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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with a higher risk of contracting HIV and developing worse HIV outcomes. This cross-sectional, mixed methods study presents data on IPV using the Conflicts Tactics Scale (CTS2-S) among 180 persons with HIV in Lima, Peru, as well as qualitative interviews with 7 of them and 18 of their community caregivers. This study used data collected for a randomized controlled trial (RCT), CASAommunity Based Accompaniment with Supervised Antiretrovirals (CASA) Community-based Accompaniment with Supervised Antiretrovirals (CASA). Physical or sexual IPV was self-reported in 82 (45.6%) of participants reporting having been in a relationship in the last year and 59,8% of those were involved in bidirectional violence. Coping subscales, social support, and stigma were associated with IPV. Intimate partner violence negatively impacted patient adherence to medication and care, particularly during times of severe conflict. In conclusion, profound psychosocial vulnerability—including low social support, substance use as coping, and HIV stigma—contextualize IPV among people with HIV. Bidirectional violence often evolved over time as victims negotiated inter-personal strategies for survival, including retaliation. Interventions should focus on a deeper understanding IPV and facilitating of coping mechanisms to help people with HIV stay in care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fortedata R package is an open data notebook from the Forest Resilience Threshold Experiment (FoRTE) – a modeling and manipulative field experiment that tests the effects of disturbance severity and disturbance type on carbon cycling dynamics in a temperate forest. Package data consist of measurements of carbon pools and fluxes and ancillary measurements to help analyze and interpret carbon cycling over time. Currently the package includes data and metadata from the first three FoRTE field seasons, serves as a central, updatable resource for the FoRTE project team, and is intended as a resource for external users over the course of the experiment and in perpetuity. Further, it supports all associated FoRTE publications, analyses, and modeling efforts. This increases efficiency, consistency, compatibility, and productivity while minimizing duplicated effort and error propagation that can arise as a function of a large, distributed and collaborative effort. More broadly, fortedata represents an innovative, collaborative way of approaching science that unites and expedites the delivery of complementary datasets to the broader scientific community, increasing transparency and reproducibility of taxpayer-funded science. The fortedata package is available via GitHub: https://github.com/FoRTExperiment/fortedata (last access: 19 February 2021), and detailed documentation on the access, used, and applications of fortedata are available at https://fortexperiment.github.io/fortedata/ (last access: 19 February 2021). The first public release, version 1.0.1 is also archived at 10.5281/zenodo.4399601 (Atkins et al., 2020b). All data products are also available outside of the package as.csv files: 10.6084/m9.figshare.13499148.v1 (Atkins et al., 2020c). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: There are numerous challenges in delivering appropriate treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and the evidence base to guide those practices remains limited. We present the third updated Research Agenda for the programmatic management of drug-resistant TB (PMDT), assembled through a literature review and survey. Methods: Publications citing the 2008 research agenda and normative documents were reviewed for evidence gaps. Gaps were formulated into questions and grouped as in the 2008 research agenda: Laboratory Support, Treatment Strategy, Programmatically Relevant Research, Epidemiology, and Management of Contacts. A survey was distributed through snowball sampling to identify research priorities. Respondent priority rankings were scored and summarized by mean. Sensitivity analyses explored weighting and handling of missing rankings. Results: Thirty normative documents and publications were reviewed for stated research needs; these were collapsed into 56 research questions across 5 categories. Of more than 500 survey recipients, 133 ranked priorities within at least one category. Priorities within categories included new diagnostics and their effect on improving treatment outcomes, improved diagnosis of paucibacillary and extra pulmonary TB, and development of shorter, effective regimens. Interruption of nosocomial transmission and treatment for latent TB infection in contacts of known MDR−TB patients were also top priorities in their respective categories. Results were internally consistent and robust. Discussion: Priorities retained from the 2008 research agenda include shorter MDR-TB regimens and averting transmission. Limitations of recent advances were implied in the continued quest for: shorter regimens containing new drugs, rapid diagnostics that improve treatment outcomes, and improved methods of estimating burden without representative data. Conclusion: There is continuity around the priorities for research in PMDT. Coordinated efforts to address questions regarding shorter treatment regimens, knowledge of disease burden without representative data, and treatment for LTBI in contacts of known DR-TB patients are essential to stem the epidemic of TB, including DR-TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual key opinion leader (KOL) and payer discussion was held on December 5, 2020. In attendance were 2 KOLs, both specialists in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at leading clinics in the United States, and 6 managed care executives from US regional health plans. The objective of this panel was to share opinions, ideas, and information around the treatment of ALS with edaravone, gaps in management and guidelines, and potential solutions. The panel concluded that coverage criteria for edaravone may need to be reassessed and treatment guidelines could be revisited to include a determination of place in therapy for edaravone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clarity about the role of delamanid in longer regimens for multidrug-resistant TB is needed after discordant Phase IIb and Phase III randomized controlled trial results. The Phase IIb trial found that the addition of delamanid to a background regimen hastened culture conversion; the results of the Phase III trial were equivocal. We evaluated the effect of adding delamanid for 24 weeks to three-drug MDR/RR-TB regimens on two- and six-month culture conversion in the endTB observational study. We used pooled logistic regression to estimate the observational analogue of the intention-to-treat effect (aITT) adjusting for baseline confounders and to estimate the observational analogue of the per-protocol effect (aPP) using inverse probability of censoring weighting to control for time-varying confounding. At treatment initiation, 362 patients received three likely effective drugs (delamanid-free) or three likely effective drugs plus delamanid (delamanid-containing). Over 80% of patients received two to three Group A drugs (bedaquiline, linezolid, moxifloxacin/levofloxacin) in their regimen. We found no evidence the addition of delamanid to a three-drug regimen increased two-month (aITT relative risk: 0.90 (95% CI: 0.73-1.11), aPP relative risk: 0.89 (95% CI: 0.66-1.21)) or six-month culture conversion (aITT relative risk: 0.94 (95% CI: 0.84, 1.02), aPP relative risk: 0.93 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.04)). In regimens containing combinations of three likely effective, highly active anti-TB drugs the addition of delamanid had no discernible effect on culture conversion at two or six months. As the standard of care for MDR/RR-TB treatment becomes more potent, it may become increasingly difficult to detect the benefit of adding a single agent to standard of care MDR/RR-TB regimens. Novel approaches like those implemented may help account for background regimens and establish effectiveness of new chemical entities., Competing Interests: The endTB Consortium coordinated donations of delamanid (Otsuka Pharmaceutical) and bedaquiline (Janssen) to be used for treatment by some of the patients included in the endTB Observational Study. All authors report no additional potential conflicts of interest. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2023 Rodriguez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)