INTRODUCTION Truvada is licenced for HIV-1 prevention in the USA and is available in the private sector. Tenofovir performed as well as Truvada in the PARTNERS PrEP study and is used as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) in some settings. The clinical efficacy of Tenofovir for PrEP outside a clinical trial is unknown. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) at acute HIV-1 infection (AHI) limits the size ...

In the United States, an estimated 1.2 million persons are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a serious infection that, if untreated, leads to illness and premature death. Persons living with HIV who use antiretroviral therapy (ART) and achieve very low levels of the virus (suppressed viral load) can have a nearly normal life expectancy and have very low risk for transmitting HIV t...

OBJECTIVES Recent data suggest that community viral load (CVL) can be used as a population-level biomarker for HIV transmission and its reduction may be associated with a decrease in HIV incidence. Given the magnitude of the HIV epidemic in Washington, District of Columbia, we sought to measure the District of Columbia's CVL. DESIGN An ecological analysis was conducted. METHODS Mean and tot...

Dried blood spot specimens on filter paper were evaluated to determine the viral load of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), through the Cobas®Ampliprep/Cobas®Taqman® HIV-1 test. RNA levels were quantified in pairs of plasma and dry blood spot specimens on filter paper from persons infected with HIV-1. The Pearson linear correlation coefficient was calculated as well as the agreeme...

 Findings from recent studies (1-3) have highlighted the potential for antiretroviral therapy to prevent HIV by reducing an HIV-positive person’s viral load.  Prevention experts are concerned that active promotion of “treatment as prevention” may undermine the benefits of widespread antiretroviral use by contributing to treatment optimism and increasing risk behaviours (4).  The limited numb...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES The interactions between HIV and malaria co-infection have been shown to influence each other in their clinical outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study was carried out in the two States of north east India endemic for both HIV and malaria infections, to study the interactions between the two diseases in the HIV-infected population. METHODS In this prospective study,...

Widespread use of antiretroviral drugs has significantly increased drug resistance. In the resource limited countries, delayed detection of drug resistance may lead to accumulation of drug resistance mutations. We investigated the genotypic drug resistance mutation patterns in HIV-infected patients with various levels of plasma HIV RNA levels. Fifty-nine HIV-infected patients with antiviral the...

BACKGROUND Tools using local HIV data to help jurisdictions estimate future demand for medical and support services are needed. We present an interactive prevalence projection model using data obtainable from jurisdictional HIV surveillance and publically available data. METHODS Using viral load data from Georgia's enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System, state level death rates for people living ...

OBJECTIVES HIV 'treatment as prevention' (TasP) describes early treatment of HIV-infected patients intended to reduce viral load and transmission. Crucial assumptions for estimating TasP's effectiveness are the underlying estimates of transmission risk. We aimed to determine transmission risk during primary infection, and describe the relation of HIV transmission risk to viral load. DESIGN A ...

BACKGROUND Syphilitic ulcers are known to facilitate the transmission of HIV infection, but the effect of syphilis infection on HIV viral loads and CD4 cell counts is poorly understood. METHODS We abstracted medical records for HIV-infected male syphilis patients seen at three clinics in San Francisco and Los Angeles from January 2001 to April 2003. We compared plasma HIV-RNA levels and CD4 c...