Search results for " HIV infection"
showing 10 items of 46 documents
A novel methodology for large-scale phylogeny partition
2011
Understanding the determinants of virus transmission is a fundamental step for effective design of screening and intervention strategies to control viral epidemics. Phylogenetic analysis can be a valid approach for the identification of transmission chains, and very-large data sets can be analysed through parallel computation. Here we propose and validate a new methodology for the partition of large-scale phylogenies and the inference of transmission clusters. This approach, on the basis of a depth-first search algorithm, conjugates the evaluation of node reliability, tree topology and patristic distance analysis. The method has been applied to identify transmission clusters of a phylogeny …
Perceptions of U = U Among Italian Infectious Diseases Specialists: A Nationwide Survey on Providers' Attitudes Toward the Risk of HIV Transmission i…
2022
This survey aimed to understand how far the Italian infectious diseases (ID) specialists are confident in the "Undetectable = Untransmittable" (U = U) message and translate this concept into clinical practice. An anonymous survey was distributed by e-mail to 286 clinicians to collect their opinions regarding six situations potentially at risk of HIV transmission between virologically suppressed patients and seronegative individuals who possibly require postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). Overall, 51% of ID specialists deemed zero risk of HIV transmission through condomless sex for undetectable patients. This answer was more frequent among HIV specialists (30% vs. 21%, p = .01) and clinicians wo…
Fever with perinasal and tongue lesions: A diagnostic challenge
2023
The diagnosis may be challenging, and high suspicion index should be maintained in immunosuppressed patients with unusual mucocutaneous lesions, even in non-endemic areas for mucocutaneous leishmaniasis.
From current status to optimization of HCV treatment: Recommendations from an expert panel
2016
Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem at a global level, causing an enormous burden of hepatic and extra-hepatic morbidity and mortality. Treatment of chronic HCV (CHC) has been revolutionized in the last few years by the introduction of highly effective and well tolerated direct acting antiviral agents (DAAs) able to achieve >90% rates of sustained virological response (SVR) in many groups of patients, including those previously excluded from interferon-based regimens. For such reason interferon-free regimens are now the treatments of choice for all patients. Successful anti-HCV treatment can stop liver disease progression and can solve the HCV-relat…
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Continuum of Care in 11 European Union Countries at the End of 2016 Overall and by Key Population: Have We Made Progress?
2020
Abstract Background High uptake of antiretroviral treatment (ART) is essential to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission and related mortality; however, gaps in care exist. We aimed to construct the continuum of HIV care (CoC) in 2016 in 11 European Union (EU) countries, overall and by key population and sex. To estimate progress toward the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 target, we compared 2016 to 2013 estimates for the same countries, representing 73% of the population in the region. Methods A CoC with the following 4 stages was constructed: number of people living with HIV (PLHIV); proportion of PLHIV diagnosed; proportion of those diagnosed …
Is physician assessment of alcohol consumption useful in predicting risk of severe liver disease among people with HIV and HIV/HCV co-infection?
2019
AbstractBackgroundAlcohol consumption is a known risk factor for liver disease in HIV-infected populations. Therefore, knowledge of alcohol consumption behaviour and risk of disease progression associated with hazardous drinking are important in the overall management of HIV disease. We aimed at assessing the usefulness of routine data collected on alcohol consumption in predicting risk of severe liver disease (SLD) among people living with HIV (PLWHIV) with or without hepatitis C infection seen for routine clinical care in Italy.MethodsWe included PLWHIV from two observational cohorts in Italy (ICONA and HepaICONA). Alcohol consumption was assessed by physician interview and categorized ac…
Effect of cytomegalovirus-induced immune response, self antigen-induced immune response, and microbial translocation on chronic immune activation in …
2013
International audience; We evaluated the impact of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-induced immune responses, autoimmune-induced immune responses, and microbial translocation on immune activation in 191 human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients from the ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort. All enrolled subjects had achieved long-term virological suppression during receipt of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). HLA-DR(+)/CD38(+) expression was 16.8% among CD8(+) T cells. Independent of age, CD4(+) T-cell count, 16S ribosomal DNA load, and regulatory T-cell count, positive results of Quantiferon CMV analysis (P = .02), positive results of CMV-pp65 enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot analysis (P = …
Detection of drug resistance mutations at low plasma HIV-1 RNA load in a European multicentre cohort study
2011
Background and objectives: Guidelines indicate a plasma HIV-1 RNA load of 500-1000 copies/mL as the minimal threshold for antiretroviral drug resistance testing. Resistance testing at lower viral load levels may be useful to guide timely treatment switches, although data on the clinical utility of this remain limited. We report here the influence of viral load levels on the probability of detecting drug resistance mutations (DRMs) and other mutations by routine genotypic testing in a large multicentre European cohort, with a focus on tests performed at a viral load <1000 copies/mL. Methods: A total of 16511 HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and protease sequences from 11492 treatment-experienced …
Evolving clinical landscape of chronic hepatitis B: A multicenter Italian study
2009
The aim of the study was to evaluate the characteristics of chronic hepatitis B with special reference to the geographical origin of the patients and to the prevalence of HBeAg and viral and non-viral co-factors of liver disease. A cross-sectional multicenter survey was undertaken, which enrolled 1,386 HBsAg chronic carriers observed consecutively in 21 referral centers over a 6-month period. The prevalence of HBeAg in patients was 11%; the presence of HBeAg was associated independently with a younger age and co-infection with HIV. Anti-HDV, anti-HCV, or anti-HIV antibodies were detected in 8.1%, 6.5%, and 2%, respectively. However, among the patients first diagnosed during the study period…
No pol mutation is associated independently with the lack of immune recovery in patients infected with HIV and failing antiretroviral therapy
2011
An investigation was undertaken to determine whether specific pol mutations hinder long-term immune recovery regardless of virological response. In total, 826 patients with >50 HIV RNA copies/ml, who underwent genotypic resistance testing between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2003 after >3 years of antiretroviral treatment, and were followed up for >3 years after genotypic resistance testing, were analyzed retrospectively. The outcome of the study was the lack of immune recovery after >3 years of follow-up, defined as a slope by linear regression 50 copies/ml divided by the number of HIV RNA measurements during follow-up. Logistic regression was used for univariable and multivariable analy…