Health monitoring

Health monitoring features

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  Everything okay down there? Screening for anal cancer

  Anal cancer is around 50 times more common in gay men with HIV than it is in the general population. Should we be demanding screening and vaccinations?...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Testing…testing…one, two, three

  When you visit your HIV clinic, they will be measuring a lot more than just your CD4 count and viral load. What else are they checking and...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  How to talk to your doctor

  You have 15 minutes and the clock is ticking. Are you saying the right thing? Does your doctor understand you? Or even take you seriously? Lindsay Calder...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Cervical cancer and you

  The recent death of reality TV star Jade Goody has created a huge upsurge of concern about cervical cancer, and getting screened for it. HIV-positive women are...

  From:  HIV treatment update

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  Second-line therapy

  This issue looks at current and future need and options for second-line antiretroviral regimens including challenges of switching, side-effects, costs and resistance in resource-poor settings....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Clinical monitoring as effective as CD4 count and viral load for deciding when to switch to second-line ART in poor countries

  This issue reviews monitoring options for switching to second-line in resource-poor settings. ...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Clinical staging of HIV disease - featured news report

  Recent evidence on which clinical illnesses are reliable markers of low CD4 counts and HIV disease progression; oral candiasis found to be strong marker....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  Defining, and then watching for, treatment failure

  A review of various clinical, immunological and virological definitions of antiretroviral treatment failure in resource-limited settings....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  First-line treatment choices proving challenging for African ART programmes

  Report from 2007 HIV Implementers' Meeting on challenges faced by African countries in replacing d4T in first-line antiretroviral treatment....

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  WHO to monitor ARV side-effects worldwide

  Report from the 2007 HIV Implementers' meeting on the need for better monitoring of antiretroviral toxicities in resource-limited settings. ...

  From:  HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

Health monitoring in your own words

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  'I just take the tablets and get on with my life'

  I was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1997. I'm now 65. It was a bit of a shock. It could never happen to me, after all. I...

  From:In your own words

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  Finally undetectable!

  After almost 15 years of HIV, and six years of viral load testing, I heard on Thursday, June 21st 2001 that my viral load had...

  From:In your own words

Health monitoring news from aidsmap

• Tenofovir, atazanavir/ritonavir and Kaletra associated with kidney problems in patients taking HIV therapy

  Data from a large study into the safety of anti-HIV drugs suggest that the antiretrovirals tenofovir (Viread, also in Truvada, Atripla and Eviplera), atazanavir (Reyataz) and lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra) each have an independent association with a decline in kidney function. ...

  15 February 2013 | Michael Carter

• Screening can reduce number of patients in need of a doctor's time in busy South African clinic

  Screening patients to identify those who are stable on treatment in a high-volume, large, urban, public-sector clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa has the potential to reduce total doctor visits by 40% (14,000 each year), ease clinic congestion, reduce the time ...

  29 January 2013 | Carole Leach-Lemens

• Six-monthly CD4 cell monitoring 'unnecessary' for people doing well on HIV therapy

  CD4 cell count monitoring more than once a year is unnecessary for people doing well on HIV therapy, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. They found that there was a ...

  17 January 2013 | Michael Carter

• Starting HIV therapy with a viral load above 100,000 is associated with a lower chance of achieving an undetectable viral load

  Starting HIV treatment with a viral load above 100,000 copies/ml is associated with a reduced chance of achieving an undetectable viral load within 48 weeks regardless of the combination of drugs used, according to the results of a meta-analysis ...

  28 November 2012 | Michael Carter

• Low levels of vitamin D associated with poorer long-term CD4 cell gains in women who start HIV treatment late

  Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with poorer CD4 cell recovery among women who start HIV treatment late, US investigators report in the online edition of AIDS. After taking into account factors such as viral load, the authors found ...

  27 November 2012 | Michael Carter

• Risk of recurrence of active TB is high for people with HIV

  People living with HIV who have a history of active tuberculosis (TB) have a significant risk of the recurrence of the disease, investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. The risk of developing active TB ...

  22 October 2012 | Michael Carter

• Double trouble: daily function and the impact of old age and HIV

  Older age exacerbates the deleterious effect of HIV on daily functioning, investigators from the US report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Investigators compared ability to perform daily tasks, cognitive function and quality of ...

  11 September 2012 | Michael Carter

• Patients with pain have poorer engagement with HIV care

  Pain in people with HIV is associated with an increased risk of missed appointments, investigators from the US report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The original intention of the study was to see ...

  22 August 2012 | Michael Carter

• Population viral load decreases in 'test and treat' study in Uganda

  Positive changes in population-level HIV viral load distribution have been found one year after the implementation of key components of an HIV 'test-and-treat' strategy in rural Uganda. Population levels of viral load were lower, a higher proportion of people had ...

  25 July 2012 | Lesley Odendal

• Rapid CD4 cell testing as part of HIV testing and counselling increases chances that people will be successfully linked to care

  The use of rapid, point-of-care CD4 cell tests increases the chances that people diagnosed with HIV when using mobile HIV counselling and testing  (HCT) services will be successfully linked to care, investigators from South Africa report in the online ...

  06 June 2012 | Michael Carter

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Health monitoring news selected from other sources

• Handheld mobile device performs laboratory-quality HIV testing

  A new handheld mobile device can check patients’ HIV status with just a finger prick, and synchronize the results in real time with electronic health records.

  21 January 2013 | Science Daily

• Paper Test Could Make Drug Treatment Safer

  Researchers looking to make tuberculosis (TB) and HIV treatment safer have developed a paper-based test for drug-induced liver damage.

  19 November 2012 | Asian Scientist Magazine

• Longer Visit Interval OK in Stable HIV

  Going 4 or 6 months between office visits instead of the standard 3 does not appear to compromise virologic control among stable HIV-infected patients, researchers suggested here.

  24 October 2012 | MedPage Today

• Research supports longer Pap test intervals for HIV-positive women

  For HIV-positive women, annual Pap testing appears safe, and after three consecutive normal results, a three-year screening interval is appropriate, the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) investigators advise in a new report.

  01 October 2012 | ModernMedicine

• South Africa: Taking HIV Testing to Homes

  Home-based HIV testing, which enables people to have an HIV test in the privacy of their own home without having to go to a health facility, is one of the newest efforts to be introduced in South Africa to get people to know their HIV status.

  20 September 2012 | allAfrica.com

• Cellphone HIV test studied

  South African and South Korean researchers are working on making a smartphone capable of doing Aids tests in rural parts of Africa that are the worst hit by the disease.

  03 September 2012 | iAfrica.com

• HPV Testing in HIV-Positive Women May Help Reduce Frequent Cervical Cancer Screening

  HPV and Pap co-testing could be used to reduce the burden of frequent Pap tests and unnecessary biopsies in HIV-positive women.

  23 July 2012 | Science Daily

• Predictive tool could cut HIV test costs

  A tool to monitor how HIV-positive patients respond to antiretroviral therapy (ART) could free up scarce personnel and laboratory resources in developing countries, according to an international team of researchers.

  08 May 2012 | SciDev Net

• Sensors To Test For Malaria And HIV Printed And Assembled For Less Than 10 Cents

  Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, chemists at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a 3-D paper sensor that may be able to test for diseases such as malaria and HIV for less than 10 cents a pop.

  12 March 2012 | HIV / AIDS News From Medical News Today

• Diagnostics: Crucial role hampered by high cost and poor access

  The key to effective treatment is access to robust diagnostics systems, but in developing countries such access is often unavailable.

  01 December 2011 | Financial Times

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