Trends in CD4 Count Testing, Retention in Pre-ART Care, and ART Initiation Rates over the First Decade of Expansion of HIV Services in Haiti.

Background: High attrition during the period from HIV testing to antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is widely reported. Though treatment guidelines have changed to broaden ART eligibility and services have been widely expanded over the past decade, data on the temporal trends in pre-ART outcomes are limited; such data would be useful to guide future policy decisions.

Methods: We evaluated temporal trends and predictors of retention for each step from HIV testing to ART initiation over the past decade at the GHESKIO clinic in Port-au-Prince Haiti.

High Accuracy of Common HIV-Related Oral Disease Diagnoses by Non-Oral Health Specialists in the AIDS Clinical Trial Group.

Objective: Many studies include oral HIV-related endpoints that may be diagnosed by non-oral-health specialists (non-OHS) like nurses or physicians. Our objective was to assess the accuracy of clinical diagnoses of HIV-related oral lesions made by non-OHS compared to diagnoses made by OHS.

Methods: A5254, a cross-sectional study conducted by the Oral HIV/AIDS Research Alliance within the AIDS Clinical Trial Group, enrolled HIV-1-infected adults participants from six clinical trial units (CTU) in the US (San Francisco, New York, Chapel Hill, Cleveland, Atlanta) and Haiti.

Gifts and corporate influence in doctor of pharmacy education.

Objectives: To explore the nature of corporate gifts directed at PharmD programs and pharmacy student activities and the perceptions of administrators about the potential influences of such gifts.

Methods: A verbally administered survey of administrative officials at 11 US colleges and schools of pharmacy was conducted and responses were analyzed.

Results: All respondents indicated accepting corporate gifts or sponsorships for student-related activities in the form of money, grants, scholarships, meals, trinkets, and support for special events, and cited many advantages to corporate partner relationships.

Complementary and alternative medicine instruction in nursing curricula.

With an ever-increasing number of consumers reportedly using non-conventional methods of disease management, nurses have now been recognized as key providers in education on complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). The risk of herb-drug interactions secondary to consumer use of alternative medicines further increases the need for nurses to assume the role of patient educators in the area of CAM. Many nurses, however, feel rather ill-prepared to properly care for patients using CAM due to inadequate instruction on the subject matter during their training.