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July 2011
 
 
 
Reports
 
Stichting HIV Monitoring annual report 2010
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Monitoring Report 2010
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Calendar
12-15 Oct 2011
13th European AIDS Conference
 
29 Nov 2011
NCHIV 2011
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Welcome
 
Dear Reader,
 
Welcome to Stichting HIV Monitoring’s first eNewsletter, created to let you know about our activities – our data collection, monitoring and research, events that we are involved in nationally and internationally, and our partnerships. With it, we will be able to communicate directly with you to share news about the latest developments at SHM, as well as news on important developments in HIV care.
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In each issue we plan to have a feature article. In this issue we are fortunate to speak with Frank Kroon, chairman of SHM’s governing board and HIV specialist at the LUMC, about the foundation and our role in HIV care and prevention.
We plan to produce an eNewsetter issue every quarter and we welcome your feedback and input for upcoming issues.
Kind regards,
Frank de Wolf
Director, Stichting HIV Monitoring

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Feature: Interview with Dr. Frank Kroon
Care of HIV-infected patients is progressing very well in the Netherlands
Dr. Frank Kroon is an infectious disease specialist in the department of infectious diseases at the Leiden University Medical Center. As a staff member, he is involved in the treatment of HIV and other serious infectious diseases.  Since 2009, Dr. Kroon is chairman of Stichting HIV Monitoring’s (SHM’s) governing board. For SHM’s eNewsletter, he outlines what work the foundation carries out, and how we contribute to improving the quality of HIV care in the Netherlands. Read more Frank_Kroon.jpg

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Increased risk for non-AIDS-defining malignancies
New research recently published by Kesselring et al. in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that a low CD4 count while using combination antiretroviral therapy is associated with an increased risk for non-AIDS-defining malignancies. Anouk Kesselring, MD, MSc is currently completing her PhD study at Stichting HIV Monitoring. She gives further insight into this research which has already generated quite a lot of interest. Read more Anouk_Kesselring.jpg

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Data collection at SHM: In constant development 

The number of people with HIV infection in the Netherlands continues to increase and due to improved treatment possibilities, the number of patients in follow-up is also increasing. Over the years, this has resulted in a substantial increase in the size of Stichting HIV Monitoring’s (SHM’s) database. Last year alone, over 14 million data points were collected. This ever increasing data load led to a critical look at the various processes in data management, which has in turn led to the implementation of various improvement projects. Read more
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In Memoriam: Harrie van Rooij
It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Harrie van Rooij. Dr van Rooij became a member of Stichting HIV Monitoring’s Governing Board in 2008. Read more

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Publication Review
A selection of research including SHM data that was published during Q2, 2011:  

Immunovirological Response to Triple Nucleotide Reverse-Transcriptase Inhibitors and Ritonavir-Boosted Protease Inhibitors in Treatment-Naive HIV-2–Infected Patients: The ACHIEV2E Collaboration Study Group.  
Treatment of HIV-2 is quite complicated, because the whole arsenal of available anti-retroviral drugs cannot be used. The WHO recommends starting with three nucleoside RT inhibitors, but new data from the ACHIEV2E collaboration shows that a combination containing a protease inhibitor is more effective. Read the abstract   
 
When to Initiate Combined Antiretroviral Therapy to Reduce Mortality and AIDS-Defining Illness in HIV-Infected Persons in Developed Countries. An Observational Study. The HIV-CAUSAL Collaboration. 
One of the big questions is: at what CD4 cell count combination therapy should be started? The HIV-causal collaboration shows that the risk of AIDS or death is 28% lower if a CD4 threshold of 500 instead of 350 cells/mm3 is used. Read the abstract 
 
Effect of transmitted drug resistance on virological and immunological response to initial combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV (EuroCoord-CHAIN joint project): a European multicohort study. 
Combination therapy fails in 15% of patients infected with resistant HIV, if the therapy is not optimally composed. That is three times more often than in patients who start with a good combination therapy. Testing for resistance to treatment is therefore important. Read the abstract

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Facts and figures
From 2001 to 2011 there were 148 publications published with data from SHM.
 
From 2004 until the end of 2010, more than 83 million data points were inputted into the SHM database.