Dual Epidemics of Drug Use and Syphilis Among Chinese Female Sex Workers: Results of Eight Consecutive Cross-Sectional Surveys from 2006 to 2013 in Qingdao, China.

Eight consecutive annual cross-sectional surveys were conducted to examine the trend of the prevalence of HIV, syphilis, drug use and their correlates among female sex workers (FSWs) in Qingdao, China. Among sampled FSWs over the 8 years, a higher proportion of older, married or cohabited, higher education levels and more on-call FSWs were observed in recent years. The syphilis prevalence increased significantly from 1.0 % in 2006 to 13.5 % in 2013, with illicit drug use rate ranging from 21.8 % in 2007 to 55.5 % in 2010. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that drug use, syphilis and unprotected vaginal sex predicted each other. The dual epidemics of illicit drug use and syphilis among FSWs underscore the urgency to implement a tailored intervention to curb the dual epidemics while also preventing an HIV epidemic in the context of diversified commercial sex dynamic.

An integrated individual, community, and structural intervention to reduce HIV/STI risks among female sex workers in China.

BACKGROUND: We assessed the effectiveness of an integrated individual, community, and structural intervention to reduce risks of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers (FSWs). METHODS: The integration individual, community, and structural intervention was implemented from 2004 to 2009 in six counties of Shandong Province. Post-intervention cross-sectional surveys were conducted in six intervention counties and 10 control counties. RESULTS: Of 3326 female sex workers were recruited and analyzed in the post-intervention survey with 1157 from intervention sites and 2169 from control sites. No HIV positive was found in both intervention and control counties. The rate of syphilis was 0.17% for intervention sites and 1.89% for control sites (OR=11.1, 95% CI: 2.7, 46.1). After adjusted for age, marital status, education, economic condition, recruitment venues, the rates of condom use in the last sex with clients(AOR=2.7; 95% CI: 1.9, 3.8), with regular sex partners(AOR=1.5; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.9) and consistent condom use in the last month with clients (AOR=3.3; 95% CI: 2.6, 4.1) and regular sex partners (AOR=1.7; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.3) were significantly higher in intervention sites than that in control sites. The proportion of participants correctly answered at least six out of eight HIV-related questions (83.3%) in intervention sites is significant higher than that (21.9%) in control sites (AOR=24.7; 95% CI: 2.5, 42.7), the five indicators related to HIV-related intervention services ever received in the last year including HIV testing(AOR=4.9; 95% CI: 2.8, 6.7), STD examination and/or treatment(AOR=5.1; 95% CI: 4.2, 6.4), free condom(AOR=20.3; 95% CI: 14.3, 28.9), peer education(AOR=4.3; 95% CI: 3.5, 5.4), education materials(AOR=19.8; 95%CI: 13.1, 29.8) were significantly higher in intervention sites than that in control sites, the participants in the intervention sites are more likely to seek medical treatment when they had any disorders (AOR=3.2; 95% CI: 2.5, 4.2). CONCLUSION: This study found that the integrated individual, community, and structural intervention showed positive impact in reducing HIV and STI risks among FSWs.

[Mutation of drug resistant gene in HIV/AIDS patients with antiretroviral therapy in Shandong province in 2011].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate drug resistance status in patients with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in Shandong province. METHODS: A total of 758 patients were separated from the anticoagulatory whole blood during May and October in 2011. The entire protease gene and part of the reverse transcriptase gene were amplified by RT-PCR and nest-PCR in the samples with viral load larger than 1000 copies/ml, then sequenced the gene fragments. Mutation of drug resistant gene and drug susceptibility was analyzed by the online tool HIV db program developed by Stanford University. RESULTS: The rate of virologic failure in patients was 9.1% (69/758). A total of 53 gene sequences that acquired were used for genotypic resistance analysis. A total of 23 patients were indicated drug resistance with the total of 3.1% (23/742). Drug resistance rates of nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) and non-NRTI(NNRTI) were 2.4% (18/742) and 3.0% (22/742), respectively, and the primary mutation types of drug resistance were M184V and Y181C for NRTI and NNRTI, with no resistance to protease inhibitor (PI). In the 23 patients indicated drug resistance, 78.3% (18/23) were NRTI resistance, 95.7% (22/23) were NNRTI resistance and 73.9% (17/23) dual NRTI and NNRTI resistance. CONCLUSION: The presence of drug resistant gene in HIV strains among AIDS patients with HAART in Shandong province was at low level, but mutation diversity was found in drug resistant gene.

