21st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), 3-6 March 2014, Boston

24 March 2014. Related: Conference reports, CROI 21 (Retrovirus) 2014, Conference index.

Introduction

This year the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections – the leading HIV conference on basic and clinical science – was held in Boston from 3-6 March 2014.  

While the meeting mostly looked and felt like CROI, the strains of the ongoing legal wrangle with the previous secretariat are taking time to work through – most notable for a scandolous and spiteful decision to inactivate the previous 20-year online conference archive.

It is important that the CROI committee are now partnering with IAS-USA to ensure the meeting is secure for the future, and dates for the 2015 meeting are already online.

This year though, the access to abstract and posters for people who were either unable to attend and for reference afterwards is patchy, which makes linking references in HTB reports more difficult.

Webcasts from the conference are now online – an essential aspect of CROI’s historical lead as an educational resource – and CROI has also released an app via both Apple and Google that will allow presentations to be viewed on mobile devices after the conference ends.

Some posters are also available online as PDF files, but abstracts from the conference are not yet online as html pages and many can only be accessed by downloading a PDF file of the abstract book.

Abstract book (a sturdy 61MB PDF file)
http://croi2014.org/sites/default/files/uploads/CROI2014_Final_Abstracts.pdf (PDF)

Update: Abstracts now are available from the online searchable database.
http://www.croiconference.org/abstracts/search-abstracts

The programme itself though was as packed as ever, and as usual we will spread out reports over (at least) two issues of HTB.

Reports in this issue of HTB are:

• No HIV transmissions with undetectable viral load: interim PARTNER study results show need for longer follow-up

• PrEP injections every three months may protect against exposure from anal sex

• ARV pipeline: doravirine, GSK-744 and BMS-068

• Viral load rebound rate of 35% using ritonavir-boosted PI monotherapy: results of five-year PIVOT study

• Dual therapy less effective at high viral load: NEAT 001 study with raltegravir/darunavir/r

• Atazanavir, raltegravir and darunavir virologically equivalent in naive patients but significant differences for tolerability: results from ACTG 5257

• Pharmacokinetic targets for efavirenz might be too high

• Abacavir link to cardiovascular events in high-risk patients maintained in D:A:D study

• NNRTI resistance found in 12% of people stopping treatment with undetectable viral load: implications for stock-outs

• HIV related infections remain the leading cause of maternal deaths in South Africa despite the availability of ART

• Lower newborn bone mineral content with maternal tenofovir use

• Paediatric pipeline: CROI 2014 update on new antiretrovirals for children

• Efavirenz maintenance therapy effective in children exposed to nevirapine prophylaxis

• Xpert TB test doesn’t reduce morbidity but it does have important advantages

• Reports of a second baby possibly cured of HIV: uncertainty remains

• Updates on SB728-T, a CCR5-targeting gene therapy