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June 2013
 
 
 
Reports
 
Monitoring Report 2012
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Stichting HIV Monitoring annual Report 2012
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Calendar

25 June 2013
Ruysch lecture by Marie-Louise Newell
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30 June-3 July 2013
IAS 2013, 7th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention
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WelcomePReiss_150X115.jpg

Dear reader,

This newsletter highlights the success we have had so far with monitoring HIV/hepatitis co-infection. We are proud to announce that we have managed to input all hepatitis C-related data for HIV co-infected patients into the SHM database within the last 6 months, and are in the process of retrospectively collecting hepatitis B data. The hepatitis C data is now available to HIV-treating physicians. This is quite an achievement, and SHM data monitor, Anna Jansen covers this in further detail in the article below. Further stories include interviews with Marie-Louise Newell, who will be presenting the Ruysch Lecture at the AMC on 25 June 2013, and Ineke van der Ende, who recently became Knight of the Order of Oranje Nassau. Rob van den Hengel, PhD student at SHM, also discusses his research into modelling of HIV infection in an interview.

I hope that you enjoy reading this edition of the newsletter. Feedback is always welcome.

Kind regards,

Peter Reiss
Director, Stichting HIV Monitoring

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Monitoring HIV and viral hepatitis, a success story

hepatitis.jpgAnna Jansen is a data monitor at SHM. She is responsible for managing the import of all hepatitis-related changes in the data sets of the SHM database. In the following article she describes how SHM has, within a very short time, successfully implemented the monitoring of hepatitis co-infection, liver morbidity and liver diagnostics in HIV-infected individuals.

» Read more

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Pursuing universal antiretroviral therapy in Africa – an interview with Marie-Louise Newell

Portret_Marie-Louise.jpgMarie-Louise Newell MB, MSc, PhD is Director of the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in South Africa. The Africa Centre carries out research focused on the impact of HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the rural population in the vicinity of Durban. On 25 June 2013 she will deliver a Ruysch lecture at the AMC, Amsterdam on “Strategic Use of Antiretroviral Therapy in High HIV Prevalence Countries”. We spoke to Prof. Newell prior to her visit to Amsterdam about her two recent publications in Science.

» Read more

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Portret_Ineke.jpgRoyal Honour for Ineke van der Ende

Ineke van der Ende, infectious disease specialist at Erasmus Medical Centre, received a Royal Honour on 26 April in Rotterdam when she became Knight of the Order of Oranje Nassau. We spoke with Dr. van der Ende about her extensive work in the field of HIV that has led to her receiving this knighthood.

» Read more

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Modelling HIV in the Netherlands – Rob van den Hengel discusses his PhD thesis

Portret_rob.jpgSince September 2012 Rob van den Hengel has been active with his PhD at Stichting HIV Monitoring. His research focuses on the development of a simulation model that gives not only a description of the HIV epidemic within the Netherlands but provides more insight into the changes in age of the HIV-infected group, the contribution of migrant populations to new HIV infections, and the size of the HIV epidemic in different risk groups. We spoke with Rob about his research.

» Read more

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Review Day for Data Collectors

On 28 May the biannual review day was held again at Stichting HIV Monitoring’s offices in Amsterdam. It was a full day with around 40 data collectors visiting from throughout the country. Important topics for the day were the expansion of the current data including hepatitis-related data, maintaining the quality of data and efficiency of finding and retrieving digital data from electronic patient files, such as laboratories (LabLink) and medication data, and making the SHM processes more efficient.

» Read more

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annualreport_newsletterthumb.jpgSHM Annual Report 2012 published

The hard copy of SHM’s Annual Report 2012 has been sent but is also available for download via the website. Interested in the presentations and results of the SHM? Then download the report via the link below. Would you like to see more reports? Then visit the Annual Report overview

» Download the Annual Report 2012

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NCHIV 2013 on 19 November 2013

NCHIV_2013_thumb.pngThe 7th Netherlands Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Epidemiology, Prevention and Treatment (NCHIV) is set to take place on Tuesday, 19 November 2013 at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam. NCHIV is the national platform for presenting and discussing the latest contributions to biomedical HIV research in the Netherlands. Registration and abstract submission for the event is now open and we invite you to register for the conference and submit your abstract(s).

