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While the diagnostic properties of the TB LAM urine assay (LAM) have been well-described, little is known about its predictive and prognostic properties at ART initiation in a routine clinic setting. We describe the predictive and prognostic properties of LAM in HIV-positive patients initiating ART at an urban hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. Retrospective study of HIV-positive adults (>18 years) who initiated standard first-line ART between February 2012 and April 2013 and had a LAM test at initiation. In HIV-positive patients with no known TB at ART initiation, we assessed the sensitivity, specificity and positive/negative likelihood ratios of LAM to predict incident TB within 6 months of ART initiation. In addition, in patients with a TB diagnosis and on TB treatment <3 months at ART initiation, we measured the CD4 response at 6 months on ART. Of the 274 patients without TB at ART initiation, 65% were female with median CD4 count of 213 cells/mm³. Among the 14 (5.1%) patients who developed active TB, none were urine LAM +ve at baseline. LAM had poor sensitivity (0.0 % 95 % CI 0.00-23.2) to predict incident TB within 6 months of initiation. We analyzed 22 patients with a confirmed TB diagnosis at initiation separately. Of these, LAM +ve patients (27%) showed lower CD4 gains compared to LAM negative patients (median increase 103 vs 199 cells/mm³; p=0.08). LAM has limited value for accurately predicting incident TB in patients with higher CD4 counts after ART initiation. LAM may help identify TB/HIV co-infected patients at ART initiation who respond more slowly to treatment and require targeted interventions to improve treatment outcomes. Larger studies with longer patient follow-up are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cervical cancer is treatable if detected timeously, yet only 20% of South African women have ever been for a Pap smear in their lifetime due to limited access to screening, transport or child care responsibilities. Objective: To evaluate the acceptability of self-collection for cervical cancer screening. We aimed to identify which self-collection device women prefer and if they would consider using them for routine cervical cancer screening. Methods: HIV-positive women (>18 years) from urban and rural HIV clinics were interviewed following an education session on HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. Participants were shown three self-collection devices; (i) an Evalyn cervical brush, (ii) a Delphilavager and (iii) a tampon-like plastic wand before completing a short questionnaire. Results: A total of 106 women from the urban (n=52) and rural (n=54) clinic were interviewed. Overall 51% of women preferred the cervical brush, while fewer women preferred the tampon-like plastic wand (31%) or lavage sampler (18%). More than 75% of women from the rural site preferred the cervical brush, compared to 22% from the urban site (p<0.001). Women from the urban clinic preferred the tampon-like plastic wand (45%) and then the lavage sampler (33%), as compared to women from the rural clinic (19% and 4%, respectively). Conclusion: Women from urban or rural settings had different preferences for the various self-collection devices. Patient self-collection with HPV testing may be an acceptable way to improve coverage to cervical cancer screening in high risk HIV-seropositive women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nevirapine (NVP) and Efavirenz (EFV) have generally comparable clinical and virologic efficacy. However, data comparing NVP durability to EFV are imprecise. We analyzed cohort data to compare durability of NVP to EFV among patients initiating ART in Mbabane, Swaziland. The primary outcome was poor regimen durability defined as any modification of NVP or EFV to the ART regimen. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were employed to estimate the risk of poor regimen durability (all-cause) for the two regimens and also separately to estimate risk of drug-related toxicity. We analyzed records for 769 patients initiating ART in Mbabane, Swaziland from March 2006 to December 2007. 30 patients (3.9%) changed their NVP or EFV-based regimen during follow up. Cumulative incidence for poor regimen durability was 5.3% and 2.7% for NVP and EFV, respectively. Cumulative incidence for drug-related toxicity was 1.9% and 2.7% for NVP and EFV, respectively. Burden of TB was high and 14 (46.7%) modifications were due to patients substituting NVP due to beginning TB treatment. Though the estimates were imprecise, use of NVP - based regimens seemed to be associated with higher risk of modifications compared to use of EFV - based regimens (HR 2.03 95%CI 0.58 - 7.05) and NVP - based regimens had a small advantage over EFV - based regimens with regard to toxicity - related modifications (HR 0.87 95%CI 0.26 - 2.90). Due to the high burden of TB and a significant proportion of patients changing their ART regimen after starting TB treatment, use of EFV as the preferred NNRTI over NVP in high TB endemic settings may result in improved first-line regimen tolerance. Further studies comparing the cost-effectiveness of delivering these two NNRTIs in light of their different limitations are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]