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Introduction: In Spain, half of new HIV diagnoses are late and a significant proportion of people living with HIV have not yet been diagnosed. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of an automated opportunistic HIV screening strategy in the hospital setting., Methods: Between April 2022 and September 2023, HIV testing was performed on all patients in whom a hospital admission analytical profile, a pre-surgical profile and several pre-designed serological profiles (fever of unknown origin, pneumonia, mononucleosis, hepatitis, infection of sexual transmission, rash, endocarditis and myopericarditis) was requested. A circuit was started to refer patients the specialists., Results: 6407 HIV tests included in the profiles were performed and 18 (0.3%) new cases were diagnosed (26.4% of diagnoses in the health area). Five patients were diagnosed by hospital admission and pre-surgery profile and 13 by a serological profile requested for indicator entities (fever of unknown origin, sexually transmitted infection, mononucleosis) or possibly associated (pneumonia) with HIV occult infection. Recent infection was documented in 5 (27.8%) patients and late diagnosis in 9 (50.0%), of whom 5 (55.5%) had previously missed the opportunity to be diagnosed., Conclusions: This opportunistic screening was profitable since the positive rate of 0.3% is cost-effective and allowed a quarter of new diagnoses to be made, so it seems a good strategy that contributes to reducing hidden infection and late diagnosis., (Copyright © 2024 Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Applying and leveraging artificial intelligence within the healthcare domain has emerged as a fundamental pursuit to advance health. Data-driven models rooted in deep learning have become powerful tools for use in healthcare informatics. Nevertheless, healthcare data are highly sensitive and must be safeguarded, particularly information related to sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)., Methods: We employed federated learning (FL) in combination with homomorphic encryption (HE) for STI/HIV prediction to train deep learning models on decentralized data while upholding rigorous privacy. The dataset included 168,459 data entries collected from eight countries between 2013 and 2018. The data for each country was split into two groups, with 70% allocated for training and 30% for testing. Our strategy was based on two-step aggregation to enhance model performance and leverage the area under the curve (AUC) and accuracy metrics and involved a secondary aggregation at the local level before utilizing the global model for each client. We introduced a dropout approach as an effective client-side solution to mitigate computational costs., Results: Model performance was progressively enhanced from an AUC of 0.78 and an accuracy of 74.4% using the local model to an AUC of 0.94 and an accuracy of 90.7% using the more advanced model., Conclusion: Our proposed model for STI/HIV risk prediction surpasses those achieved by local models and those constructed from centralized data sources, highlighting the potential of our approach to improve healthcare outcomes while safeguarding sensitive patient information., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a major global health concern for which accurate viral load monitoring is essential for the management of HIV infection. The advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has transformed once-fatal HIV disease into a manageable chronic condition that now makes the need for VL testing which aims to satisfy international suppression targets 95-95-95 al l the more essential. Therefore, considering the complexity and diversity of HIV infection, it is essential to develop rapid diagnostic technologies suitable for different clinical situations. Here, we report on a multiplexed PCR device developed for simple and efficient quantification of HIV-1 or HIV-2 viral loads using finger-pricked whole blood from rural decentralized settings. This device is comprised of a previously developed RNA extraction module combined with an optimized real-time PCR amplification system. Together, these combine to simultaneously detect and differentiate HIV-1 & 2; as well are adopting a testing control of RNase P allowing for full diagnostic analysis from one sample. Our device also includes an intuitive user interface and is completely autonomous so it can serve individuals in remote areas who are unfamiliar with the field of medical testing. They get the results in a very short time of around 70 min and hence save on testing times without leaving accuracy behind. The efficiency and effectiveness of the device were validated through the analysis of 30 clinical samples, yielding a sensitivity of 100% for both HIV-1 and HIV-2. The specificity was found to be 100% for HIV-1 and 90.91% for HIV-2, demonstrating high diagnostic accuracy. One of the most attractive things about this device is that it comes in comparison to all other counterparts. Given that you can run the assay for less than $10, it could be an economically viable way to use this as a broadscale test in regions where healthcare budgets don't allow others. Hence it is quite a useful device to aid HIV management in resource-limited settings, where conventional laboratory facilities are out of reach due its simplicity and affordability with rapid output. The point-of-care test is an effective, low-cost, high quality diagnostic tool-promoting rapid testing for HIV-inexpensively overcoming the barriers to efficient control of and care in resource-limited settings., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest A provisional patent application has been submitted concerning the technology discussed in this document., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Stigmatization and discrimination by health workers, particularly midwives are obstacles to the achievement of universal access to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, treatment, and care programs. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate midwifery students' knowledge and attitude regarding Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and HIV, and their willingness to care for patients with AIDS and HIV before they enter the field of health and medical activities. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the level of knowledge and attitude in this regard, and willingness to care for patients with AIDS and HIV among midwifery students of selected universities in Iran in 2020., Materials and Methods: A descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study was performed on 618 midwifery students in Iran in 2019-2020. Data were collected using a five-part questionnaire: a demographic characteristics form, an academic profile form, the HIV Knowledge Questionnaire (HIV-KQ), the AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS), and the Jordan Standard Questionnaire. Data analysis was performed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods. p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant., Results: The mean (SD) age of the subjects was 23.10 (5.63) years. The mean (SD) of knowledge, attitude, and willingness scores were 26.93 (6.64), 80.45 (9.27), and 29.55 (9.10), respectively. Single individuals had higher attitude scores., Conclusions: Iranian midwifery students had the desired level of knowledge, although the mean score was not much higher than the threshold. The level of the midwifery students' attitude was appropriate and more than that, but none of them had a 100% positive attitude. They had a moderate or neutral willingness to provide services to and care for patients with AIDS., Competing Interests: Nothing to declare., (Copyright: © 2023 Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research.)

