scholarly journals Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in parenteral drug users: evolution of the epidemic over 10 years. Valencian Epidemiology and Prevention of HIV Disease Study Group

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Hernandez-Aguado ◽  
M. J. Avino ◽  
S. Perez-Hoyos ◽  
J. Gonzalez-Aracil ◽  
I. Ruiz-Perez ◽  
...  
1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Novick ◽  
Harold L. Trigg ◽  
Don C. Des Jarlais ◽  
Samuel R. Friedman ◽  
David Vlahov ◽  
...  

Introduction, nutritional goals, and assessment 664 Unintentional weight and lean tissue loss 666 Cardiovascular risk and complications associated with HIV disease and treatment 667 Additional dietary issues 668 Untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection leads to progressive suppression of immune function, eventually rendering the body susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumours. While there is no cure, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is highly effective in suppressing HIV replication. HIV disease is now a chronic condition and causes of death in this population have shifted from traditional AIDS-related illnesses to non-AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) events, the most common being atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, liver disease, end-stage renal disease and non-AIDS–defining malignancies. There are a diverse range of nutritional conditions associated with HIV, reflecting the complexity of the disease and pharmacological management....


Medicina ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 765
Author(s):  
Cristian Jianu ◽  
Sorana D. Bolboacă ◽  
Adriana Violeta Topan ◽  
Irina Filipescu ◽  
Mihaela Elena Jianu ◽  
...  

Background and Objectives: In Romania, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic is almost the same as it is in Central Europe, with some differences; particularity the following one: people with nosocomial HIV infection, also known as Romanian cohort. Aim: The study aimed to present a local view of HIV infection in the North-West part of Romania, and to identify the particularities of patients under medical care in the Cluj AIDS Center. Materials and Methods: The demographic characteristics (age and gender), and medical and epidemiological data (stage of HIV infection and mode of transmission) of patients in a medical care in the Cluj Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Center were evaluated. Data from the first patients admitted between 1989 and 2018, and the statuses of the infected persons as per 31 December 2018 were analyzed. Results: Nine hundred and fourteen patients were included in the study. The patients’ ages varied from 0 (newborns from HIV-infected mothers) to 72 years old, and most patients were men (596 men vs. 318 women). The main mode of transmission was sexual (>50%), with an increased number of men who have sex with men (MSM) in the last years (from two cases in 2006 to thirty-four cases in 2018), and a very small percentage of intravenous drug users (IDU; <1%). The patients from the Romanian cohort were more frequently women as compared with men (p-value <0.0001), women were more frequently later presenters than men (p-value <0.0001), and the women more frequently had candidosis (p-value = 0.0372), cerebral toxoplasmosis (p-value = 0.0404), and co-infection with hepatitis B virus (p-value = 0.0018). One hundred and sixty patients died by the end of 2018 (17.5%). Sixty-eight children had been born from HIV-infected mothers, and 17 were HIV infected (25%). Conclusion: The main mode of HIV transmission in our sample was sexual, with an increased number of MSM over the last years and a low number of cases of intravenous drug users. A quarter of children borne from HIV-infected mothers were HIV infected.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 104-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poudyal Nimesh ◽  
Gyawali Narayan ◽  
Prasad Nepal Hari ◽  
Gurung Rajendra ◽  
Pandey Sabitri ◽  
...  

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 945-947
Author(s):  

Injection and other illicit drug use plays a major role in the transmission of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including cases among infants, children, and adolescents.1,2 Transmission to adolescents and adults occurs either directly from contaminated drug paraphernalia, including needles and syringes, or through sexual contact with an infected partner. Transmission to infants occurs transplacentally or perinatally from mothers who are most often either drug users themselves, or who have become infected from sexual partners who are injection drug users. It is therefore clear that a reduction in the transmission of HIV infection secondary to illicit drug use and the use of contaminated injection equipment is a pediatric concern and should be part of any prevention program. The adverse consequences of illicit drug use are multiple and certainly not limited to the potential acquisition and transmission of HIV infection. Ideally, treatment and prevention programs should seek to reduce drug use itself, not solely HIV infection. However, many users of injection drugs do not enter drug treatment, remain in treatment, or maintain complete abstinence while in treatment. Therefore, promoting safer injection practices can provide an important public health benefit in lowering the risk of HIV transmission, while simultaneous efforts continue to reduce and eliminate drug use. Initiatives with the singular objective of increasing access to sterile equipment are understandably controversial, as they do not directly address the causes and broader consequences of illicit drug use. In addition, there are continuing concerns that any program increasing access to sterile needles and syringes might actually increase injection drug use by creating the impression of relative safety and tacit community approval for such behavior.


1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 315-321
Author(s):  
M. Clerici ◽  
M. L. Villa ◽  
D. Trabattoni ◽  
G. M. Shearer

The acquired immunodeflciency syndrome (AIDS) is a clinically multifaceted disease induced by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV infection results in a complex pattern of immunologic alterations that leads to the development of AIDS in the majority of HIV seropositive (HIV+) individuals. The reduction in CD4 T lymphocyte counts is the hallmark of HIV infection; nevertheless, long before the reduction in CD4 counts reaches critical levels, a series of profound and complex defects that impair the function of CD4 T lymphocytes can be detected. Thus, HIV infection is characterized by quantitative and qualitative defects affecting CD4 T lymphocytes. It was suggested recently that programmed cell death (PCD) is an important mechanism leading to CD4 depletion in HIV infection, and that susceptibility of peripheral lymphocytes to PCD is differentially regulated by diverse cytokines. Thus, type 1 cytokines would protect CD4 lymphocytes against PCD, whereas type 2 cytokines would not protect against, and could augment, PCD. We suggest that the qualitative alterations of the immune response provoke the CD4 depletion characteristic of HIV disease via type 2 cytokinemediated augmentation of PCD, and are therefore ultimately responsible for the progression of HIV infection. Finally, we summarize recent data showing that three correlates of disease progression: emergence of HIV strains with syncitium-inducing ability (SI), type 1-to-type 2 cytokine shift, and CD4 depletion, are significantly associated, suggesting a complex interconnected virologic-immunologic pathogenesis of HIV infection.


1994 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
C M Tsoukas ◽  
N F Bernard

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interacts with the immune system throughout the course of infection. For most of the disease process, HIV activates the immune system, and the degree of activation can be assessed by measuring serum levels of molecules such as beta 2-microglobulin and neopterin, as well as other serum and cell surface phenotype markers. The levels of some of these markers correlate with clinical progression of HIV disease, and these markers may be useful as surrogate markers for development of clinical AIDS. Because the likelihood and timing of development of clinical AIDS following seroconversion, for any particular individual, are not readily predictable, the use of nonclinical disease markers has become critically important to patient management. Surrogate markers of HIV infection are, by definition, measurable traits that correlate with disease progression. An ideal marker should identify patients at highest risk of disease progression, provide information on how long an individual has been infected, help in staging HIV disease, predict development of opportunistic infections associated with AIDS, monitor the therapeutic efficacy of immunomodulating or antiviral treatments, and the easily quantifiable, reliable, clinically available, and affordable. This review examines the current state of knowledge and the role of surrogate markers in the natural history and treatment of HIV infection. The clinical usefulness of each marker is assessed with respect to the criteria outlined for the ideal surrogate marker for HIV disease progression.


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