AIDS
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Pre-eclampsia and/or fetal death have increased sharply in HIV-infected pregnant women receiving HAART. ⋯ HIV infection treated with HAART prior to pregnancy was associated with a significantly higher risk for pre-eclampsia and fetal death.
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Correcting the Th2 shift in HIV/AIDS represents a potential intervention strategy. However data on interleukin (IL)-4 expression in HIV or AIDS are un-interpretable because of failure to distinguish between IL-4 and its splice variant and natural antagonist, IL-4delta2. ⋯ IL-4 and its natural antagonist, IL-4delta2 and are not upregulated in the absence of opportunistic infection. However in HIV-TB co-infection both cytokines increase in lung, but only IL-4 in the periphery. Further studies are required to determine if IL-4 facilitates systemic HIV progression.
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While 70% of HIV positive individuals live in sub-Saharan Africa, it is widely believed that the future of the epidemic depends on the magnitude of HIV spread in India and China, the world's most populous countries. China's 1.3 billion people are in the midst of significant social transformation, which will impact future sexual disease transmission. Soon approximately 8.5 million 'surplus men', unmarried and disproportionately poor and migrant, will come of age in China's cities and rural areas. ⋯ Prevention strategies that emphasize traditional measures--condom promotion, sex education, medical training--must be reinforced by strategies which acknowledge surplus men and sex workers. Reform within female sex worker mandatory re-education centers and site specific interventions at construction sites, military areas, or unemployment centers may hold promise in curbing HIV/sexually transmitted infections. From a sociological perspective, we believe that surplus men and sex workers will have a profound effect on the future of HIV spread in China and on the success or failure of future interventions.