Impact of DREAMS interventions on attitudes towards gender norms among adolescent girls and young women: Findings from a prospective cohort in Kenya.

The DREAMS partnership aims to deliver a comprehensive package to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), including through shifting gender norms. We evaluate DREAMS' effect on attitudes towards gender norms in two Kenyan settings. AGYW aged 15-22 in Nairobi (n = 852) and Gem (n = 761) were randomly selected for cohort enrolment in 2017-18 and followed-up to 2019.

Impact of DREAMS interventions on experiences of violence among adolescent girls and young women: Findings from population-based cohort studies in Kenya and South Africa.

DREAMS aims to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) by tackling drivers of HIV risk including gender-based violence. We evaluate the impact of DREAMS on recent experiences of violence perpetuated by men against AGYW. AGYW cohorts were randomly selected from demographic platforms in South Africa (rural KwaZulu-Natal) and Kenya (Nairobi informal settlements and rural Gem sub-county).

DREAMS impact on HIV status knowledge and sexual risk among cohorts of young women in Kenya and South Africa.

Objectives: We sought evidence of DREAMS' impact on uptake of services and sexual risk among adolescent-girls-and-young-women (AGYW).

Design: Cohorts of AGYW aged 13-22 years were randomly selected in 2017-2018 and followed-up to 2019; 1081 in Nairobi, Kenya;1171 in Gem, western Kenya;and 2184 in uMkhanyakude, South Africa.

Methods: Outcomes were knowledge of HIV status, condomless sex (past 12 months), lifetime partners, transactional sex (past 12 months), and awareness and use of condoms and pre-exposure-prophylaxis (PrEP).

Awareness and uptake of the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe HIV prevention package over time among population-based cohorts of young women in Kenya and South Africa.

Objectives: To evaluate uptake of a complex intervention for HIV prevention among general populations of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in three diverse settings.

Design: Cohorts of ∼1500 AGYW were randomly selected from demographic platforms in Kenya (Nairobi and Siaya) and South Africa (uMkhanyakude, KwaZulu-Natal).

Methods: AGYW aged 13/15-22 years were enrolled in 2017 (Nairobi and uMkha-nyakude) or 2018 (Siaya), with annual follow-up to 2019.

Impact of the DREAMS Partnership on social support and general self-efficacy among adolescent girls and young women: causal analysis of population-based cohorts in Kenya and South Africa.

Introduction: The Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) Partnership aimed to influence psychosocial processes that promote empowerment among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and reduce HIV incidence. We estimated the impact of DREAMS on aspects of AGYW's collective and individual agency (specifically, social support and self-efficacy), in three settings where DREAMS was implemented from 2016 until at least end 2018.

Methods: Research cohorts of ~1500 AGYW aged 13-22 were randomly selected from demographic platforms in Kenya (Nairobi; Gem) and South Africa (uMkhanyakude) and followed up from 2017 to 2019.

Evaluating the impact of DREAMS on HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women: A population-based cohort study in Kenya and South Africa.

Background: Through a multisectoral approach, the DREAMS Partnership aimed to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) by 40% over 2 years in high-burden districts across sub-Saharan Africa. DREAMS promotes a combination package of evidence-based interventions to reduce individual, family, partner, and community-based drivers of young women's heightened HIV risk. We evaluated the impact of DREAMS on HIV incidence among AGYW and young men in 2 settings.

Impact of the DREAMS interventions on educational attainment among adolescent girls and young women: Causal analysis of a prospective cohort in urban Kenya.

Background: DREAMS promotes a comprehensive HIV prevention approach to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). One pathway that DREAMS seeks to impact is to support AGYW to stay in school and achieve secondary education. We assessed the impact of DREAMS on educational outcomes among AGYW in Nairobi, Kenya.

Reaching early adolescents with a complex intervention for HIV prevention: findings from a cohort study to evaluate DREAMS in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.

Background: The DREAMS Partnership promotes combination HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women. We examined the extent to which DREAMS interventions reached early adolescent girls (EAG; aged 10-14 years) in two informal settlements in Nairobi, and the characteristics of those reached, after 3 years of implementation.

Methods: We utilized three data rounds from a randomly-sampled cohort of EAG established in 2017 in Korogocho and Viwandani informal settlements where DREAMS interventions were implemented.

Awareness and uptake of layered HIV prevention programming for young women: analysis of population-based surveys in three DREAMS settings in Kenya and South Africa.

Background: The DREAMS Partnership is an ambitious effort to deliver combinations of biomedical, behavioural and structural interventions to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). To inform multi-sectoral programming at scale, across diverse settings in Kenya and South Africa, we identified who the programme is reaching, with which interventions and in what combinations.

Methods: Randomly-selected cohorts of 606 AGYW aged 10-14 years and 1081 aged 15-22 years in Nairobi and 2184 AGYW aged 13-22 years in uMkhanyakude, KwaZulu-Natal, were enrolled in 2017, after ~ 1 year of DREAMS implementation.

Are European HIV cohort data within EuroCoord representative of the diagnosed HIV population?

Objective: HIV cohorts are an important source of clinical data for informing public health policies and programmes. However, the generalizability of cohort findings to the wider population of people diagnosed with HIV in each country remains unclear. In this work, we assessed the representativeness of six large national HIV cohorts within Europe.

Evaluating the impact of the DREAMS partnership to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women in four settings: a study protocol.

