The impact of a private-public partnership delivery system on the HIV continuum of care in a South Indian city

Abstract Background Brescia Province, northern Italy, was one of the worst epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. The division of infectious diseases of ASST (Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale) Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia had to face a great number of inpatients with severe COVID-19 infection and to ensure the continuum of care for almost 4000 outpatients with HIV infection actively followed by us. In a recent manuscript we described the impact of the pandemic on continuum of care in our HIV cohort expressed as number of missed visits, number of new HIV diagnosis, drop in ART (antiretroviral therapy) dispensation and number of hospitalized HIV patients due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this short communication, we completed the previous article with data of HIV plasmatic viremia of the same cohort before and during pandemic. Methods We considered all HIV-patients in stable ART for at least 6 months and with at least 1 available HIV viremia in the time window March 01–November 30, 2019, and another group of HIV patients with the same two requisites but in different time windows of the COVID-19 period (March 01–May 31, 2020, and June 01–November 30, 2020). For patients with positive viremia (PV) during COVID-19 period, we reported also the values of viral load (VL) just before and after PV. Results: the percentage of patients with PV during COVID-19 period was lower than the previous year (2.8% vs 7%). Only 1% of our outpatients surely suffered from pandemic in term of loss of previous viral suppression. Conclusions Our efforts to limit the impact of pandemic on our HIV outpatients were effective to ensure HIV continuum of care.

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Modeling the Impact of Interventions Along the HIV Continuum of Care in Newark, New Jersey

Clinical Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/cid/cit687 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 274-284 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Ruthie B. Birger ◽

Timothy B. Hallett ◽

Anushua Sinha ◽

Bryan T. Grenfell ◽

Sally L. Hodder

Keyword(s):

New Jersey ◽

Continuum Of Care ◽

Hiv Continuum Of Care ◽

The Impact

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Impact of indirect education on knowledge and perception on cervical cancer and its prevention among the parents of adolescent girls: an interventional school-based study

Therapeutic Advances in Vaccines and Immunotherapy ◽

10.1177/2515135521990268 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 251513552199026

Author(s):

Rony Abraham Jacob ◽

Priya Srambical Abraham ◽

Feba Rachel Thomas ◽

Vytila Navya ◽

Juny Sebastian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Adolescent Girls ◽

Hpv Vaccine ◽

Hpv Vaccination ◽

Hpv Infection ◽

South Indian ◽

Informed Consent Form ◽

Percentage Improvement ◽

Indian City ◽

Study Population ◽

The Impact

Background: India has almost 225 million adolescent girls and they seem to be at a disadvantage, both economically and by their lack of knowledge on human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, when compared to adolescent girls of other Asian countries. Aim: To assess the prevalence of HPV vaccination and to identify the impact of education in improving the knowledge and perception about the HPV infection and vaccination among the parents of adolescent girls. Methodology: The prospective interventional study was conducted in four schools within a South Indian City, Mysuru. The informed consent form and the questionnaire were sent home with the identified adolescent girls during the pre-interventional phase. Educational sessions were conducted for the students in their school and an education leaflet was distributed to their parents. Three weeks later, questionnaires were re-administered to the parents via the enrolled girls and their responses were collected. Results: The prevalence of HPV vaccination in the study population was 4.4%. There was a statistically significant improvement in knowledge in the post-interventional phase of the study ( p = 0.001), but could not identify a significant change in their perception ( p = 0.479). Parents belonging to the socioeconomic class of upper middle and upper lower showed better improvement at the end of the study, with a percentage improvement of 58.93% and 48.44%, respectively. Conclusion: The study proved that the healt care professional can target school children to communicate effectively to their parents on the importance of HPV vaccine as the study clearly observed a positive behavioral change among the study population.

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The Impact of Oral Health Literacy on Oral Hygiene, Gingival Status and Dental caries among Young Adults in a South Indian city

Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development ◽

10.5958/0976-5506.2019.00989.6 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 161

Author(s):

R Kesavan ◽

Ramachandra Prabhakar ◽

Preetha Chaly ◽

R Saravanan ◽

A Vinita Mary

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Oral Health ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Dental Caries ◽

Oral Hygiene ◽

Oral Health Literacy ◽

South Indian ◽

Indian City ◽

The Impact

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The Impact of Alcohol Use and Related Disorders on the HIV Continuum of Care: a Systematic Review

Current HIV/AIDS Reports ◽

10.1007/s11904-015-0285-5 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 421-436 ◽

Cited By ~ 92

Author(s):

Panagiotis Vagenas ◽

Marwan M. Azar ◽

Michael M. Copenhaver ◽

Sandra A. Springer ◽

Patricia E. Molina ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Continuum Of Care ◽

