Efficacy of a food safety comic book on knowledge and self-reported behavior for persons living with AIDS.

Introduction: Persons living with AIDS are highly vulnerable to foodborne enteric infections with the potential for substantial morbidity and mortality. Educational materials about foodborne enteric infections intended for this immunocompromised population have not been assessed for their efficacy in improving knowledge or encouraging behavior change.

Methods/results: AIDS patients in four healthcare facilities in Chicago, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico were recruited using fliers and word of mouth to healthcare providers.

Food Safety Knowledge, Beliefs and Behavior of Persons with AIDS: A Multicenter Study.

Persons living with AIDS are highly vulnerable to foodborne enteric infections including recurrent septicemia and toxoplasmosis of the brain with the potential for substantial morbidity and mortality. Patients with immunologic AIDS in Chicago, New Orleans, and Bayamon were interviewed to determine gaps in food safety knowledge and prevalence of related behaviors in order to create targeted educational material for this population. A food safety score was calculated based on responses to 40 knowledge, belief, and behavior questions.

The New Orleans HIV outpatient program patient experience with Hurricane Katrina.

In an effort to understand better the experience of New Orleans HIV Outpatient Program patients surviving Hurricane Katrina, a survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 175 subjects who had returned to the clinic between January and April 2006. Although 90% of patients eventually evacuated, only 43% left the city prior to Hurricane Katrina. Twenty-six percent were exposed to flood waters, and some stayed in shelters, usually longer than two weeks.

Differences in the pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans HIV outpatient clinic population: who has returned?

Background: Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area and dispersed the patient population of the HIV Outpatient Program (HOP) clinic of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans (MCLNO). Patients began returning to care following the clinic's reopening in a temporary location in November 2005.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were performed using existing data from pre-Katrina and at two post-Katrina time points.

Six months later: The effect of Hurricane Katrina on health care for persons living with HIV/AIDS in New Orleans.

Nearly 13,000 Louisiana residents with HIV/AIDS were estimated to be living in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Although minimal general outpatient primary care services were available within a few weeks following the hurricane in New Orleans, access to antiretroviral medications was an early problem. The largest HIV care provider, the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans HIV Outpatient Program (HOP), was able to assist in obtaining medications mid-October and opened an HIV clinic the first week of November in a temporary location.

Prophylaxis against opportunistic infections in persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

This article outlines the current official recommendations for the prevention of opportunistic disease in adults and adolescents infected with human immunodeficiency virus, including specific guidelines for discontinuing primary and secondary prophylaxis when immune reconstitution has occurred as a result of highly active antiretroviral therapies. The recommendations, developed by the U. S.

The antiretroviral-experienced patient.

There are many considerations for stopping and changing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy in the ARV-experienced individual. Given the potential for possible long-term toxicities and the shift to initiating ARV therapy later, it may be reasonable to stop ARV therapy among asymptomatic patients with high CD4 cell counts and low viral loads and carefully monitor them. Ongoing studies are currently evaluating this strategy.

Antiretroviral therapy in drug-naive patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

A vast amount of knowledge has accumulated since the discovery of the immunodeficiency diseases caused by human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) in the early 1980s. An expert panel of HIV researchers and clinicians produced the first set of treatment guidelines in 1997. Since then, these guidelines have been updated based on available clinical information and supplemented by expert opinion when scientific data were incomplete.

Patterns and correlates of discontinuation of the initial HAART regimen in an urban outpatient cohort.

Objectives: To describe the patterns and correlates of discontinuation of the initial highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen in an urban, outpatient cohort of antiretroviral-naive patients.

Design: Retrospective cohort of 345 randomly selected antiretroviral-naive patients who initiated HAART on 6 selected regimens between January 1997 and May 2001 in New Orleans, LA.

Methods: An investigator reviewed medical records to collect information on concurrent medications, symptoms/diagnoses, staging indicators, and reasons for HAART discontinuation.