Testing, Counseling Of Cocaine And Heroin Users Reduces Unprotected Sex
Voluntary testing and counseling (VT/C) for HIV or sexually transmitted infections (STI) among cocaine and heroin users who were treated in the emergency department (ED), accompanied by referral to drug treatment, was associated with reduction in unprotected sex acts and fewer sex acts while high according to researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC). These findings currently appear on-line in Academic Emergency Medicine. In the United States, sexual risk behaviors are a greater source of HIV transmission than injection drug use.
In Resource-Constrained Settings, Prioritizing Lab Testing For Patients On Antiretroviral Treatment
In this week's PLoS Medicine, Luis Montaner from the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, USA and colleagues retrospectively apply a potential capacity-saving CD4 count model to a cohort of HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. The study's findings suggest that the model could be used to optimize laboratory capacity in settings where resources are limited. The authors stress that the method is not intended to replace CD4 count testing or establish a second tier of healthcare, rather the model is intended as a triage tool to prioritize laboratory capacity for patients who are a high priority.
Clues About Protection From HIV From Follow-Up Studies To The RV144 HIV Vaccine Trial
Researchers have gained important clues about immune system responses that could play a role in protecting people from HIV infection in follow-up studies from the world's largest HIV vaccine trial to date. Results from laboratory studies based on the trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The HIV vaccine trial in Thailand, called RV144, showed that the group receiving the vaccine regimen was estimated to be 31.2 percent less likely to be infected than those who didn't get the vaccine, and researchers set out to learn why.