Welcome

Dear reader,

In the lead-up to the 8th Netherlands Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Epidemiology, Prevention and Treatment, this newsletter features interviews with two of the conference’s key speakers. Professor Matthias Egger talks about his experience with improving access to HIV treatment in Southern Africa, and Professor Jean Michel Pawlotsky shares his views on the latest developments in the field of hepatitis C treatment.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, we talk to Stichting HIV Monitoring (SHM) analyst, Dr. Colette Smit, about the latest efforts by SHM to complete the collection of all hepatitis B data for registered HIV-infected patients.

I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and look forward to seeing you at NCHIV 2014 in November.

With kind regards,

Peter Reiss 
Director, Stichting HIV Monitoring

In remembrance

It was with deep sadness that we learnt of the deaths of our friends and colleagues Joep Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren, together with Pim de Kuijer, Lucie Mens and Martine de Schutter, in the Malaysia Airlines accident in Ukraine.

Joep was one of the pioneers and key figures in research into AIDS, initially mainly in the Netherlands, and later increasingly internationally. He worked tirelessly with a progressive vision for people with HIV and to make adequate HIV treatment available globally. Joep made countless contributions to the field of HIV and AIDS. He was one of the founders of the ATHENA cohort and the subsequent HIV Monitoring Foundation, and was chairman of the scientific advisory board since the establishment of the foundation.

Jacqueline was also extremely dedicated to the fight against AIDS from the outset, initially as a nurse on the AIDS ward of the Slotervaart Hospital, later as a coordinating research nurse for the National AIDS Therapy Evaluation Centre at the AMC, and, during the latter years, as head of communications for the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. Jacqueline also worked with unparalleled commitment and enthusiasm together with SHM to organise the annual conference NCHIV.

We will never forget these people's achievements and will gravely miss them. Our hearts and thoughts go out to the children, families, friends and colleagues who have to bear this immense loss.

Professor Jean Michel Pawlotsky on the new hepatitis C clinical practice guidelines and treatment

Professor Jean Michel Pawlotsky is Professor at the University of Paris-Est and director of the French national reference centre for viral hepatitis B, C and Delta. He is a leading researcher in the field of viral hepatitis and recently coordinated the new European hepatitis C clinical practice guidelines that were presented at the EASL International Liver congress in London earlier this year. We spoke with Professor Pawlotsky about the latest developments in the treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and the implications of the new HCV treatment guidelines for patients with HIV/HCV co-infection.

» Read more

Chronic hepatitis B data collection: new project

As a result of the new hepatitis B and C data collection protocol drawn up by the hepatitis working group, all data from registered HIV patients with a chronic hepatitis B co-infection have been checked and supplemented with additional information. A specially trained team of Stichting HIV Monitoring data collectors collected all the data for the entire patient group within just six months. These more extensive data will provide greater insight into the course and treatment of hepatitis B co-infections in HIV-infected individuals.

» Read more

Behind the scenes at SHM: Dr. Colette Smit talks about collecting data on hepatitis co-infection

Dr. Colette Smit is a senior researcher in the analysis group at Stichting HIV Monitoring (SHM). Her work focuses primarily on the analysis of hepatitis B and C co-infection, but also covers pregnant women and children with HIV. In this interview, Colette talks about the hepatitis co-infections in HIV and the importance of studying and collecting data on hepatitis B and C.

» Read more

NCHIV early registration deadline: 18 September

NCHIV 2014 will take place on Tuesday 18 November, 2014, in the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam. Register this week through www.nchiv.org to take advantage of the reduced early registration fee. The deadline for early registration is Thursday 18 September.

» Go to the NCHIV website

 

Global scaling up of ART: interview with NCHIV14 speaker, Professor Matthias Egger

The 2015 deadline for the UNAIDS’ target of 15 million people on ART is rapidly approaching. SHM recently spoke to NCHIV14 speaker, Matthias Egger (Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University of Bern, Switzerland) on whether he believes this target is realistic and about the challenges he feels still stand in the way of achieving this goal.

» Read more

Collaboration between SHM and ECDC to improve estimates of HIV numbers

SHM recently initiated a new project together with the ECDC to develop methods that yield reliable estimates of the number of people with HIV. Such estimates, including those of people as yet unaware that they are infected, are necessary to yield more accurate estimates of trends in new infections and test behaviour within at-risk groups. As part of this project, two methods were examined in detail and developed further. Both have now been extensively tested using data from a number of pilot countries in Europe.

» Read more

Publication review

Antiretroviral penetration into the CNS and incidence of AIDS-defining neurologic conditions 
The association between the concentration of antiretroviral medication in the central nervous system (CNS) and the risk of AIDS-defining neurological conditions is largely unknown. Surprisingly, the HIV-CAUSAL collaboration has found that those antiretrovirals with better CNS penetration are associated with a higher risk of HIV-related dementia.
» Read the abstract

Impact of risk factors for specific causes of death in the first and subsequent years of antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected patients
Causes of death in HIV patients are increasingly not HIV-related. Higher mortality in men than in women during the first year after starting treatment is primarily due to non-AIDS cancers and liver-related death. CD4 counts both at the start of therapy and a year later remain important predictors. 
 » Read the abstract

Increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with age in HIV-positive men: a comparison of the D:A:D CVD risk equation and general population CVD risk equations.
The DAD study has found that the risk of cardiovascular disease increases more rapidly with age in HIV-positive men than in non-infected men in the general population. There is, however, no difference in the risk of myocardial infarction.
» Read the abstract

Facts and figures

In 2013, approximately 5% of HIV patients in care in the Netherlands had a chronic hepatitis C infection and 1% had an acute hepatitis C infection. Around 8% of the paitents had a chronic hepatitis B infection.

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