Background: HIV risk remains unacceptably high among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in southern and eastern Africa, reflecting structural and social inequities that drive new infections. In 2015, PEPFAR (the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) with private-sector partners launched the DREAMS Partnership, an ambitious package of interventions in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. DREAMS aims to reduce HIV incidence by 40% among AGYW over two years by addressing multiple causes of AGYW vulnerability.

Easy and accurate reconstruction of whole HIV genomes from short-read sequence data with shiver.

Studying the evolution of viruses and their molecular epidemiology relies on accurate viral sequence data, so that small differences between similar viruses can be meaningfully interpreted. Despite its higher throughput and more detailed minority variant data, next-generation sequencing has yet to be widely adopted for HIV. The difficulty of accurately reconstructing the consensus sequence of a quasispecies from reads (short fragments of DNA) in the presence of large between- and within-host diversity, including frequent indels, may have presented a barrier.

Substantial Heterogeneity in Progress Toward Reaching the 90-90-90 HIV Target in the WHO European Region.

Background: Achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target by 2020 is expected to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. We report on progress in the WHO European Region in meeting this target.

Methods: The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) sent questionnaires to 55 countries in 2016.

A qualitative study exploring the social and environmental context of recently acquired HIV infection among men who have sex with men in South-East England.

Objectives: A key UK public health priority is to reduce HIV incidence among gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This study aimed to explore the social and environmental context in which new HIV infections occurred among MSM in London and Brighton in 2015.

Design: A qualitative descriptive study, comprising in-depth interviews, was carried out as a substudy to the UK Register of HIV Seroconverters cohort: an observational cohort of individuals whose date of HIV seroconversion was well estimated.

Correction: Viral genetic variation accounts for a third of variability in HIV-1 set-point viral load in Europe.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.

Viral genetic variation accounts for a third of variability in HIV-1 set-point viral load in Europe.

HIV-1 set-point viral load-the approximately stable value of viraemia in the first years of chronic infection-is a strong predictor of clinical outcome and is highly variable across infected individuals. To better understand HIV-1 pathogenesis and the evolution of the viral population, we must quantify the heritability of set-point viral load, which is the fraction of variation in this phenotype attributable to viral genetic variation. However, current estimates of heritability vary widely, from 6% to 59%.

A Phylogenetic Analysis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Sequences in Kiev: Findings Among Key Populations.

Background: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in Ukraine has been driven by a rapid rise among people who inject drugs, but recent studies have shown an increase through sexual transmission.

Methods: Protease and reverse transcriptase sequences from 876 new HIV diagnoses (April 2013-March 2015) in Kiev were linked to demographic data. We constructed phylogenetic trees for 794 subtype A1 and 64 subtype B sequences and identified factors associated with transmission clustering.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Continuum of Care in European Union Countries in 2013: Data and Challenges.

Background.: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has set a "90-90-90" target to curb the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic by 2020, but methods used to assess whether countries have reached this target are not standardized, hindering comparisons.

Methods.

Uptake of services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in a community cohort in rural Tanzania from 2005 to 2012.

Background: Estimates of population-level coverage with prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services are vital for monitoring programmes but are rarely undertaken. This study describes uptake of PMTCT services among HIV-positive pregnant women in a community cohort in rural Tanzania.

Methods: Kisesa cohort incorporates demographic and HIV sero-surveillance rounds since 1994.

Challenges with routine data sources for PMTCT programme monitoring in East Africa: insights from Tanzania.

Routinely collected clinic data have the potential to provide much needed information on the uptake of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, and to measure HIV prevalence in pregnant women. This article describes the methodological challenges associated with using such data, based on the experiences of researchers and programme implementers in Tanzania and drawing from other examples from East Africa. PMTCT data are routinely collected in maternal and child health (MCH) clinics in East Africa using paper-based registers corresponding to distinct services within the PMTCT service continuum.

Risk factors for service use and trends in coverage of different HIV testing and counselling models in northwest Tanzania between 2003 and 2010.

Objectives: To investigate the relative effectiveness of different HIV testing and counselling (HTC) services in improving HIV diagnosis rates and increasing HTC coverage in African settings.

Methods: Patient records from three HTC services [community outreach HTC during cohort study rounds (CO-HTC), walk-in HTC at the local health centre (WI-HTC) and antenatal HIV testing (ANC-HTC)] were linked to records from a community cohort study using a probabilistic record linkage algorithm. Characteristics of linked users of each HTC service were compared to those of cohort participants who did not use the HTC service using logistic regression.

Factors associated with uptake of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in a community cohort in rural Tanzania.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify factors associated with access to HIV care and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV among HIV-positive pregnant women in a community cohort in rural Tanzania (Kisesa).

Methods: Kisesa-resident women who tested HIV-positive during HIV serosurveillance and were pregnant (while HIV-positive) between 2005 and 2012 were eligible. Community cohort records were linked to PMTCT and HIV clinic data from four facilities (PMTCT programme implemented in 2009; referrals to city-based hospitals since 2005) to ascertain service use.

"It is like that, we didn't understand each other": exploring the influence of patient-provider interactions on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV service use in rural Tanzania.

Interactions between patients and service providers frequently influence uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa, but this process has not been examined in depth. This study explores how patient-provider relations influence PMTCT service use in four government facilities in Kisesa, Tanzania. Qualitative data were collected in 2012 through participatory group activities with community members (3 male, 3 female groups), in-depth interviews with 21 women who delivered recently (16 HIV-positive), 9 health providers, and observations in antenatal clinics.