EASL 2017 Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management of hepatitis B virus infection.

These recommendations for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing are intended for all health-care providers in the public and private sectors, including those working in hospital emergency departments, urgent care clinics, inpatient services, substance abuse treatment clinics, public health clinics, community clinics, correctional health-care facilities, and primary care settings. The recommendations address HIV testing in health-care settings only. They do not modify existing guidelines concerning HIV counseling, testing, and referral for persons at high risk for HIV who seek or receive HIV testing in nonclinical settings (e.g., community-based organizations, outreach settings, or mobile vans). The objectives of these recommendations are to increase HIV screening of patients, including pregnant women, in health-care settings; foster earlier detection of HIV infection; identify and counsel persons with unrecognized HIV infection and link them to clinical and prevention services; and further reduce perinatal transmission of HIV in the United States. These revised recommendations update previous recommendations for HIV testing in health-care settings and for screening of pregnant women (CDC. Recommendations for HIV testing services for inpatients and outpatients in acute-care hospital settings. MMWR 1993;42[No. RR-2]:1-10; CDC. Revised guidelines for HIV counseling, testing, and referral. MMWR 2001;50[No. RR-19]:1-62; and CDC. Revised recommendations for HIV screening of pregnant women. MMWR 2001;50[No. RR-19]:63-85). Major revisions from previously published guidelines are as follows: For patients in all health-care settings HIV screening is recommended for patients in all health-care settings after the patient is notified that testing will be performed unless the patient declines (opt-out screening). Persons at high risk for HIV infection should be screened for HIV at least annually. Separate written consent for HIV testing should not be required; general consent for medical care should be considered sufficient to encompass consent for HIV testing. Prevention counseling should not be required with HIV diagnostic testing or as part of HIV screening programs in health-care settings. For pregnant women HIV screening should be included in the routine panel of prenatal screening tests for all pregnant women. HIV screening is recommended after the patient is notified that testing will be performed unless the patient declines (opt-out screening). Separate written consent for HIV testing should not be required; general consent for medical care should be considered sufficient to encompass consent for HIV testing. Repeat screening in the third trimester is recommended in certain jurisdictions with elevated rates of HIV infection among pregnant women.

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Revised Recommendations for HIV Testing of Adults, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women in Health-Care Settings

For individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection to fully benefit from potent combination antiretroviral therapy, they need to know that they are HIV infected, be engaged in regular HIV care, and receive and adhere to effective antiretroviral therapy. Test-and-treat strategies for HIV prevention posit that expanded testing and earlier treatment of HIV infection could markedly decrease ongoing HIV transmission, stemming the HIV epidemic. However, poor engagement in care for HIV-infected individuals will substantially limit the effectiveness of test-and-treat strategies. We review the spectrum of engagement in care for HIVinfected individuals in the United States and apply this information to help understand the magnitude of the challenges that poor engagement in care will pose to test-and-treat strategies for HIV prevention.

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The Spectrum of Engagement in HIV Care and its Relevance to Test-and-Treat Strategies for Prevention of HIV Infection

This report updates and combines earlier versions of guidelines for the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs) in HIV-infected adults (i.e., persons aged >/=18 years) and adolescents (i.e., persons aged 13--17 years), last published in 2002 and 2004, respectively. It has been prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). The guidelines are intended for use by clinicians and other health-care providers, HIV-infected patients, and policy makers in the United States. These guidelines address several OIs that occur in the United States and five OIs that might be acquired during international travel. Topic areas covered for each OI include epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, prevention of exposure; prevention of disease by chemoprophylaxis and vaccination; discontinuation of primary prophylaxis after immune reconstitution; treatment of disease; monitoring for adverse effects during treatment; management of treatment failure; prevention of disease recurrence; discontinuation of secondary prophylaxis after immune reconstitution; and special considerations during pregnancy. These guidelines were developed by a panel of specialists from the United States government and academic institutions. For each OI, a small group of specialists with content-matter expertise reviewed the literature for new information since the guidelines were last published; they then proposed revised recommendations at a meeting held at NIH in June 2007. After these presentations and discussion, the revised guidelines were further reviewed by the co-editors; by the Office of AIDS Research, NIH; by specialists at CDC; and by HIVMA of IDSA before final approval and publication. The recommendations are rated by a letter that indicates the strength of the recommendation and a Roman numeral that indicates the quality of evidence supporting the recommendation, so that readers can ascertain how best to apply the recommendations in their practice environments. Major changes in the guidelines include 1) greater emphasis on the importance of antiretroviral therapy for the prevention and treatment of OIs, especially those OIs for which no specific therapy exists; 2) information regarding the diagnosis and management of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndromes; 3) information regarding the use of interferon-gamma release assays for the diagnosis of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection; 4) updated information concerning drug interactions that affect the use of rifamycin drugs for prevention and treatment of TB; 5) the addition of a section on hepatitis B virus infection; and 6) the addition of malaria to the list of OIs that might be acquired during international travel. This report includes eleven tables pertinent to the prevention and treatment of OIs, a figure that pertains to the diagnois of tuberculosis, a figure that describes immunization recommendations, and an appendix that summarizes recommendations for prevention of exposure to opportunistic pathogens.

