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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: One of the main reasons for risky sexual behavior observed in HIV serodiscordant couples despite the knowledge of the partner's status and counselling is childbearing. In Cameroon, there are few reports on HIV serodiscordant couples. This paper describes the influence of HIV on sexual relationships and decision to procreate. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in five health centers. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect social and demographic information, while semi-structured in-depth individual and couple interviews were used to explore sexual relationships and decisions about fatherhood/motherhood. Blood samples were collected from the couples and tested for HIV to confirm serodiscordance. The data were analyzed using the GraphPad Prism Version 6 software. RESULTS: A total of 53/192 (27.6%) HIV serodiscordant couples participated in the study, and 18/74 (24.32%) HIV positive seroconcordant couples and 32/80 HIV negative seroconcordant couples were used as controls. The majority of HIV-positive partners in serodiscordant couples were women (30/53), of whom 25/30 were on antiretroviral therapy. Nearly half of the respondents (23 /53) reported tensions related to serodiscordance, shown by reduced sex frequency. The use of condoms was not systematically observed among seroconcordant and serodiscordant couples with respective proportions of 55.55% and 20.75% (p = 0.0086). Thirty seven out of 53 HIV serodiscordant couples wanted children, among them, seven couples did not have any and expressed their aspiration for parenthood despite fear of infecting one's partner. CONCLUSION AND GLOBAL HEALTH IMPLICATIONS: Sexuality of serodiscordant couples as well as of HIV positive seroconcordant couples was affected by the presence of HIV/AIDS. The desire to procreate may lead couples to adopt risky sexual behaviors. It is important to define specific guidelines for serodiscordant couples in order to improve their sexual life and consequently enable them to procreate with minimal risk of infecting their partner and or to transmit the virus to their baby.
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INTRODUCTION: Recombinant Newcastle Disease virus (rNDV) vectored vaccines are safe mucosal applicable vaccines with intrinsic immune-modulatory properties for the induction of efficient immunity. Like all viral vectored vaccines repeated inoculation via mucosal routes invariably results to immunity against viral vaccine vectors. To obviate immunity against viral vaccine vectors and improve the ability of rNDV vectored vaccines in inducing T cell immunity in murine air way we have directed dendritic cell targeted HIV-1 gag protein (DEC-Gag) vaccine; for the induction of helper CD4+ T cells to a Recombinant Newcastle disease virus expressing codon optimized HIV-1 Gag P55 (rNDV-L-Gag) vaccine. METHODS: We do so through successive administration of anti-DEC205-gagP24 protein plus polyICLC (DEC-Gag) vaccine and rNDV-L-Gag. First strong gag specific helper CD4+ T cells are induced in mice by selected targeting of anti-DEC205-gagP24 protein vaccine to dendritic cells (DC) in situ together with polyICLC as adjuvant. This targeting helped T cell immunity develop to a subsequent rNDV-L-Gag vaccine and improved both systemic and mucosal gag specific immunity. RESULTS: This sequential DEC-Gag vaccine prime followed by an rNDV-L-gag boost results to improved viral vectored immunization in murine airway, including mobilization of protective CD8+ T cells to a pathogenic virus infection site. CONCLUSION: Thus, complementary prime boost vaccination, in which prime and boost favor distinct types of T cell immunity, improves viral vectored immunization, including mobilization of protective CD8+ T cells to a pathogenic virus infection site such as the murine airway.