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Coverage of the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

HIVandHepatitis.com coverage of the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, February 13-16, 2017, in Seattle.

Antiretroviral Therapy and Treatment Strategies

• Several New Candidates in HIV Drug Pipeline Discussed at Conference
• Dolutegravir Monotherapy Fails to Maintain Viral Suppression
• Integrase Inhibitors May Increase Risk of IRIS in Late Presenters for HIV Treatment
• New HIV Capsid Inhibitors Show High Potency and Prolonged Activity in Early Studies
• Treatment-as-Prevention Study Sees Substantial Drug Resistance, but No Impact on HIV Therapy
• Monoclonal Antibodies Show Promise for HIV+ People with Few Treatment Options
• New NNRTI Doravirine Shows Good Efficacy in Phase 3 Study
• Efavirenz/Tenofovir/Emtricitabine Less Likely to Cause Adverse Birth Outcomes
• Dual Antiretroviral Regimen Maintains Durable HIV Suppression after Switch
• Integrase Inhibitor Bictegravir Matches Dolutegravir for First-Line HIV Treatment
• Infants Treated Within Days of Birth Can Clear HIV Reservoir Rapidly

HIV Cure Research

• Timothy Brown, the Berlin Patient, Celebrates a Decade Cured of HIV
• How Does Vedolizumab Antibody Therapy Lead to Sustained Viral Remission?
• Bone Marrow Transplant Patient Off ART for 288 Days Without HIV Rebound
• Spanish HIV Vaccine Induces Control Off ART in Nearly 40% of Recipients
• Infants Treated Within Days of Birth Can Clear HIV Reservoir Rapidly

HIV Prevention

• Bacterial Vaginosis Does Not Affect Efficacy of Oral PrEP in Women
• STI Rates Among PrEP Users Are High, But Evidence that PrEP Increases Them Is Inconclusive
• Unique Case of PrEP Failure Without Drug Resistance Reported in Amsterdam
• STI Prophylaxis in PrEP Users Reduces Syphilis and Chlamydia, but Not Gonorrhea

HIV-Related Conditions and Complications

• Better Depression Care Could Improve Outcomes for HIV Treatment Programs
• Long-Term Darunavir/Ritonavir Modestly Increases Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
• Bone Density Improves in People Who Switch from Tenofovir DF to Tenofovir Alafenamide
• Studies Look at Brain and Cognitive Changes in People with HIV As They Age
• Stopping Smoking Cuts Risk of Some Cancers Quickly in People with HIV
• Treatment or Watchful Waiting for Cervical Abnormalities in Women with HIV?

HIV Epidemiology and Access to Care

• HIV's Milder Cousin May Be Less Mild than Previously Thought
• Accelerated Linkage to HIV Care Improves Retention by a Third
• Treat and Treat Study Shows Second Phase Is Finding More People with HIV
• Finding Men with HIV -- and Keeping Them in Treatment
• 1 in 5 HIV+ Men in U.K. Who Say They Are Heterosexual Caught HIV from Another Man
• Simple Risk Score Can Identify Gay Men Who May Have Acute HIV Infection
• Peer Navigators Improve Linkage to HIV Care and Retention in South African Study
• Point-of-Care Testing Improves Infant HIV Diagnosis Rate, Treatment, and Retention
• Will There Be a New Wave of HIV Among People Who Inject Drugs in the U.S.?
• How Should HIV Self-Testing Be Provided?
• Time with Transmissible HIV Viral Load Has Fallen By Three-Quarters Since 2000
• Science, Community, and Political Will Can End HIV Epidemic, Says New York Commissioner
• New HIV Infections Fall in the U.S. but Disparities Remain
• Changes In Viral Suppression Over Time Reveal Disparities in HIV Care
• A Combination of Factors Has Reduced HIV Infections in Hard-Hit Part of Africa

Hepatitis C and HIV/HCV Coinfection

• Hepatitis C Treatment Can Be Provided Successfully at Syringe Exchange Sites
• Higher than Expected HCV Prevalence Among HIV-Negative Gay Men in Amsterdam PrEP Program
• DAA Therapy Cures HIV/HCV Coinfected People with Decompensated Cirrhosis or Transplants
• Are HIV/HCV Coinfected People Cured with DAAs at Increased Risk for Liver Cancer?
• Glecaprevir/Pibrentasvir for HCV Can Be Safely Administered with Common Antiretrovirals
• New HCV Infections Among HIV+ Gay Men Drop By Half After DAA Roll-Out in Netherlands

Tuberculosis

• Prednisone Reduces Risk of Developing TB-IRIS after Starting Antiretroviral Treatment
• Isoniazid Preventive Therapy for TB Reduces Risk of Death for People Living with HIV
• Triple Tuberculosis Regimen Beats XDR-TB in First Trial

CROI 2017: Peer Navigators Improve Linkage to HIV Care and Retention in South African Study

Adults recently diagnosed with HIV who get help from peers to address personal barriers to care together with SMS check-in messages, appointment, and healthy living reminders had nearly twice the odds of being retained in care at 1 year of follow-up compared to those getting standard care at primary health clinics in South Africa according to findings presented at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

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Coverage of the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections

HIVandHepatitis.com coverage of the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic infections (CROI 2017), February 13-16, 2017, in Seattle.

