Leveraging lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic for HIV.

The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines and their deployment in less than a year is an unprecedented scientific, medical, and public health achievement. This rapid development leveraged knowledge from decades of HIV/AIDS research and advances. However, the search for an HIV vaccine that would contribute to a durable end to the HIV pandemic remains elusive.

Engaging Transgender People in NIH-Funded HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Research.

In 2009, the National Institutes of Health recognized the need to expand knowledge of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health and commissioned the Institute of Medicine to report on the health of these populations in the United States. The resulting Institute of Medicine publication called for more knowledge of the health of LGBT populations, as well as improved methodologies to reach them, more LGBT-focused research, and enhanced training programs and cultural competency of physicians and researchers. Several of the National Institutes of Health-funded HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks, including the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions, HIV Prevention Trials Network, HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and Microbicide Trials Network, have focused attention on engaging transgender (TG) individuals in research.

The protective effect of circumcision on HIV incidence in rural low-risk men circumcised predominantly by traditional circumcisers in Kenya: two-year follow-up of the Kericho HIV Cohort Study.

Background: Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that male circumcision prevents female-to-male HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. Data from prospective cohort studies are helpful in considering generalizability of RCT results to populations with unique epidemiologic/cultural characteristics.

Methods: Prospective observational cohort sub-analysis.

Molecular epidemiology of HIV Type 1 in preparation for a Phase III prime-boost vaccine trial in Thailand and a new approach to HIV Type 1 genotyping.

To characterize HIV-1 genotypes in candidate populations for a prime-boost phase III vaccine trial in Thailand, specimens from prevalent and incident HIV-1 infections from a family planning clinic population in Rayong Province and a community cohort in Chon Buri Province, collected from 1998 to 2001, were genotyped. A new multiregion hybridization assay, MHAbce, capable of distinguishing HIV-1 CRF01_AE, subtype B, and subtype C and their recombinants, was developed and applied to prevalent infections. Most incident and selected prevalent infections were studied by complete genome sequencing.

Epidemiology of HIV-1 infection in agricultural plantation residents in Kericho, Kenya: preparation for vaccine feasibility studies.

A cross-sectional study was performed to determine the prevalence and risk factors for HIV-1 infection among agricultural plantation residents in Kericho, Kenya. Volunteers were recruited, interviewed, and phlebotomized for HIV-1 serologic testing. Sex-specific adjusted odds ratios were estimated using logistic regression.

Use of rapid and conventional testing technologies for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 serologic screening in a rural Kenyan reference laboratory.

We report a prospective comparison of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 testing by enzyme immunoassay and Western blot with four rapid tests of 486 subjects performed in rural Kenya. Rapid test sensitivity was 100%. Specificity ranged from 99.

A new circulating recombinant form, CRF15_01B, reinforces the linkage between IDU and heterosexual epidemics in Thailand.

HIV-1 subtype B and CRF01_AE have been in circulation in Thailand and Southeast Asia for more than a decade. Initially separated by risk group, the two strains are increasingly intermixed, and two recombinant strains of essentially reciprocal structure have been recently reported. Here we identify additional CRF_01B recombinants and provide the evidence that HIV-1 strains now pass freely between the two high-risk populations.

HIV-1 infection among civilian applicants for US military service, 1985 to 2000: epidemiology and geography.

Objectives: This study examined demographic and geographic correlates of HIV-1 prevalence among civilian applicants for US military service.

Methods: HIV-1 test results and demographic and geographic data were available for 5.3 million applicants.