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World AIDS Day: Thursday 1 December

World AIDS day 1 Dec

World AIDS day 1 Dec

World AIDS Day is marked on 1 December each year, giving us the opportunity to support and commemorate those who have lived with AIDS.

This World AIDS day, we are sharing some of the research trials we are participating in, under the supervision of our HIV conulstant, Athavan Umaipalan.

HIV and AIDS are often confused; HIV is a virus that can lead to AIDS.

In 2021, the World Health Organization reported there are approximately 38.4 million people living with HIV worldwide. The number of newly acquired HIV cases in 2021 was around 1.5 million. Thanks to research and the development of new treatments, people with HIV today can live a much more normal life.

Positive Voices: national survey of people with HIV  Positive voices logo

Positive Voices is an annual survey by the UK Health Security Agency (UK HSA) that looks to gather information from patients living with HIV: to better understand the patterns of side effects, and the prevalence of other medical conditions that are also present in those who have HIV, as well as attitudes and satisfaction with the current models of care in place. The data is reviewed and used to plan HIV prevention, treatment, and care services.

This survey is open to anybody over the age of 18 who has been diagnosed HIV positive, is a resident in England or Wales, and currently accessing care at an NHS HIV clinic. Since 2017, we have recruited 113 participants into this survey

Dolomite: A multi-site observational study to define the safety and effectiveness of Dolutegravir (DTG) use in HIV positive pregnant women

The  Dolomite study assesses the safety and effectiveness of DTG use in HIV positive pregnant women. This is a multi-site, commercially sponsored, observational study looking to enrol between 230 to 500 HIV positive women who were/are exposed to DTG at least once during their pregnancy across Europe and Canada. The data collected as part of the study will be retrospective or prospective and is obtained during routine standard of care assessments; participants will not undergo any study procedures, medication, or visits.

We began recruiting patients for this study in April 2022.

SHIELD: Securing best health outcomes for people living with HIV through optimal engagement with care: Learning from Disruptive change

People living with HIV (PLH) can have a normal life expectancy and will not pass on the virus to others if they take treatment every day. However, there is still no cure for HIV and to stay well, they must take treatment and regularly attend clinic for the whole of their lives. This can be difficult for individuals and is a major challenge to ending the HIV epidemic. In 2018, 2,000 PLH in the UK were not attending clinic and a further 8,100 were not on effective treatment, representing approximately 10 per cent of PLH in the UK. Disengagement from care is an important, potentially alterable cause of HIV-related death and disability.

Unexpectedly, with the arrival of Covid-19, HIV clinics across London observed that PLH who had disengaged from care were contacting them spontaneously to restart treatment. The aim of the SHIELD study is therefore to investigate this positive but important finding. Using ethically approved questionnaires and topic guides for focus groups, the factors associated with re-engagement and disengagement from HIV care will be explored and pre-existing policies and specialised services for these service users re-evaluated. The study will look to explore the disruptive change of Covid-19 from the first six months and the subsequent two years of the pandemic across London HIV clinics.

This study is looking to open to recruitment in our hospitals at the end of December 2022/early January 2023.

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