[The prevalence and evolution of HIV drug-resistant strains in people who live with HIV/AIDS during HIV antiretroviral therapy in Shandong province].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the prevalence and evolution of HIV drug-resistant strains in people who live with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) during HIV antiretroviral therapy in Shandong province. METHODS: Viral load testing was performed by using fluorescence real-time quantitative PCR (NucliSens EasyQ system) on 324 patients who were under HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) over 1 year in Shandong province. HIV resistance testing was conducted on the samples with more than 1000 copies/ml by using genotypic resistance testing method established in our lab. We tested the samples from drug-resistant patients before and after treatment to analyze the evolution of HIV resistant strains. RESULTS: The resistance rate for the patients under HIV ART over 1 year was 6.2% (20/324). The rate of drug-resistant mutation, but not resistant to ART was 0.6% (5/324). Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTIs) and non-NRTIs (NNRTIs) accounted for 93.1% (94/101) and protein inhibitors (PIs) accounted only 6.9% (7/101) of all mutations. M184V (48.0%, 12/25) and Y181C (32.0%, 8/25) were the most frequent mutations among 25 samples. Our research showed 20.0% (2/10) patients were resistant to primary ART and 1 patient was detected drug resistance in 6 months after ART treatment. HIV evolved from wild type to drug resistant virus, from low level to high level drug resistance, and from resistance to few to multiple drugs. In addition, interactions between mutations may influence the sensitivity of patients to other drug treatment. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HIV drug-resistant strains in Shandong province is still at a low level, but its evolution is complex.

HIV drug resistance in HIV positive individuals under antiretroviral treatment in Shandong Province, China.

The efficacy of antiretroviral drugs is limited by the development of drug resistance. Therefore, it is important to examine HIV drug resistance following the nationwide implementation of drug resistance testing in China since 2009. We conducted drug resistance testing in patients who were already on or new to HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Shandong Province, China, from 2011 to 2013, and grouped them based on the presence or absence of drug resistance to determine the effects of age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, educational level, route of transmission and treatment status on drug resistance. We then examined levels of drug resistance the following year. The drug resistance rates of HIV patients on ART in Shandong from 2011 to 2013 were 3.45% (21/608), 3.38% (31/916), and 4.29% (54/1259), per year, respectively. M184V was the most frequently found point mutation, conferring resistance to the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, while Y181C, G190A, K103N and V179D/E/F were the most frequent point mutations conferring resistance to the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. In addition, the protease inhibitor drug resistance mutations I54V and V82A were identified for the first time in Shandong Province. Primary resistance accounts for 20% of the impact factors for drug resistance. Furthermore, it was found that educational level and treatment regimen were high-risk factors for drug resistance in 2011 (P<0.05), while treatment regimen was a high risk factor for drug resistance in 2012 and 2013 (P<0.05). Among the 106 drug-resistant patients, 77 received immediate adjustment of treatment regimen following testing, and 69 (89.6%) showed a reduction in drug resistance the following year. HIV drug resistance has a low prevalence in Shandong Province. However, patients on second line ART regimens and those with low educational level need continuous monitoring. Active drug resistance testing can effectively prevent the development of drug resistance.

[The epidemiological study on human immunodeficiency virus infection among paid blood donors living in Shandong provincial China Comprehensive Response Project Areas].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the current epidemic situation and high risk factors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among paid blood donors living in Shandong provincial China Comprehensive Response (CARES) Project Areas. METHODS: All residents between 20 to 60 years old were selected from one or several counties in August 2003. RESULTS: There were 19 HIV(+) infections among 661 subjects interviewed. HIV prevalence rate among paid blood donors was higher (3.98%) than that of others (0.48%) while HIV prevalence rate was higher in plasma donors (7.24%) than that in both plasma and full blood donors (2.90%). There was no infections identified in full blood donors. Donors who donated blood during 1994 - 1995 had a higher prevalence rate (7.07%) than those who started donation after 1995 and those began donation before 1993 (0.99%). The rate of condom use was lower among paid blood donors (13.72%) than that of others. There was a lower rate of voluntary HIV testing among paid blood donors than that of others. CONCLUSION: The main high risk population of HIV infection were paid donors in CARES Project Areas, whose risk factor was plasma donation and were infected mainly before 1995. Both the rate of condom use and HIV testing were all very low, indicating that they knew little on HIV/AIDS and paid less attention to self-proctection. It is necessary to enhance HIV/AIDS health education and behavior intervention on paid blood donors.