Characterizing populations prioritized for PrEP in 19 African countries: a review of national guidance.

Introduction: While African countries have expanded access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) since 2015, regional targets for PrEP uptake remain unmet. Understanding which populations are prioritized for PrEP at the policy level is an important step in determining the scope of PrEP distribution across Africa and identifying gaps in programme implementation. We reviewed national guidance to characterize populations prioritized for PrEP in Africa.

Application of four pricing models for orphan medicines: a case study for lumasiran.

Background: The combination of high prices and uncertain effectiveness is a growing challenge in the field of orphan medicines, hampering health technology assessments. Hence, new methods for establishing price benchmarks might be necessary to support reimbursement negotiations. In this study, we applied several pricing models containing cost-based elements to the case of lumasiran for treating primary hyperoxaluria type 1.

The impact of a couple-based intervention on one-year viral suppression among pregnant women living with HIV and their male partners in Malawi: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Couple-based behavioral interventions (CBIs) have been associated with improved HIV virological outcomes for pregnant women and their male partners living with HIV in observational settings, but have never been tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Setting: Bwaila District Hospital Antenatal clinic (Lilongwe, Malawi).

Methods: An RCT was conducted among 500 pregnant women living with HIV (index clients) randomized 1:1 to the standard of care (SOC) or CBI and followed for one year.

Predictors of maternal HIV acquisition during pregnancy and lactation in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Objectives: To eliminate vertical transmission of HIV, global institutions recommend using a risk-guided approach for HIV prevention services in antenatal and postnatal settings. Identifying predictors of maternal HIV acquisition can inform the development of risk-guided approaches, but individual studies of predictors can have limited power and generalizability.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis to identify common predictors of maternal HIV acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Using mathematical constraints to explain narrow ranges for allele-sharing dissimilarities.

Allele-sharing dissimilarity (ASD) statistics are measures of genetic differentiation for pairs of individuals or populations. Given the allele-frequency distributions of two populations-possibly the same population-the expected value of an ASD statistic is computed by evaluating the expectation of the pairwise dissimilarity between two individuals drawn at random, each from its associated allele-frequency distribution. For each of two ASD statistics, which we term and , we investigate the extent to which the expected ASD is constrained by allele frequencies in the two populations; in other words, how is the magnitude of the measure bounded as a function of the frequency of the most frequent allelic type? We first consider dissimilarity of a population with itself, obtaining bounds on expected ASD in terms of the frequency of the most frequent allelic type in the population.