Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Highlights Recently Released Journal Articles

The following highlights recently released journal articles on HIV/AIDS.

• "Incidence of Opportunistic and Other Infections in HIV-Infected Children in the HAART Era," Journal of the American Medical Association: Highly active antiretroviral therapy significantly reduces the number of opportunistic infections among HIV-positive infants, children and adolescents in the U.S., according to a study published in the July 19 issue of JAMA, HealthDay News/Forbes reports (HealthDay News/Forbes, 7/18). Philimon Gona, a research assistant and professor of mathematics and statistics at Boston University, and colleagues examined a database of 2,767 HIV-positive children undergoing HAART who were enrolled in a study conducted from September 2000 through December 2004. The researchers compared the data on the 2,767 children with the incidence of opportunistic infections among 3,331 HIV-positive children enrolled in a separate study from October 1988 through August 1998, before HAART was widely used (Gona et al., JAMA, 7/19). The JAMA study finds that the incidence of opportunistic infections in the HAART group, compared with the study group not receiving HAART, decreased between twofold and 14-fold, HealthDay/Forbes reports. The researchers also found that the incidence of bacterial pneumonia decreased to 2.15 per 100 person-years in the HAART group, compared with 11.1 per 100 person-years in non-HAART. In addition, rates of other infections, such as tuberculosis, significantly declined, according to the study (HealthDay/Forbes, 7/18). The researchers concluded that although opportunistic and other infections now are "uncommon" among children undergoing HAART, continued monitoring "is important to assess" the long-term effects of the therapy (JAMA, 7/19).
  

• "Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus Genotype and Related Abnormalities of Cervical Cytological Results Among HIV-1-Infected Women in Rochester, New York," Journal of Infectious Diseases: Amneris Luque of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and colleagues looked at 229 HIV-positive women attending a university-based HIV clinic over seven years to determine the prevalence of various HPV strains. The researchers found that "[h]igh-risk" HPV strains other than 16 and 18 were found often in HIV-positive women and that the most commonly detected HPV strains were 56, 53, 16, 58, 52, MM7, MM8 and 33 (Luque et al., Journal of Infectious Diseases, 8/15).
  

• "Routine HIV Testing in Botswana: A Population-Based Study on Attitudes, Practices and Human Rights Concerns," PLoS Medicine: Sheri Weiser of the University of California-San Francisco and colleagues surveyed 1,268 adults in Botswana to determine knowledge of and attitudes toward HIV testing, as well as barriers and facilitators to testing, 11 months after the country's government instituted a policy of routine, voluntary testing. According to the survey, 81% of respondents said they favored routine testing, 89% said the policy would decrease obstacles to testing, 60% said it would reduce stigma, 55% said it would reduce violence toward women, and 93% said it would widen access to antiretroviral drugs. In addition, 43% of respondents said routine testing would lead people to avoid going to the doctor, and 14% said it would increase gender-based violence (Weiser et al., PLoS Medicine, 7/18).
  

• "Unprotected Sex Among HIV-Positive Injection Drug-Using Women and Their Serodiscordant Male Partners: Role of Personal and Partnership Influences," Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes: Many HIV-positive U.S. women who use injection drugs do not always use condoms with HIV-negative partners, whether they are casual or regular partners, according to a study conducted by Mary Latka of the Center for AIDS Program Research at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, and colleagues. The researchers studied 426 HIV-positive female injection drug users in Baltimore, Miami, New York and San Francisco and found that among 370 sexually active women, 144 had regular sex partners and 148 had casual sex partners who were HIV-negative or did not know their HIV status. The researchers also found that 60% of the women were inconsistent with condom use with their regular partners and that 53% were inconsistent with condom use with casual partners (Douglas, Reuters Health, 7/18).