Treatment outcomes and costs of a simplified antiviral treatment strategy for hepatitis C among monoinfected and HIV and/or hepatitis B virus-co-infected patients in Myanmar.

Access to hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and treatment is limited in Myanmar. We assessed an integrated HIV and viral hepatitis testing and HCV treatment strategy. Sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) ± weight-based ribavirin for 12 weeks was provided at three treatment sites in Myanmar and sustained virologic response (SVR) assessed at 12 weeks after treatment. Participants co-infected with HBV were treated concurrently with tenofovir. Cost estimates in 2018 USD were made at Yangon and Mandalay using standard micro-costing methods. 803 participants initiated SOF/VEL; 4.8% were lost to follow-up. SVR was achieved in 680/803 (84.6%) by intention-to-treat analysis. SVR amongst people who inject drugs (PWID) was 79.7% (381/497), but 92.5% among PWID on opioid substitution therapy (OST) (74/80), and 97.4% among non-PWID (298/306). Utilizing data from 492 participants, of whom 93% achieved SVR, the estimated average cost of treatment per patient initiated was $1030 (of which 54% were medication costs), with a production cost per successful outcome (SVR) of $1109 and real-world estimate of $1250. High SVR rates were achieved for non-PWID and PWID on OST. However, the estimated average cost of the intervention (under the assumption of no genotype testing and reduced real-world effectiveness) of $1250/patient is unaffordable for a national elimination strategy. Reductions in the cost of antivirals and linkage to social and behavioural health services including substance use disorder treatment to increase retention and adherence to treatment are critical to HCV elimination in this population.

Leave no one behind: response to new evidence and guidelines for the management of cryptococcal meningitis in low-income and middle-income countries.

In 2018, WHO issued guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and management of HIV-related cryptococcal disease. Two strategies are recommended to reduce the high mortality associated with HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs): optimised combination therapies for confirmed meningitis cases and cryptococcal antigen screening programmes for ambulatory people living with HIV who access care. WHO's preferred therapy for the treatment of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in LMICs is 1 week of amphotericin B plus flucytosine, and the alternative therapy is 2 weeks of fluconazole plus flucytosine. In the ACTA trial, 1-week (short course) amphotericin B plus flucytosine resulted in a 10-week mortality of 24% (95% CI -16 to 32) and 2 weeks of fluconazole and flucytosine resulted in a 10-week mortality of 35% (95% CI -29 to 41). However, with widely used fluconazole monotherapy, mortality because of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis is approximately 70% in many African LMIC settings. Therefore, the potential to transform the management of HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis in resource-limited settings is substantial. Sustainable access to essential medicines, including flucytosine and amphotericin B, in LMICs is paramount and the focus of this Personal View.

The National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center Global Health Scholars and Fellows Program: Collaborating Across Five Consortia to Strengthen Research Training.

As demand for global health research training continues to grow, many universities are striving to meet the needs of trainees in a manner complementary to research priorities of the institutions hosting trainees, while also increasing capacity for conducting research. We provide an overview of the first 4 years of the Global Health Program for Fellows and Scholars, a collaboration of 20 U.S. universities and institutions spread across 36 low- and middle-income countries funded through the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center. We highlight many aspects of our program development that may be of interest to other multinational consortia developing global health research training programs.

The biobehavioral Women's Health CoOp in Pretoria, South Africa: study protocol for a cluster-randomized design.

BACKGROUND: South Africa has 6.4 million adults over the age of 15 living with HIV. Gender inequality issues continue to drive the HIV epidemic in South Africa, where Black African women bear the greatest HIV burden. Limited access to services; little capacity to negotiate sex and condom use; and other legal, social, and economic inequities make women highly vulnerable to HIV infection. Behavioral interventions have been shown to decrease risk behaviors, but they have been less successful in reducing HIV incidence. Conversely, biomedical prevention strategies have proven to be successful in reducing HIV incidence, but require behavioral interventions to increase uptake and adherence. Consequently, there is a need for integrated approaches that combine biomedical and behavioral interventions. Effective combination prevention efforts should comprise biomedical, behavioral, and structural programming proven in randomized trials that focuses on the driving forces and key populations at higher risk of HIV infection and transmission. METHODS/DESIGN: This prospective, geographically clustered randomized field experiment is enrolling participants into two arms: a control arm that receives standard HIV testing and referral for treatment; and an intervention arm that receives an evidence-based, woman-focused behavioral intervention that emphasizes risk reduction and retention, the Women's Health CoOp. We divided the city of Pretoria into 14 mutually exclusive geographic zones and randomized these zones into either the control arm or the intervention arm. Outreach workers are recruiting drug-using women from each zone. At baseline, eligible participants complete a questionnaire and biological testing for HIV, recent drug use, and pregnancy. Follow-up interviews are completed at 6 and 12 months. DISCUSSION: The biobehavioral intervention in this study merges an efficacious behavioral HIV prevention intervention for women with biomedical prevention through HIV treatment as prevention using a Seek, Test, Treat and Retain strategy. This combination biobehavioral intervention is designed to (1) improve the quality of life and reduce HIV infectiousness among women who are HIV positive, and (2) reduce HIV risk behaviors among women regardless of their HIV status. If efficacious, this intervention could help control the HIV epidemic in South Africa. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration no: NCT01497405.

Research as a path to wide-scale implementation of antiretroviral therapy in Africa.

Although some would deny the importance of research in resource-poor countries, the benefits of research to implementation of treatment for HIV infection are innumerable. These benefits include the development of infrastructure, training of staff, creation and validation of algorithms appropriate for the setting, and answering questions necessary for a safe and effective roll-out of therapy. This was true in the USA in 1986, 1 year after the antibody test for HIV was developed, and is true in Africa today. Shortly after the development of the HIV antibody test and before any antiretroviral therapy, few physicians or centres were willing to provide care for HIV patients and fewer had adequate facilities to do so. At that time it was not known how to make an adequate diagnosis of many of the opportunistic infections nor was there a clear idea of how to treat the patients. No-one knew either the best or most cost-effective method to prevent infections. Even as roll-out of therapy proceeded in early 1987 with the approval of zidovudine by the US Food and Drug Administration, physicians were clueless as to when to start treatment. With the addition of other medications in the armamentarium, clinicians began to make mistakes in their ignorance, adding on medications one at a time as they were approved, which led to accumulation of resistance mutations for a generation of patients. These mutations were transmitted to partners and children. What single-handedly helped advance treatment in the USA and Europe in the 1980s was the willingness of respective governing authorities to create clinical research groups not only to develop new drugs but to help create cost-effective ways to use them. All the current treatment guidelines were developed from that research. Over the years these research groups provided care, including medications, laboratory tests and physician and nurse time, for thousands of patients. Medical centres, where these indigent patients were receiving their care, were encouraged to open their doors, creating state of the art clinics and inpatient wards. A generation of clinicians was trained at these research centres where the bulk of US HIV patients were treated. They provided care as they were conducting research. The ability of resource-poor countries to deliver large-scale roll-out plans is dependent on the development of leadership and skills to implement the programmes. South Africa, despite a delay in initiating a national treatment programme, is an example of a country where the research conducted in the period 1996 to 2004 has enabled a skilled set of clinicians, pharmacists and paramedical staff to provide leadership in the scale up of antiretroviral therapy programmes. Guideline development, training and implementation have been led by treatment experts who learned their skills in the research arena.