Implementing community-based Dried Blood Spot (DBS) testing for HIV and hepatitis C: a qualitative analysis of key facilitators and ongoing challenges.

Background: In 2018, the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC) invited gay, bisexual, trans, queer men and Two-Spirit and non-binary people (GBT2Q) at Pride Festivals across Canada to complete in-person Sex Now surveys and provide optional dried blood spot (DBS) samples screening for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). As there is a lack of research evaluating the implementation of DBS sampling for GBT2Q in community settings, we aimed to evaluate this intervention, identifying key facilitators and ongoing challenges to implementing community-based DBS screening for HIV/HCV among GBT2Q.

Methods: We conducted sixteen one-on-one interviews with individuals involved with the community-based DBS collection protocol, including research staff, site coordinators, and volunteer DBS collectors.

Estimating nutritional needs in paediatric heart failure: beyond the equations.

Background: Nutrition optimisation is imperative in paediatric patients with heart failure. Energy needs can be assessed using indirect calorimetry.

Methods: Presented are two cases of children with clinical heart failure who benefited from indirect calorimetry.

Growth Faltering and Developmental Delay in HIV-Exposed Uninfected Ugandan Infants: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) infants are at increased risk of impaired early linear growth and cognitive development. We examined associations between prenatal and postnatal growth and subsequent neurodevelopment in Ugandan HEU infants, hypothesizing that early insults may explain alterations in both somatic growth and brain development.

Methods: We prospectively followed a cohort of HEU infants from birth to 18 months of age, and measured length/height, weight, head, and arm circumference longitudinally.

Repeated false reactive ADVIA centaur® and bio-rad Geenius™ HIV tests in a patient self-administering anabolic steroids.

Background: An individual is considered HIV positive when a confirmatory HIV-1/HIV-2 differentiation test returns positive following an initial reactive antigen/antibody combination screen. Falsely reactive HIV screens have been reported in patients with various concomitant infectious and autoimmune conditions. Falsely positive confirmatory HIV differentiation assays are seen less frequently, but have been observed in cases of pregnancy, pulmonary embolism, and malaria.

Clinical Correlates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) DNA and Inducible HIV-1 RNA Reservoirs in Peripheral Blood in Children With Perinatally Acquired HIV-1 Infection With Sustained Virologic Suppression for at Least 5 Years.

Background: The Early Pediatric Initiation Canada Child Cure Cohort (EPIC4) study is a prospective, multicenter, Canadian cohort study investigating human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) reservoirs, chronic inflammation, and immune responses in children with perinatally acquired HIV-1 infection. The focus of this report is HIV-1 reservoirs and correlates in the peripheral blood of children who achieved sustained virologic suppression (SVS) for ≥5 years.

Methods: HIV-1 reservoirs were determined by measuring HIV-1 DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and inducible cell-free HIV-1 RNA in CD4+ T-cells by a prostratin analogue stimulation assay.

HIV misdiagnosis: A root cause analysis leading to improvements in HIV diagnosis and patient care.

Background: Standard diagnostic testing for HIV infection has traditionally relied on a high sensitivity HIV antibody screening test using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) followed by a high specificity antibody confirmatory test such as a Western Blot. Recently several of the screening assays have been enhanced with an ability to identify p24 antigen thereby narrowing the diagnostic window.

Objectives: To explore the implications of enhanced HIV screening methods that may be leading to HIV misdiagnoses.