Screening Children for Caries: An Ethical Dilemma in Nigeria.

Dental caries is the main oral health challenge for children in Nigeria. Concern about its negative impact makes screening for caries in children an attractive public health strategy. The ability to detect the preclinical phase of caries, the availability of screening tools with high accuracy, and the possibility of treatment before onset of clinical symptoms with significant cost and health benefits, makes it appropriate for screening.

Causes and Timing of Mortality and Morbidity Among Late Presenters Starting Antiretroviral Therapy in the REALITY Trial.

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, 20%-25% of people starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) have severe immunosuppression; approximately 10% die within 3 months. In the Reduction of EArly mortaLITY (REALITY) randomized trial, a broad enhanced anti-infection prophylaxis bundle reduced mortality vs cotrimoxazole. We investigate the contribution and timing of different causes of mortality/morbidity.

Very Low Prevalence of Vaccine Human Papillomavirus Types Among 18- to 35-Year Old Australian Women 9 Years Following Implementation of Vaccination.

Introduction: A quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccination program targeting females aged 12-13 years commenced in Australia in 2007, with catch-up vaccination of 14-26 year olds through 2009. We evaluated the program's impact on HPV prevalence among women aged 18-35 in 2015.

Methods: HPV prevalence among women aged 18-24 and 25-35 was compared with prevalence in these age groups in 2005-2007.

Negotiating gay men's relationships: how are monogamy and non-monogamy experienced and practised over time?

When viewed over time, many gay men's relationships are not static, or firmly fixed to monogamy or non-monogamy. This paper uses in-depth interviews with 61 Australian gay men to explore how monogamy and non-monogamy are experienced over time, expectations of what constitutes the norms regarding gay men's relationships and how couples experience and practices change. Although some gay men may idealise monogamy, particularly at the beginning of a relationship, it is often experienced as temporary.

Prevalence and risk factors associated with high-grade anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL)-AIN2 and HSIL-AIN3 in homosexual men.

Background: Anal intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 (AIN2) and AIN grade 3 (AIN3) are commonly grouped together as high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). We assessed risk factors for HSIL-AIN2 and HSIL-AIN3 in a cohort of homosexual men.

Methods: At the baseline visit in the Study for the Prevention of Anal Cancer (SPANC), all men completed a questionnaire and underwent anal swabbing for cytology and HPV genotyping, followed by high resolution anoscopy.

Pastoral power in HIV prevention: Converging rationalities of care in Christian and medical practices in Papua New Guinea.

In his conceptualisation of pastoral power, Michel Foucault argues that modern healthcare practices derive a specific power technique from pastors of the early Christian church. As experts in a position of authority, pastors practise the care of others through implicitly guiding them towards thoughts and actions that effect self-care, and towards a predefined realm of acceptable conduct, thus having a regulatory effect. This qualitative study of healthcare workers from two Christian faith-based organisations in Papua New Guinea examines the pastoral rationalities of HIV prevention practices which draw together globally circulated modern medical knowledge and Christian teachings in sexual morality for implicit social regulation.

Evaluating the Impact of Functional Genetic Variation on HIV-1 Control.

Background: Previous genetic association studies of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) progression have focused on common human genetic variation ascertained through genome-wide genotyping.

Methods: We sought to systematically assess the full spectrum of functional variation in protein coding gene regions on HIV-1 progression through exome sequencing of 1327 individuals. Genetic variants were tested individually and in aggregate across genes and gene sets for an influence on HIV-1 viral load.

Evaluation of knowledge and utility of the 2014 Australian sexually transmissible infection and HIV testing guidelines for asymptomatic men who have sex with men among general practitioners in Sydney.

The Australian sexually transmissible infection and HIV testing guidelines for asymptomatic men who have sex with men were updated in 2014. An evaluation study targeting Sydney-based general practitioners was conducted among 85 clinicians. Respondents with knowledge of guideline recommendations were significantly more likely to feel comfortable asking men who have sex with men about their sexual history (98.

I shouldn't talk of medicine only: Biomedical and religious frameworks for understanding antiretroviral therapies, their invention and their effects.

Medical pluralism offers a long-standing means of analysing the different ways in which health and illness can be interpreted and responded to. It is not unusual for multiple health systems and meanings to co-exist at any one moment in time, offering different ways of understanding and responding to illness and disease. In addition to biomedical frameworks, religious beliefs offer another important means of facilitating healing.

Circulating miR-122 and miR-200a as biomarkers for fatal liver disease in ART-treated, HIV-1-infected individuals.

Liver disease is one of the main contributors to the increased levels of morbidity and mortality seen in the HIV-1-infected, ART-treated population. Circulating miRNAs, particularly those located inside extracellular vesicles, are seen as promising biomarkers for a number of human disease conditions, including liver-related diseases. Here, we show that serum levels of miR-122 and miR-200a are greater in HIV/HCV co-infected individuals compared to HIV-1 mono-infected individuals.

Burden of paediatric respiratory syncytial virus disease and potential effect of different immunisation strategies: a modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis for England.

Background: Vaccines and prophylactic antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are in development and likely to be available in the next 5-10 years. The most efficient way to use these products when they become available is an important consideration for public health decision makers.

