HTB January/February online (1 February 2023)

1 February 2023. Related: News.

Welcome to the first issue of HTB for 2023.

Optimistically, we look forward to the upcoming 30th CROI conference. The preliminary programme is now online and we suggest a few conference highlights – and during the meeting we will post early reports, linked to the same page.

We also include the final reports from the Glasgow conference, covering recent and pipeline ART.

The rest of this issue includes a range of journal reports that haven’t generated widespread media coverage but that are nonetheless significant and important:

That there were zero transmissions to infants when the mother was on effective ART at conception, during pregnancy and at birth. This was in a large French cohort with good access to ART.
Additional evidence to support recycling modern NRTIs in second-line ART, even with evidence of drug resistance.
That unexpected viral rebound and persistent low-level viraemia on previously effective ART may be due to clonal expansion rather than viral failure related to poor adherence and/or drug resistance. This phenomenon might affect 1 in 250 people on ART and is not currently covered in treatment guidelines,
That integrase inhibitors as a class might have greater impact on recovery of CD4:CD8 ratio than either NNRTI- or PI-based ART.
That HIV reinfection might be as common as 7%.
That the Mosaico HIV vaccine study which was discontinued in January due to HIV infection rates of 4.1/100 person-years of follow-up in both the active and placebo arms.
A short report on the risk of KS in people on effective ART.
BOTOX as a potential treatment for erectile dysfunction.

We also approach the first anniversary of the war against Ukraine that most of us either feared or hoped might be over in months, at a time when Western governments are supplying military aid that might have helped an earlier outcome had it been provided earlier.

HTB still leads with information about ways to help, including donating unused medicines.