Guidelines for prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections in HIV-infected adults and adolescents: recommendations from CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

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PRACTICE GUIDELINE FOR THE Treatment of Patients With Major Depressive Disorder

SUMMARY The availability of an increasing number of antiretroviral agents and the rapid evolution of new information has introduced extraordinary complexity into the treatment of HIV-infected persons. In 1996, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation convened the Panel on Clinical Practices for the Treatment of HIV to develop guidelines for the clinical management of HIV-infected adults and adolescents. This report recommends that care should be supervised by an expert, and makes recommendations for laboratory monitoring including plasma HIV RNA, CD4 cell counts and HIV drug resistance testing. The report also provides guidelines for antiretroviral therapy, including when to start treatment, what drugs to initiate, when to change therapy, and therapeutic options when changing therapy. Special considerations are provided for adolescents and pregnant women. As with treatment of other chronic conditions, therapeutic decisions require a mutual understanding between the patient and the health care provider regarding the benefits and risks of treatment. Antiretroviral regimens are complex, have major side effects, pose difficulty with adherence, and carry serious potential consequences from the development of viral resistance due to non-adherence to the drug regimen or suboptimal levels of antiretroviral agents. Patient education and involvement in therapeutic

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Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in HIV-infected adults and adolescents

The 1/4/6x24 campaign to cure tuberculosis quickly

BACKGROUND
Tuberculosis infection (TBI) and tuberculosis disease (TBD) incidence remains poorly described following household contact (HHC) rifampin-/multidrug-resistant tuberculosis exposure. We sought to characterize TBI and TBD incidence at one-year in HHCs and to evaluate tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) use in high-risk groups.


METHODS
We previously conducted a cross-sectional study of HHCs of rifampin-/multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in 8 high-burden countries and re-assessed TBI (interferon-gamma release assay, HHCs ≥5 years) and TBD (HHCs all ages) at one-year. Incidence was estimated across age and risk groups (age <5 years; age ≥5 years, HIV-positive; age ≥5 years, HIV-negative/unknown, baseline TBI positive) by logistic or log-binomial regression fitted using generalized estimating equations.


RESULTS
Of 1016 HHCs, 850 (83.7%) from 247 households were assessed (median: 51.4 weeks). Among 242 HHCs, 52 tested interferon-gamma release assay-positive, yielding a one-year 21.6% (95% CI 16.7-27.4) TBI cumulative incidence. Sixteen of 742 HHCs developed confirmed (n=5), probable (n=3) or possible (n=8) TBD, yielding a 2.3% (95% CI 1.4-3.8) one-year cumulative incidence (1.1% [95% CI 0.5-2.2] for confirmed/probable TBD). TBD relative risk was 11.5 (95% CI 1.7-78.7), 10.4 (95% CI 2.4-45.6), and 2.9 (95% CI 0.5-17.8) fold higher in age <5 years, HIV+, and baseline TBI high-risk groups, respectively, versus not high-risk group (p=0.0015). By one-year, 4% (21 of 553) high-risk HHCs received TPT.


CONCLUSIONS
TBI and TBD incidence continued through one-year in rifampin-/multidrug-resistant tuberculosis HHCs. Low TPT coverage emphasizes need for evidence-based prevention and scale-up, particularly among high-risk groups.

M. Harrington

Papers

Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in HIV-infected adults and adolescents

The 1/4/6x24 campaign to cure tuberculosis quickly

One-year incidence of tuberculosis infection and disease among household contacts of rifampin- and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.