BACKGROUND Recent studies reported that the CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio is inversely associated with biomarkers traditionally used to measure immune activation and systemic inflammation in highly active antiretroviral therapy-treated HIV-infected (HIV+) patients. The relation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection with the CD4/CD8 ratio in HIV+ patients is unknown. METHODS We examined 50,201 CD4/CD8...

HIV-1 infects gut associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) very early after transmission by multiple routes. The infected GALT consequently serves as the major reservoir for HIV-1 infection and could constantly shed HIV-1 and CD4+ T cells into the intestinal lumen. To examine this hypothesis, we monitored HIV-1 RNA/DNA and CD4 mRNA in fecal samples of chronically infected subjects with and without an...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV)/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection has become a serious public health problem especially in high risk groups such as injection drug users in China. However, the impact of HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART) on HCV viral load which is usually regarded as a predictor of liver disease progress had not been well studied in this country. O...

BACKGROUND By persisting in infected cells for a long period of time, proviral HIV-1 DNA can represent an alternative viral marker to RNA viral load during the follow-up of HIV-1 infected individuals. In the present study sequential blood samples of 10 patients under antiretroviral treatment from 1997 with two NRTIs, who refused to continue any antiviral regimen, were analyzed for 16-24 weeks t...

Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP) is on the spectrum of lymphoproliferative diseases that can affect the lungs. Although common in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected children, it is rarely reported in adults. A 51-year-old HIV infected female patient presented with worsening dyspnea over five months. She had radiological findings of bilateral lung nodular infiltrates. Her CD4 co...

BACKGROUND To investigate the effect of helminth infections and their treatment during pregnancy on HIV load, we conducted a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial of albendazole versus placebo and praziquantel versus placebo in pregnant women in Entebbe, Uganda. METHODS Two hundred sixty-four HIV-infected pregnant women from the Entebbe Mother and Baby Study (ISRCTN 32849447) were inclu...

BACKGROUND The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proviral DNA persists in infected cells, even after prolonged successful HAART. In the present study, a relative quantification assay of HIV-1 proviral DNA by LightCycler real-time PCR based on SYBR Green I detection was developed in comparison to the number of purified CD4+ cells as estimated by the quantification of the beta-globin ge...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of the oral lesions related to HIV-infection (HIV-OL) in HIV+/AIDS adolescents (=13 years old), and the differences with HIV+/AIDS children (=3 - <13 years old) perinatally infected. MATERIAL AND METHODS 25 HIV+/AIDS adolescents and 62 HIV+/AIDS children, undergoing Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, were orally examined. HIV-OL was diagnosed in accordanc...

We design a "simple" and "low cost" model technology for monitoring HIV viral load in resource-poor settings: SMARThivVLmos. Cost and complexity are the major challenges to the developing world, in monitoring HIV patients viral load. We have previously demonstrated in our SMARThivPack model that cost and complexity of laboratory monitoring of HIV patients, may be reduced not only at a first tec...

BACKGROUND Recent WHO guidelines identify virologic monitoring for diagnosing and confirming ART failure. In view of this, validation and scale up of point of care viral load technologies is essential in resource limited settings. METHODS A systematic validation of the GeneXpert® HIV-1 Quant assay (a point-of-care technology) in view of scaling up HIV-1 viral load in India to monitor the succ...