COVID-19 and HIV: Calling attention to the importance of ensuring HIV status and testing is included in the management of COVID-19

As health care services worldwide undergo major reconfiguration to respond to the coronavirus crisis, there are simple and affordable ways to improve outcomes that relate to both HIV and COVID-19 care. The first step is to make sure that the HIV status is recorded on all hospital admissions relating to COVID-19. This in turn will […]

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Why stimulant use may cause HIV progression independently of behavioural risk-factors

In many countries injection drug users (IDU) constitute a ‘key population’ for HIV/AIDS. There may in some contexts be substantial overlap with other groups – where, for example, the IDU are also sex-workers, or prisoners. In reality, IDU may be exposed to multiple risk factors, which can be hard to isolate from each other. However, […]

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Seeking realistic gains within tight budgetary constraints: Is changing HIV drug regimen the next step in India’s struggle against HIV/AIDS?

The case of India has been seen as a model of an intelligent and integrated use of data for an evidence-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Sgaier & Chandramouli (STI)). Avahan, the India HIV/AIDS initiative, can claim considerable success in reducing incidence among ‘bridging’ populations – by 21-45% among female sex-workers, and among their clients […]

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Intervene fast to prevent lasting cognitive impairment during the primary phase of HIV infection

The impact of HIV/AIDS on cognitive function is the topic of a paper appearing in STIs as early as 1989, where some degree of neurological impairment is observed in patients who otherwise appear ‘well’ (Carne & Harrison (STI)). Dementia may be rarely seen nowadays, but quality-of-life limiting cognitive impairment remains a serious issue for some […]

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