Implementation of South Africa’s 2011 expansion of treatment guidelines – starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) at or below 350 cells/mm3 – will not increase patient loss to follow-up, researchers report in this first study from a routine clinical setting published in the advance online edition of AIDS. The findings, however, showed considerable variation by gender. The link

Impaired physical function in middle-aged people living with HIV is associated with low reduced muscle mass, reduced bone mineral density and hormonal changes, according to research conducted in the United States and published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. These are similar to the factors associated with frailty

Many people with HIV are not disclosing their status when using sexual health clinics, according to the results of a study conducted at a large London genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic and published in Sexually Transmitted Infections. This could mean that current estimates of the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infections in the UK are too high.

Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is associated with a poorer prognosis for people living with HIV who are co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), Spanish investigators report in a study published in the online edition of AIDS. After taking into account other factors, people with HIV and hepatitis C co-infection who were also infected

A study involving people co-infected with HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) shows that antiretroviral therapy that combines tenofovir with FTC or 3TC has the best chance of suppressing HBV replication to undetectable levels. The research is published in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Factors associated with ongoing HBV replication included a