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World AIDS Day 2023: Highlights from the BMC Series
© Katia / stock.adobe.com BMC Public Health – Feasibility and acceptability of peer-delivered HIV self-testing and PrEP for young women in Kampala, Uganda © Tina / stock.adobe.com This pilot study in Uganda aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of peer-delivered HIV self-tests (HIVST) and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to young women with suboptimal PrEP…
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“Yathu Yathu”(For us, By us!): an innovative and co-designed intervention to deliver peer-led community-based sexual and reproductive health service to adolescents and young people in Lusaka, Zambia
Young people in a study community Background In Eastern and Southern Africa, adolescents and young people (AYP) aged 15-24 years face a high burden of HIV, especially adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) who are disproportionally affected. In recent years, AIDS has become the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa. Anti-retroviral therapy (ART)…
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Schistosomes as a threat to human reproduction
Figure 2. Hand-held colposcopic image with FGS areas highlighted (left). Histopathology section of one of the FGS lesions showing S.haematobium eggs (right). Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a disabling and neglected gynaecological disease caused by the egg-deposition of the Schistosoma haematobium parasite in the genital tract. Transmission is facilitated by freshwater snails, as an intermediate…
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A Personalized Approach to HIV
Credit: Federal University of Sao Paulo Background: macaque studies When I started to work on this topic, the general scenario was rather demotivating: the approaches that had so far been attempted had led to mixed or disappointing results. Among the strategies that had so far been attempted to raise anti-HIV immunity, the most frequently adopted…
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Global solidarity: World AIDS Day 2020
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there were 38 million people worldwide living with HIV infection at the end of 2019 and that 68% of adults and 53% of children living with HIV globally are receiving lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, there is concern that health services are facing disruption during…
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COVID-19 pandemic and continuum of care in people living with HIV: the experience of a hospital in Northern Italy
Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay Between March and April 2020, SARS-CoV-2 hit hard on the province of Brescia, Lombardy, which rapidly became among the top five provinces in Italy for the number of COVID-19 cases (1.4% per 100.000). During the pandemic, hospitals faced increasing pressure, where people living with HIV risked to either acquire…
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Why do so many women find it challenging to stay in postpartum HIV care?
Despite availability of free HIV care in many low- and middle-income countries, fewer women living with HIV (WLHIV) remain in care in the first year after childbirth than during pregnancy. WLHIV who do not stay in care do not receive antiretroviral therapy and are at increased risk of passing HIV to their child or partner…
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COVID-19 and Tuberculosis: Pandemics on Collision Course
We seem to have short memories for pandemics. Outbreaks of SARS, MERS, Ebola and new influenza strains didn’t appear to have raised the fear of a new true pandemic into the global consciousness. That was certainly true for me, and I was an infectious diseases professional, albeit working on one of our older and more…