» Visit the NCHIV website

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Event review
 

17th International Workshop on HIV Observational Databases (IWHOD)

IWHOD.jpgThis year the annual ‘International Workshop on HIV Observational Databases’ took place from 11-13 April in Cavtat, Croatia. SHM presented three studies during the workshop including two presentations and one poster.

Luuk Gras presented a study on the association between age and CD4 cell count progression over the longer term in HIV-infected patients (» presentation). An increase in CD4 cells after starting cART was lower in older HIV patients. The study looked at the relationship between age and CD4 cell count at the start of therapy in patients with a prolonged suppression of HIV RNA. The study showed that the difference in CD4 cell increases after starting therapy in patients <50 years and ≥ 50 years can be partly explained by the CD4 cell count at the start of therapy. The difference in CD4 cell increases between patients <50 years and ≥ 50 years is marked when therapy is started at a low CD4 cell count of < 200 cells/mm3, and the difference is smaller when therapy is started at CD4 cell counts of ≥350 cells/mm3.

Ard van Sighem presented the results of a study on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in men who have sex with men in the Netherlands (» presentation). This study looked at the possible impact of PrEP on the HIV epidemic through a mathematical model. The results of the model showed that PrEP may be most effective in individuals with high risk sexual behaviour.

The third study was a poster of Colette Smit on behalf of the NVHB-SHM hepatitis group. In this study, a description was given of the response to anti-hepatitis C treatment ((peg-)interferon with ribavirine) in patients with chronic hepatitis C and HIV co-infection (» poster). In the 461 patients treated for hepatitis C, less than half have been successfully treated. Although the percentage is higher compared to previous studies, there still remain a large number of patients that are treated unsuccessfully. This underlines the importance of developing new hepatitis C agents.

» Visit the IWHOD website


TasP 2013

TasP.jpgThe third ‘International HIV Treatment as Prevention Workshop’ took place from 22-25 April in Vancouver, Canada. Similar to previous years, there were again this year extensive discussions about treatment with antiretroviral medication to reduce the number of new HIV infections. This can include treatment with combination therapy of HIV-infected individuals as well as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to protect healthy people against infection with HIV.

To successfully reduce the incidence of HIV it is essential that HIV-infected persons are identified quickly and started on combination therapy almost immediately, regardless of CD4 cell counts. This is, first and foremost, beneficial to the individual HIV-patient to prevent disease progression and indirect complications. Another advantage is that an individual with suppressed HIV RNA levels almost never spreads the virus. For these reasons, treatment guidelines based on CD4 cell counts are actually slowly becoming a liability.

More and more politicians and organisations such as UNAIDS and PEPFAR are now seeing ‘treatment as prevention’ as a promising intervention. A number of countries had therefore delegated their Minister of Health to attend.

PrEP can prevent HIV infection but it appears to be less cost-effective to implement it on a large scale, especially in countries with a concentrated HIV epidemic. On behalf of SHM, Ard van Sighem showed a comparison between ‘treatment as prevention’ and PrEP to curb the HIV-epidemic in men who have sex with men in the Netherlands. ‘Treatment as prevention’ appeared to be by far the most favourable option.

» Visit the TasP website

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Publication review

Has the Rate of CD4 Cell Count Decline before Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy Changed over the Course of the Dutch HIV Epidemic among MSM?
In recent decades it seems that the HIV epidemic in the Netherlands has become more virulent with a faster progression to AIDS as a result. Not only are CD4 cell counts at 9 months following seroconversion lower than before, but the following decline in CD4 counts is also steeper.
» Abstract

Insurability of HIV positive people treated with antiretroviral therapy in Europe: collaborative analysis of HIV cohort studies.
For several years in the Netherlands, HIV patients have been able to close long-term life insurance. The ART Cohort Collaboration shows that also in other European countries, life insurance is an option in more than half of the patients that are on therapy for 6 months or longer.
» Abstract

High incidence of intermittent care in HIV-1-infected patients in Curaçao before and after starting cART.
Getting HIV patients into care is a major challenge, as is keeping patients in care. Many patients in Curacao are found to have interruptions in care, especially when they have not yet started combination therapy. Half of these patients come back into care at a later time.
» Abstract

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Facts and figures

Since 1 January 2013, all hepatitis C-related data from 1468 HIV co-infected patients has been processed and registered in the SHM database. This has involved filling in 4961 new screens with data about vaccination information, fibroscans, liver pathology and radiology, and other hepatitis test results.

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