Perceptions, management, and consequences of AIDS

Drawing on a dramaturgical perspective, this article examines the methods by which persons living with HIV disease experience social labeling and disapproval as a result of their medical condition. Through a focus on the management and coping strategies of identity constructions, the sources and forms of stigmas are explored. Two general forms of stigma are examined: direct and indirect. By differentiation between the explicitness of others’ relating social disapproval and individuals’ HIV status, the varying consequences for identity constructions are shown. Finally, stigmatized persons’ strategies for managing the identity‐affecting consequences of stigma are discussed, with an emphasis on the positive and negative functions of stigmatization for persons with HIV disease.

Resistance to fluconazole in Candida albicans from AIDS patients correlated with reduced intracellular accumulation of drug.

Mucosal candidosis is an almost inevitable consequence of AIDS. Resistance to fluconazole therapy associated with enhanced tolerance, detectable in microbiological estimation of sensitivity, occurs in up to 10% of cases with late-stage AIDS. We report here our biochemical analysis of the basis of resistance in a study of two susceptible and two resistant isolates. Resistance was not associated with a change in the target enzyme sterol 14 alpha-demethylase, as indicated by equivalent levels of fluconazole inhibition of activity in extracts from all four isolates, or by mutations in sterol delta desaturase as previously observed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Ustilago maydis. Reduced cellular content of fluconazole in the resistant isolates of between six to ten-fold was observed which could account for their resistant phenotype.

Introduction: Applying Anthropology In HIV/AIDS Research

We are now living in the second decade of the AIDS pandemic. Incidence rates for HIV infection and deaths from HIV-related illness continue to climb in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Health care practitioners debate alternatives in treatment strategies, biomedical researchers pursue the elusive search for "the cure," and social scientists explore the interface of the biological and cultural, dealing with the underlying social correlates and consequences of AIDS. While the connections with death and dying have convinced some people to remain at a distance from the pandemic, others have come to realize that AIDS is now a part of living and is likely to remain so for some time to come.

Book reviews

This small book serves to remind us that tuberculosis has not been eradicated in the Third World, and indeed is increasing even in nations with better than average health care, particularly as a consequence of AIDS. The material illustrated is based on a study of 370 patients seen in The Netherlands over the period 1955–1987. The text is brief but adequate, and in many respects this could be regarded as an atlas.

Perceived Consequences of Employing Aids Victims: Development and Validation of a Scale

Preliminary results in the development of a 15-item scale to measure managers' beliefs about the consequences of employing AIDS victims are reported. Study participants included 248 managers in southeastern U.S. manufacturing, government, and service organizations. Principal components analysis of the proposed scale yielded three dimensions including reduced revenues, workplace disruptions, and increased insurance costs. Evidence of predictive validity is presented and support is also provided for the hypothesis that fear of AIDS in the workplace is a construct distinct from perceived consequences of AIDS in the workplace.

How Adolescents Compare AIDS With Other Diseases: Implications for Prevention

Four hundred ten adolescents, ages 14-16 years, completed a questionnaire concerned with their understanding of the social and emotional consequences of AIDS and 5 other illnesses (lung cancer, German measles, chicken pox, asthma, and diabetes). Pupils distinguished between the diseases on all measured items, but younger pupils were more likely to believe that individuals were personally responsible for the onset of AIDS, lung cancer, and diabetes. The data are discussed in terms of the implications for health education campaigns.