Editor's Note: Since the discovery of the first AIDS patient in China in 1985, an enduring battle, devoid of gunfire, has persisted for nearly forty years. Generation after generation of…
The 15th National Conference on AIDS and Hepatitis C, hosted by the Chinese Medical Association and its Infectious Diseases Branch, took place in Guangzhou from November 10 to 12, 2023. Dr. Taisheng Li, the conference chair and a renowned figure from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, delivered a captivating presentation titled "A New Concept in Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment in the Post-ART Era of HIV/AIDS." In an exclusive interview with Infectious Disease Frontline, he further shared insights on topics including immune reconstitution deficiency in HIV-infected individuals.
Currently, the choice of second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) for children infected with HIV is extremely limited. At the recently concluded 12th International AIDS Society HIV Science Conference (IAS 2023), researchers announced the results of a significant clinical study, the CHAPAS-4 (Conference Abstract No.: OALBB0503), focusing on the long-term treatment outcomes of second-line therapy in children with HIV infections. We specially invited Professor Wang Hui from the Affiliated Second Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology (Shenzhen Third People's Hospital) to provide a brilliant review of this research.
Multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO) are commonly found in bacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. In recent years, the emergence and spread of MDRO have posed numerous challenges in clinical practice, with limited treatment options being one of the thorny issues. Beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations are essential in the clinical management of MDRO infections, among which Ceftolozane-Tazobactam (CT) and Ceftazidime-Avibactam (CZA) are frontline drugs for treating Multi-drug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDR-PA) infections. However, there is a lack of sufficient research data comparing the efficacy of these two drugs. At the recent IDWeek 2023 held in the United States, researchers presented a multicenter observational study (Abstract No: 1109) that compared the efficacy of CT and CZA in treating MDR-PA-induced bacteremia or pneumonia. " Infectious Disease Frontline" invited Dr. Junyan Qu, from West China Hospital of Sichuan University, to introduce and comment on this study.
Co-President of APACC 2023, Chief Researcher at the Center of Excellence for HIV/AIDS Research (CERiA) at the University of Malaya, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Research Fellow at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne. She is primarily responsible for the University of Malaya's HIV Immunology Translational Research Program, with her current research focus on the immunopathogenic mechanisms of aging in HIV/AIDS patients and their impact on patient health.
Honorary Dr. at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, former President of the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) (2008-2012), former Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia on the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society (IAS) (2006-2014), Co-Chair of the 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018), Director of the Netherlands HIV Monitoring Foundation, member of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NAID) HIV Vaccine Data and Safety Monitoring Board, and member of various committees including CROI, EACS, and HIV Glasgow.
<Hepatology Digest>: How many attendees are gathered together for the meeting from all over the world? What percentage of the participants are from the Asia Pacific region?
The 8th Asia-Pacific AIDS and Co-infection Conference (APACC 2023) was held in Singapore from June 8 to 10, 2023. During this conference, an oral presentation (Abstract #9) conducted by Dr. Linghua Li's team from the Eighth Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, China, attracted significant attention. Dr. Li 's team, based on the latest findings from a large cohort study, revealed that the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance rate in HIV/HBV co-infected individuals who received long-term combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) could reach 8.1%. Furthermore, the research results unveiled that the main influencing factors for HBsAg clearance in HIV/HBV co-infected individuals included low baseline HBsAg levels, HBV genotype B, and a more than two-fold increase in ALT within six months of treatment.