Methods: We performed a multivariate regression analysis to estimate the burden of RSV in children younger than 5 years in England (UK), a representative high-income temperate country, and used these results to assess the potential effect of different RSV immunisation strategies (targeting vaccination for infants, or pregnant women, or prophylactic antibodies for neonates).

The use of RetroNectin in studies requiring in vitro HIV-1 infection of human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes damage, directly or indirectly, to the whole hematopoietic system, including CD34 hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). CXCR4-tropic strains of HIV-1 may affect the function of CD34CXCR4 progenitor cells either by infecting the cells or modifying the dynamics of more differentiated hematopoietic cells. However, CD34 cells are known for their resistance to HIV-1 infection in vitro, which restricts any detailed analysis of the impact of HIV on HSPCs.

The contribution of health risk behaviors to excess mortality in American adults with chronic hepatitis C: A population cohort-study.

Unlabelled: In resource-rich countries, chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection is associated with a sizeable excess mortality risk. The extent to which this is due to (1) the biological sequelae of CHC infection versus (2) a high concomitant burden of health risk behaviors (HRBs) is unclear. We used data from the 1999-2010 U.

Zinc is a potent and specific inhibitor of IFN-λ3 signalling.

Lambda interferons (IFNL, IFN-λ) are pro-inflammatory cytokines important in acute and chronic viral infection. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs12979860 and rs8099917 within the IFNL gene locus predict hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance, as well as inflammation and fibrosis progression in viral and non-viral liver disease. The underlying mechanism, however, is not defined.

A national study of the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 in Australia 2005-2012.

Introduction: Rates of new HIV-1 diagnoses are increasing in Australia, with evidence of an increasing proportion of non-B HIV-1 subtypes reflecting a growing impact of migration and travel. The present study aims to define HIV-1 subtype diversity patterns and investigate possible HIV-1 transmission networks within Australia.

Methods: The Australian Molecular Epidemiology Network (AMEN) HIV collaborating sites in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and western Sydney (New South Wales), provided baseline HIV-1 partial pol sequence, age and gender information for 4,873 patients who had genotypes performed during 2005-2012.

Single-cell profiling of lineage determining transcription factors in antigen-specific CD4 T cells reveals unexpected complexity in recall responses during immune reconstitution.

Recent studies of protein and gene expression at the single-cell level have revealed that the memory T-cell compartment is more heterogeneous than previously acknowledged. Identifying different T helper subsets involved in memory responses at the single-cell level is thus necessary to understand the level of heterogeneity within this population. Antigen-specific CD4 T cells were measured using the CD25/OX40 assay together with a qualitative multiplex single-cell RT-PCR assay.

'Good culture, bad culture': polygyny, cultural change and structural drivers of HIV in Papua New Guinea.

Culture is often problematised as a key structural driver of HIV transmission in Papua New Guinea. Official HIV programmes, as well as church teachings, tend to focus on customary marital practices of polygyny and bride price payments as 'harmful traditions'. This focus can oversimplify the effects of current and historical nuances of cultural, political and economic change on sexual concurrency and gender inequality.

'They say God punishes people with HIV': experiences of stigma and discrimination among adults with HIV in Dili, Timor-Leste.

Little is known about the experiences of people with HIV in the small island nation of Timor-Leste. This study explored the HIV-related stigma experiences of adults aged between 18 and 40 living with HIV in Dili, Timor-Leste. Participants were interviewed on topics related to living with HIV, both as key informants describing the experience of others with HIV known to them, and also with respect to their own personal experiences.

Cytotoxic CD4 T Cells-Friend or Foe during Viral Infection?

CD4 T cells with cytotoxic function were once thought to be an artifact due to long-term cultures but have in more recent years become accepted and reported in the literature in response to a number of viral infections. In this review, we focus on cytotoxic CD4 T cells in the context of human viral infections and in some infections that affect mice and non-human primates. We examine the effector mechanisms used by cytotoxic CD4 cells, the phenotypes that describe this population, and the transcription factors and pathways that lead to their induction following infection.

Human Papillomavirus Prevalence in Unvaccinated Heterosexual Men After a National Female Vaccination Program.

Background: In Australia, high uptake of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (4vHPV) vaccine has led to reductions in the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes 6, 11, 16, and 18 in women and girls aged ≤25 years. We evaluated the impact of the program impact on HPV prevalence in unvaccinated male subjects.

Methods: Sexually active heterosexual male subjects aged 16-35 years were recruited in 2014-2016.

The primary immune response to Vaccinia virus vaccination includes cells with a distinct cytotoxic effector CD4 T-cell phenotype.

Background: Smallpox was eradicated by a global program of inoculation with Vaccinia virus (VV). Robust VV-specific CD4 T-cell responses during primary infection are likely essential to controlling VV replication. Although there is increasing interest in cytolytic CD4 T-cells across many viral infections, the importance of these cells during acute VV infection is unclear.

Venue-Based Networks May Underpin HCV Transmissions amongst HIV-Infected Gay and Bisexual Men.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the potential influence of venue-based networks on HCV transmission in HIV-positive gay and bisexual men (GBM).

Methods: This was a prospectively recruited cohort of HIV-infected GBM with recently-acquired HCV infection resident in Melbourne and Sydney. Clinical and demographic data were collected together with blood samples for HCV sequencing.