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity has an important role in lung cavitary formation occurred in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Low number and viability of CD4 + T-lymphocytes in patients with TB/HIV co-infection leads to impaired neutrophils production, causing further impaired MMPs production., Objective: To explore association of neutrophils and lymphocytes count to MMP-8 and MMP-9 among pulmonary TB patients with cavitary lesion and HIV co-infection., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a purposive sampling technique among patients with non-cavitary TB (n = 50), cavitary TB (n = 50) and TB/HIV (n = 27). Complete blood count was examined, including neutrophils and lymphocytes count. MMP-8 and MMP-9 were measured from plasma samples using ELISA method. Statistical analysis was conducted to determine the relation between neutrophils, lymphocytes and MMPs., Result: MMP-8 and MMP-9 were positively correlated with neutrophils, but not to lymphocytes in all groups. Neutrophils, lymphocytes, and MMP-9 were significantly lower in TB/HIV co-infection, whereas MMP-8 was higher compared to new pulmonary TB. Interestingly, in cavitary TB, low lymphocytes were significantly correlated with higher level of MMP-8 and larger extent of lung affected., Conclusion: MMP-8 and MMP-9 are associated with neutrophil count, suggesting that neutrophils contribute significantly to their secretion. MMP-8 is significantly higher in TB/HIV co-infection and extent of lung damage in cavitary TB with lower lymphocyte count. This study suggests that lower lymphocyte level is related to higher neutrophil orchestrated inflammation, leading to tissue destruction., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Censored quantile regression has elicited extensive research interest in recent years. One class of methods is based on an informative subset of a sample, selected via the propensity score. Propensity score can either be estimated using parametric methods, which poses the risk of misspecification or obtained using nonparametric approaches, which suffer from "curse of dimensionality." In this study, we propose a new estimation method based on multiply robust propensity score for censored quantile regression. This method only requires one of the multiple candidate models for propensity score to be correctly specified, and thus, it provides a certain level of resistance to the misspecification of parametric models. Large sample properties, such as the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator, are thoroughly investigated. Extensive simulation studies are conducted to assess the performance of the proposed estimator. The proposed method is also applied to a study on human immunodeficiency viruses.

Human immunodeficiency viruses (HIVs) are retroviruses that replicate effectively in human CD4 + cells and cause the development of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). On the other hand, type 1 long interspersed elements (LINE-1s or L1s) are the only active retroelements that can replicate autonomously in human cells. They, along with other active yet nonautonomous retroelements, have been associated with autoimmune diseases. There are many similarities between HIV and LINE-1. Being derived (or evolved) from ancient retroviruses, both HIV and LINE-1 replicate through a process termed reverse transcription, activate endogenous DNA and RNA sensors, trigger innate immune activation to promote interferon (IFN) expression, and are suppressed by protein products of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). However, these similarities make it difficult to decipher or even speculate the relationship between HIV and LINE-1, especially regarding the involvement of the IFN signaling system. In this review, we summarize previous findings on the relationships between HIV and innate immune activation as well as between LINE-1 and IFN upregulation. We also attempt to elucidate the interplay among HIV, LINE-1, and the IFN signaling system in hopes of guiding future research directions for viral suppression and immune regulation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Zhao, Zhao, Du, Gao and Zhao.)

There is a complex interrelationship between human papillomaviruses (HPV) and human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) that has been recognized from the start of the HIV epidemic. Cervical cancer was used as a surveillance indicator for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) before definitive identification of the viral etiology of either condition were known. Careful epidemiologic studies combined with clinical and laboratory measures of HPV, HPV-associated disease, and HIV have helped us understand many aspects of the relationship between these two virus groups; however, questions remain. The histopathology associated with HPV is identical in HIV-positive and negative patients though the lesions are more frequent, with higher frequency of multiple HPV types, and persistent in HIV infected individuals. In this review we will briefly explain the pathobiology of HPV in HIV-infected persons and the potential impact of secondary (screening) and primary (vaccination) prevention to reduce HPV-associated disease in those infected with HIV., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Endogenous retroviruses are pathogenic - in other species than the human. Disease associations for Human Endogenous RetroViruses (HERVs) are emerging, but so far an unequivocal pathogenetic cause-effect relationship has not been established. A role for HERVs has been proposed in neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases as diverse as multiple sclerosis (MS) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Particularly for MS, many aspects of the activation and involvement of specific HERV families (HERV-H/F and HERV-W/MSRV) have been reported, both for cells in the circulation and in the central nervous system. Notably envelope genes and their gene products (Envs) appear strongly associated with the disease. For SCZ, for ALS, and for HIV-associated dementia (HAD), indications are accumulating for involvement of the HERV-K family, and also HERV-H/F and/or HERV-W. Activation is reasonably a prerequisite for causality as most HERV sequences remain quiescent in non-pathological conditions, so the importance of regulatory pathways and epigenetics involved in regulating HERV activation, derepression, and also involvement of retroviral restriction factors, is emerging. HERV-directed antiretrovirals have potential as novel therapeutic paradigms in neurologic disease, particularly in MS. The possible protective or ameliorative effects of antiretroviral therapy in MS are substantiated by reports that treatment of HIV infection may be associated with a significantly decreased risk of MS. Further studies of HERVs, their role in neurologic diseases, and their potential as therapeutic targets are essential., (© 2016 APMIS. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)