Active clinical trials for "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome"

Sub-Saharan Africa has about 10% of the world's population, but was home to more than 60% of all people living with HIV in 2003. South Africa continues to have the largest number of people living with HIV in the world, and as in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, heterosexual exposure is the primary HIV transmission category. Worldwide, efforts to stem the spread of HIV among heterosexuals have stressed the impact of HIV on women. Oft-cited statistics indicate that about half of all people living with HIV are women. The strategies typically offered to address the impact of HIV on women are interventions with women. An alternative approach to addressing women's risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV, one that would be an important complement to the predominant approach, is focusing on men. By reducing sexual risk behavior of men, it should be possible to reduce rates of HIV in both men and women. The rates in men would decline because they are the recipients of the intervention; rates in women would decline because they have sex with men. Interventions aimed at men could take into account the power that men have in sexual decision-making and risk taking. However, whether one considers the US literature or the international literature, few randomized controlled trials of HIV/STD risk-reduction interventions have focused on heterosexual men. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to develop and test the efficacy of an intervention to curb HIV/STD risk-associated behavior in South African men who have sex with women. A cluster-randomized controlled trial design will be used to reduce the potential for contamination between treatment arms that would be present if individuals were randomized. An attention control group will be used to control for Hawthorne effects, special attention, and group interaction. Matched pairs of neighborhoods in Black townships in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa similar on key characteristics will be created, 22 pairs will be randomly selected, and men will be recruited. One neighborhood in each pair will be randomly assigned to each of the 2 study arms. We hypothesized that men who receive a culturally appropriate theory-based HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention will be more likely to report consistently using condoms during intercourse in the 12-month post intervention period than will men who receive an attention-control intervention, adjusting for baseline condom use.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a method of preventing HIV infection through the use of antiretroviral (ARV) medications before exposure to HIV. This study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of four ARV regimens in preventing HIV infection in men who have sex with men who may be at risk of getting HIV infection through sex and women who may be at risk of getting HIV infection through sex. The four ARV regimens being evaluated are maraviroc (MVC), MVC plus emtricitabine (FTC), MVC plus tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), and TDF plus FTC. The MVC-containing arms will be compared to TDF/FTC alone and in combination.

Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have among the highest rates of new HIV infections of any group in the United States. Developing effective HIV prevention interventions that work with this group is a critical element of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. In the first phase of our study ("the ethnographic phase"), the investigators will carry out community-based research that will explore structural, social and cultural factors relevant to how Black MSM might engage with Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). This phase of community-based research will inform the design of an enhanced PrEP adherence intervention, which will be subsequently tested at a community-based health clinic in Harlem in the second phase of the project.

Our proposal "Centralized Off-Site Adherence Enhancement Program" or "CARE" will develop and test an effective behavioral adherence intervention program for HIV patients with alcohol and/or substance abuse problems. This project will develop and pilot test a novel program to help patients with alcohol and/or substance abuse problems take their medications as prescribed. The intervention will be delivered by phone, and utilize electronic monitoring of medication-taking, so patients can be treated by therapists from any geographic distance. To safely monitor data collected for this study, we have laid out a detailed Data Safety Monitoring Plan, which will cover all the issues required by NIDA.

This project assesses the efficacy of an HIV prevention program with adolescent females incarcerated in the Mississippi training school for girls. Participants in both the health education control group and the HIV prevention group will increase health knowledge as a result of their participation in the health classes while incarcerated. However, participants in the HIV prevention group will increase their condom application, assertiveness, and communication skills relative to girls in the health education only group. In addition, after release from the training school, participants in the HIV prevention group will report lower sexual risk behaviors and will have lower rates of infection with chlamydia and gonorrhea during the 12-month follow-up period than participants in the health education only group.

People infected with HIV are now living longer lives because of the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). However, HAART medications have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic dysfunction in adults. More research is needed on the effect of HAART in children. The purpose of this study is to assess cardiovascular risk factors in children infected with HIV who receive HAART medications and to determine the effectiveness of an exercise program on cardiovascular outcomes in these children.

The aim of this study is to measure the prevention of lipoatrophy in patients treated with Lopinavir/R in monotherapy versus ZDV + 3TC + ABC

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) has been clearly established as the central cause of cervical cancer. The current study is designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals' HPV vaccine 580299 in HIV infected adult females living in the Republic of South Africa. The study is double blinded, randomized for HIV positive subjects and open for HIV negative subjects. The Protocol Posting has been updated in order to comply with the FDA Amendment Act, Sep 2007.

The objective of this study is to provide Maraviroc on a compassionate use basis to antiretroviral treatment experienced patients infected with CCR5-tropic HIV-1 with urgent unmet medical needs and who, in the opinion of the physician, require Maraviroc to form a viable regimen.

Visceral leishmaniosis (VL) is widely reported in Ethiopia, with about 30% of cases being associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In absence of antiretroviral treatment (ART), poor prognosis, high mortality and high relapse rates are characteristic of Ethiopian VL patients with HIV co-infection. Conversely, co-infection can be successfully managed via a combination of effective treatment of the initial episode, timely ART and prevention of relapses. Actually, until cellular immunity returns with ART, the patient is at risk of VL relapses, which can result in death, severe illness, reduced ART efficacy, drug-resistance and possibly transmission of drug-resistant Leishmania donovani. Patients most vulnerable to relapses are those with high levels of immunosuppression, with previous VL episodes, or with opportunistic infections (OIs). The most important factor to prevent relapses seems to be the clearance of visible parasites. Limited studies in Europe show that HIV co-infected patients may benefit from secondary prevention with antimonials (part of mainstay treatment for VL in Ethiopia) and pentamidine (PM), not used for VL treatment in Africa. Such maintenance treatment has not been studied in African VL, but the poor outcomes without secondary prevention highlight a need of better care to patients at risk of relapse. This prospective cohort study aims at documenting the patient's outcomes of secondary prophylaxis with PM in VL-HIV co-infection, in terms of time to relapse or death, safety and feasibility, before it can be considered for general use in Ethiopia. A placebo group is not included, due to the clear advantages of the intervention to the patient population.