Publications by authors named "Jeanne Sica"

Article Synopsis
  • HIV/AIDS remains a leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, but antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) have improved health outcomes and reduced morbidity, mortality, and opportunistic infections (OIs) among patients.* -
  • A study was conducted in Gabon using data from 2017 to 2019 to identify risk factors for OIs in HIV patients on ART, analyzing 223 participants through various biological tests and statistical methods.* -
  • The findings revealed that 57.9% of patients developed OIs, with a significant prevalence of bacterial and viral infections, and highlighted a link between low CD4 T-cell counts and male gender as risk factors for OI occurrence.*
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Article Synopsis
  • Human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) co-infection is common in Gabon, and co-infected individuals tend to progress more rapidly to AIDS.
  • * The study involved 299 individuals, revealing a 7.7% prevalence of HTLV-1 infection, with women and older age being risk factors for co-infection.
  • * Results indicated higher CD4+ cell counts and a lower HIV-1 viral load in co-infected individuals compared to those with just HIV-1, emphasizing the need for improved prevention and management strategies for co-infections.
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Integrated data on hepatitis B virus (HBV) patterns, HBV genotypes and mutations are lacking in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) co-infected patients from Africa. This survey was conducted in 2010-2013 among 762 HIV-1-positive adults from Gabon who were predominantly treated with 3TC-based antiretroviral treatment. HBV patterns were identified using immunoassays detecting total antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAb), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), IgM HBcAb, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg), antibody to HBsAg (HBsAb) and an in-house real-time PCR test for HBV DNA quantification.

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Background/objectives: Guidelines for optimized HCV screening are urgently required in Africa, especially for patients infected with HIV, who sometimes show false positive or false negative reactivity in anti-HCV antibody assays. Here, we assessed the usefulness of a fourth-generation HCV Ag-Ab ELISA for the identification of active HCV infection in HIV-positive patients.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between 03/2010 and 01/2013 and included 762 Gabonese HIV-positive adult patients.

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Evaluations of HIV-1 RNA viral load assays are lacking in Central Africa. The main objective of our study was to assess the reliability of HIV-1 RNA results obtained with three different assays for samples collected in Gabon. A total of 137 plasma specimens were assessed for HIV-1 RNA using the Abbott RealTime HIV-1® and Nuclisens HIV-1 EasyQ® version 2.

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The main goal of the present study was to determine the frequency of substitutions in the cleavage sites (CS) of gag gene among non-B HIV-1 isolates from Gabon. Fifty plasma specimens, collected in 2010-2011, from HIV-1-infected patients failing first-line antiretroviral (ARV) regimens (constituted of two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors+one nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor) (n=38) and from HIV-1-infected individuals untreated with ARV (n=12) were analyzed in the gag and gag-pol cleavage sites. Compared to HXB2 reference sequence, the total median number of substitutions in gag and gag-pol CS was 10 (range, 5-18).

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The goals of this study conducted in Gabon were to determine the prevalence rate of HIV-1 group O (HIV-1/O) infections and to characterize the genetic diversity of HIV-1/O strains as well as implications on antiretroviral (ARV) drug resistance. During 2010-2011, 1,176 samples from HIV-positive subjects were tested at the CIRMF (Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville) retrovirology laboratory using an in-house serotyping assay. Plasma HIV-1/O RNA viral loads (VL) were determined using the Abbott RealTime HIV-1 assay.

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Introduction: As antiretroviral treatment (ART) continues to expand in resource-limited countries, the emergence of HIV drug resistance mutations (DRMs) is challenging in these settings. In Gabon (central Africa), no study has yet reported the virological effectiveness of initial ART given through routine HIV care.

Methods: Following the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, a cross-sectional study with a one-time HIV-1 RNA viral load (VL) measurement was conducted in Gabon to assess virological failure (VF) defined by a VL result ≥1000 copies/ml and DRMs among adult patients living with non-B HIV-1 strains and receiving first-line non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based antiretroviral therapy for at least 12 months.

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Nucleic acid extraction using the open automated EZ1 (Qiagen) instrument, in combination with the Generic HIV Viral Load assay, gave highly concordant HIV-1 RNA viral load results among 181 Gabonese subjects infected with HIV-1, compared to those obtained when performing a manual extraction. Since people living with HIV-1 are being treated with antiretrovirals in Gabon, this automated extraction technique represents an excellent technical method for high-throughput monitoring of HIV-1 RNA viral load.

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