Hiv Continuum Of Care ◽

The Impact

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Impact of strategic use of antiretroviral therapy intervention to the HIV continuum of care in 13 cities in Indonesia: an interrupted time series analysis

AIDS Research and Therapy ◽

10.1186/s12981-021-00340-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yane N. Tarigan ◽

Richard J. Woodman ◽

Emma R. Miller ◽

Rudi Wisaksana ◽

Paul R. Ward

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Antiretroviral Therapy ◽

Treatment Initiation ◽

Interrupted Time Series ◽

Continuum Of Care ◽

Hiv Care ◽

Negative Binomial Regression Model ◽

Its Analysis ◽

Hiv Continuum Of Care ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background In 2013 the Indonesian government introduced the strategic use of antiretroviral therapy (SUFA) initiative of expanding access to HIV test and treatment, to help achieve the UNAIDS 90–90–90 targets. However, there has been no comprehensive evaluation of the impact of this intervention in Indonesia. We conducted an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis across 6-years to assess its immediate and medium-term impact. Methods Monthly aggregated HIV data from all HIV care clinics for persons aged ≥ 15 years were collected from 13 pilot cities. The data period encompassed 3-years prior to SUFA (26 Dec 2010–25 Dec 2013) and 3-years post-SUFA (26 Dec 2013–25 Dec 2016). The ITS was performed using a multilevel negative binomial regression model to assess the immediate and trend changes in each stage of the HIV continuum of care. Results In the pre-SUFA period, the overall coverage in the respective risk populations for HIV tests, cases, enrolments, eligible cases and ARV initiation were 1.0%, 8.6%, 98.9%, 76.9% and 75.8% respectively. In the post-SUFA period coverage was 3%, 3.8%, 98.6%, 90.3% and 81.2% respectively—with a significant increase in the median number of HIV tests, HIV cases, those eligible for ARV treatment and treatment initiation (p < 0.05 for each). The ITS analysis demonstrated immediate increases in HIV tests (IRR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.25, 1.59; p < 0.001) and an immediate decrease in detected HIV cases per person tested (IRR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.69–0.86; p < 0.001) in the month following commencement of SUFA. There was also a 3% decline in the monthly trend for HIV tests performed (IRR = 0.97; 95% CI 0.97–0.98, p < 0.001), a 1% increase for detected cases (IRR = 1.01, 95% CI 1.0–1.02, p < 0.001), and a 1% decline for treatment initiation (IRR = 0.99,95% CI 0.99–1.0 p < 0.05). Conclusions SUFA was associated with an immediate and sustained increase in the absolute number of HIV tests performed, detected HIV cases, and close to complete coverage of detected cases that were enrolled to care and defined as eligible for treatment. However, treatment initiation remained sub-optimal. The findings of this study provide valuable information on the real-world effect of accelerating ARV utilizing Treatment as Prevention for the full HIV continuum of care in limited resource countries.

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Towards Transabdominal Functional Photoacoustic Imaging of the Placenta: Improvement in Imaging Depth Through Optimization of Light Delivery

Annals of Biomedical Engineering ◽

10.1007/s10439-021-02777-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kristie Huda ◽

Kenneth F. Swan ◽

Cecilia T. Gambala ◽

Gabriella C. Pridjian ◽

Carolyn L. Bayer

Keyword(s):

Delivery System ◽

Light Propagation ◽

Ex Vivo ◽

Photoacoustic Imaging ◽

Incidence Angle ◽

Incident Angle ◽

Placental Tissue ◽

Light Delivery ◽

Imaging Depth ◽

The Impact

AbstractFunctional photoacoustic imaging of the placenta could provide an innovative tool to diagnose preeclampsia, monitor fetal growth restriction, and determine the developmental impacts of gestational diabetes. However, transabdominal photoacoustic imaging is limited in imaging depth due to the tissue’s scattering and absorption of light. The aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of geometry and wavelength on transabdominal light delivery. Our methods included the development of a multilayer model of the abdominal tissue and simulation of the light propagation using Monte Carlo methods. A bifurcated light source with varying incident angle of light, distance between light beams, and beam area was simulated to analyze the effect of light delivery geometry on the fluence distribution at depth. The impact of wavelength and the effects of variable thicknesses of adipose tissue and muscle were also studied. Our results showed that the beam area plays a major role in improving the delivery of light to deep tissue, in comparison to light incidence angle or distance between the bifurcated fibers. Longer wavelengths, with incident fluence at the maximum permissible exposure limit, also increases fluence within deeper tissue. We validated our simulations using a commercially available light delivery system and ex vivo human placental tissue. Additionally, we compared our optimized light delivery to a commercially available light delivery system, and conclude that our optimized geometry could improve imaging depth more than 1.6×, bringing the imaging depth to within the needed range for transabdominal imaging of the human placenta.

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