Full coverage listing by topic

CROI website

4/16/17

CROI 2017: Finding Men with HIV -- and Keeping Them in Treatment

Specialized services to attract men to HIV testing and treatment may need to adopt several different formats in order to reach different sub-populations of men, suggesting there is no single service innovation that will boost uptake among men in sub-Saharan Africa, according to research from South Africa presented at last month’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

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Obituary: Pioneering HIV Researcher Mark Wainberg

Mark Wainberg, a highly regarded clinician and researcher who helped advance HIV therapy and advocated for access to treatment and care worldwide, died on April 11 in a swimming accident in Florida at age 71.

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CROI 2017: How Does Vedolizumab Antibody Therapy Lead to Sustained Viral Remission?

HIV and its monkey cousin SIV can carry the alpha-4 beta-7 integrin receptor in their outer envelope, which helps the virus enter gut cells during early infection, according to research presented at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle. This finding may help explain how an antibody against alpha-4 beta-7 produced sustained viral remission in monkeys.

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HIV PrEP Is Approved in Scotland

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) announced this week that it had accepted tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (Truvada) for use within the Scottish National Health Service as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection.

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CROI 2017: Bone Density Improves in People Who Switch from Tenofovir DF to Tenofovir Alafenamide

After 3 years, tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) for first-line HIV treatment was better at suppressing viral load and safer for the bones and kidneys than the older tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), researchers reported at the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last month in Seattle. Another study showed that people with low bone density who switched from TDF to TAF saw improved bone health, including a reduction in osteoporosis.

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BHIVA 2017: Large Fall in London HIV Diagnoses Is Due to Combination Prevention, Not Just PrEP

The number of new HIV diagnoses among gay men attending 5 key London clinics fell substantially during 2015 and 2016, Valerie Delpech of Public Health England reported at the British HIV Association (BHIVA) conference last week in Liverpool.

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CROI 2017: Long-Term Darunavir/Ritonavir Modestly Increases Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Long-term use of the boosted protease inhibitor darunavir (Prezista) modestly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to data from the ongoing D:A:D study presented to the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Investigators identified an independent association between cumulative use of the drug over 5 years and heart attack and stroke.

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CROI 2017: Accelerated Linkage to HIV Care Improves Retention by a Third

Close to 60% of adults benefitting from point-of-care CD4 cell count testing at HIV testing sites, accelerated antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, and SMS appointment reminders were retained in care after 1 year, compared to just 44% of those receiving the standard of care in Mozambique, according to findings from the Engage4Health study presented at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2017) in Seattle.

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CROI 2017: Dolutegravir Monotherapy Fails to Maintain Viral Suppression

Dolutegravir used alone without other antiretrovirals was unable to keep viral load suppressed in some people who switched from a standard 3-drug combination regimen, according to research presented at the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last month in Seattle. But evidence continues to show that dolutegravir plus a single other drug can work well as maintenance therapy.

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CROI 2017: Test and Treat Study Shows Second Phase Is Finding More People with HIV

After a second wave of intensive household testing, a large study of the "test and treat" strategy in Zambia is diagnosing more people with HIV, getting more people onto treatment, and reducing the time between diagnosis and starting treatment, findings from the PopART study presented at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2017) show.

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CROI 2017: Integrase Inhibitors May Increase Risk of IRIS in Late Presenters for HIV Treatment

HIV integrase inhibitors such as dolutegravir and raltegravir may increase the risk of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome or IRIS, according to studies from the Netherlands and France presented last month at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.

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CROI 2017: 1 in 5 HIV+ Men in U.K. Who Say They Are Heterosexual Caught HIV from Another Man

A genetic analysis of a large database of people with HIV in care in the U.K. shows that 18% of HIV-positive men who claim to be exclusively heterosexual in fact belong to clusters of linked infections that consist only of men. The data were presented by Manon Ragonnet-Cronin and colleagues from Edinburgh University at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.

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CROI 2017: HIV's Milder Cousin May Be Less Mild than Previously Thought

The virulence of HIV-2 virulence may have been underestimated, and although progression to AIDS and death in people with HIV-2 infection was slower than with HIV-1, it was the rule rather than the exception -- 70% progressed to AIDS within 20 years -- according to new research from West Africa presented at last month's Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

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CROI 2017: Simple Risk Score Can Identify Gay Men Who May Have Acute HIV Infection

A set of 7 simple questions about symptoms and risk factors identified three-quarters of gay men in Amsterdam who have acute (very recent) HIV infection, according to a study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle last month. Using this risk score could identify gay men requiring HIV RNA testing, which can detect acute infections, in addition to HIV antibody testing.

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CROI 2017: Bacterial Vaginosis Does Not Affect Efficacy of Oral PrEP in Women

Research presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections last month in Seattle found that the efficacy of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for women was not affected by bacterial vaginosis (BV) -- the overgrowth in the vagina of untypical microbes. The effectiveness of PrEP in the Partners PrEP study was not significantly different in women with and without BV. This rules out BV as a possible cause for the lower effectiveness of oral PrEP in some studies of women compared to studies of men who have sex with men.

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CROI 2017: Better Depression Care Could Improve Outcomes for HIV Treatment Programs

Improved management of depression and other mental health problems has the potential to improve the outcomes of HIV treatment programs, Pamela Collins of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health reported at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle. Mental health treatment should be integrated into HIV services in resource-limited settings, she said.

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CROI 2017: Studies Look at Brain and Cognitive Changes in People with HIV As They Age

People with HIV often show persistent signs of cognitive impairment and abnormalities in brain structure despite suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART), but they do not appear to experience accelerated decline compared to HIV-negative people as they age, according to research presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections last month in Seattle.

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