An overview of the quality assurance programme for HIV rapid testing in South Africa: Outcome of a 2-year phased implementation of quality assurance program.

Objective: This is the first large-scale assessment of the implementation of HIV Rapid Test Quality Improvement Initiative in South Africa.

Methods: We used a quasi-experimental one group post-test only design. The intervention implemented starting April 2014 comprised health-care worker training on quality assurance (QA) of HIV rapid testing and enrolment of the facilities in proficiency testing (PT), targeting 2,077 healthcare facilities in 32 high HIV burden districts.

South African HIV self-testing policy and guidance considerations.

The gap in HIV testing remains significant and new modalities such as HIV self-testing (HIVST) have been recommended to reach key and under-tested populations. In December 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the Guidelines on HIV Self-Testing and Partner Notification: A Supplement to the Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Testing Services (HTS) and urged member countries to develop HIVST policy and regulatory frameworks. In South Africa, HIVST was included as a supplementary strategy in the National HIV Testing Services Policy in 2016, and recently, guidelines for HIVST were included in the South African National Strategic Plan for HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis 2017-2022.

Proton radiography peers into metal solidification.

Historically, metals are cut up and polished to see the structure and to infer how processing influences the evolution. We can now peer into a metal during processing without destroying it using proton radiography. Understanding the link between processing and structure is important because structure profoundly affects the properties of engineering materials.

African AIDS vaccine programme for a coordinated and collaborative vaccine development effort on the continent.

The African AIDS Vaccine Programme, formed in 2000, is a network of African HIV vaccine stakeholders, led by Africans across the continent, with a vision of an African continent without AIDS.

Identification of chemical inhibitors to human tissue transglutaminase by screening existing drug libraries.

Human tissue transglutaminase (TGM2) is a calcium-dependent crosslinking enzyme involved in the posttranslational modification of intra- and extracellular proteins and implicated in several neurodegenerative diseases. To find specific inhibitors to TGM2, two structurally diverse chemical libraries (LOPAC and Prestwick) were screened. We found that ZM39923, a Janus kinase inhibitor, and its metabolite ZM449829 were the most potent inhibitors with IC(50) of 10 and 5 nM, respectively.

Inclusion of adolescents in preventive HIV vaccine trials: public health policy and research design at a crossroads.

The search for a safe effective HIV vaccine has been a centerpiece of HIV research for almost 2 decades. More than 60 clinical HIV vaccine trials have been conducted to date. Several promising candidate HIV vaccines are in advanced clinical development.

Socio-behaviour challenges to phase III HIV vaccine trials in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are preparing for HIV vaccine efficacy trials. Social and behavioural factors related to HIV transmission require examination in each setting where these trials are considered. As part of this, several countries have also recently begun preparatory research investigating relevant social and behavioural issues.