Assessing the knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among the general population and health care professionals in MENA region.

INTRODUCTION: Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection continue to represent a global health concern influenced by various social, economic, and cultural factors. The MENA are among the top regions in the world with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic. Thus, adequate knowledge and a positive attitude of people toward HIV/AIDS are of utmost importance to prevent the spreading of the disease. Accordingly, this study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of the public and healthcare population toward HIV/AIDs. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among residents within our population from October 2018 until August 2019. An anonymous online questionnaire was used to investigate the population's demographic characteristics, HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, and attitudes toward HIV-infected patients. Participants completed a 40-item questionnaire designed to measure their knowledge and attitude toward HIV/AIDS. The data was collected via surveys, administered through electronic tablets to the participants at public places (n = 5,757) and through an online version of the questionnaire on Google Forms (n = 2500), which was sent through social media platforms. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data using the R-statistical software program. RESULTS: A total of 8,257 participants were included in our analysis. Saudi Arabian citizens represented 79% of the participants, while participants from the MENA countries represented 11.7% and 3% from the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Fifty-nine (59%) knew that HIV is a contagious infection, and 13.8% were unaware that HIV could be transmitted sexually. A few healthcare professionals reported negative attitudes toward HIV infected patients. Many risk factors, including age, gender, nationality, and education, significantly affected the knowledge and attitude scores. In this survey, we found that social media is the primary source of participants' information. CONCLUSIONS: Overall correct knowledge score of individuals about HIV/AIDS was relatively low. This study showed that the general population was knowledgeable to a certain degree about HIV/AIDS and its modes of transmission. Nevertheless, they lack a detailed understanding of the disease's nature, modes of transmission, and existing treatment. Policymakers in the region should further eliminate social discrimination and stigma in HIV-infected patients.

Quantitative proteomics analysis reveals unique but overlapping protein signatures in HIV infections.

BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) exploits human host factors to complete its life cycle. Hence, discovery of HIV-regulated host proteins markers would better our understanding of the virus life-cycle and its contribution to pathogenesis and discovery of objective diagnostic and prognostic molecules. METHODS: We conducted holistic total proteomics analysis of three closely related study populations including patients with HIV type-1 (HIV-1) and HIV type-2 (HIV-2) as well as HIV-1 elite controllers (HIV-1-EC). Peripheral blood plasma (PBP) samples were subjected to label-free quantitative liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). RESULTS: Over 314 unique PBP protein species were identified of which 100 (approx. 32%) were significantly differentially expressed (≥2 to ∞ - fold-change; p < 0.05) between the three sample cohorts. Of the 100 proteins, 91 were significantly changed between pairs of HIV-1 versus HIV-1-EC, while 83 of the 100 proteins differed significantly between HIV-2 and HIV-1-EC. Interestingly, 76 proteins (87.5%) overlap between the two data sets indicating that majority of these proteins share similar expression changes between HIV-1 and HIV-2 sample groups. Two of the identified proteins, XRCC5 and PSME1, were implicated in the early phase of the pathway network for HIV life cycle, while others were involved in infectious disease and disease of signal transduction. Among them were MAP2K1, RPL23A, RPS3, CALR, PRDX1, SOD2, LMNB1, PHB, and FGB. Despite the high degree of similarity in protein profiles of HIV-1 and HIV-2, six proteins differed significantly including ETFB, PHB2, S100A9, LMO2, PPP3R1 and Vif, a fragment of virion infectivity factor of HIV-1. Additionally, 15 proteins were uniquely expressed, and one of them (LSP1) is present only in HIV-1-EC but absent in HIV1 and HIV-2 and vice versa for the rest 14 proteins. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, we have identified HIV-specific/related protein expression changes that might potentially be capable of early diagnosis and prognosis of HIV diseases and other related infectious diseases.

Papular-purpuric "gloves and socks" syndrome in a mother and daughter.

The papular-purpuric "gloves and socks" syndrome (PPGSS) is a unique exanthem characterized by petechiae with painful edema of the hands and feet extending proximally with less severity. Constitutional symptoms of fever, lethargy, and arthralgia have also been described. Human parvovirus B19 has been implicated in most cases as the causative agent. We describe a mother and her daughter presenting with the characteristic findings of PPGSS and demonstrating the seroconversion of human parvovirus B19 a few days after the onset of their illness. Additional clinical findings of cutaneous vesicles, bullae, and conjunctivitis are reported in the mother's case. To our knowledge, these are the first 2 cases of PPGSS in a household setting.