4^th International Conference on HIV/AIDS, STDs and STIs October 03-05, 2016 Orlando, Florida, USA

Murugi Ndirangu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Healthcare Management in the College of Health Sciences at Appalachian State University, USA. Her research focuses on understanding the health of vulnerable populations and the efficacy of nutrition interventions for these groups in domestic and international settings. She has experience in global nutrition, HIV, food security and immigrant health.

Background: Malnourished HIV-positive individuals initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) have increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Individuals who are food insecure may have increased risk of co-morbidities, making it difficult to gain or maintain weight. Co-morbidities with malnourishment can increase risk for opportunistic infection and cause mortality. Food supplements provided as part of a comprehensive ART care program may reduce food insecurity in resource limited settings. This study was based in Central Kenya and compared the household food security of HIV-positive participants receiving food supplements and nutrition counseling to participants receiving counseling only. Methods: The FANTA III Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was used to measure household food security of participants in the two groups. The Treatment Group received food supplements and nutrition counseling and the Control Group received nutrition counseling only for 24 weeks each. Household food security data were collected at baseline 24 and 48 weeks to detect how food supplements might impact food security. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS Version 22 to observe differences among HFIAS scores across time. Results: Compared to the Control Group’s improvement in food security across 48 weeks, the Treatment Group’s food security peaked at 24 weeks (p=0.026), then declined by 48 weeks (p=0.002) but did not decline to baseline. Conclusion: Food supplementation can be effective in decreasing levels of food insecurity in HIV-infected populations.

Isaac Iniabasi Effiong is a Research Trainee at Family Medicine Department of Mayo Clinic in Florida. He graduated with distinction from the MPH program of the University of West Florida (UWF) and is certified as a public health practitioner. He is presently studying for the UWF Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics. He completed his medical education and did graduate residency training in Obstetrics/Gynecology at the University of Calabar. His research areas of interests are in public health and reproductive health/sexual health including HIV/AIDS and STD. He has published a research article on male infertility and presented 2 posters on reproductive health research.

The reported increase of cases of sexually-transmitted disease (STD) in the United States is fast becoming a health challenge in the country (CDC, 2016). Family physicians can play an important role in preventing new cases of STD in their patients by initiating discussion and advising patients on safe sexual practices during sexual health and non-sexual health consultations. A number of barriers may prevent a family physician from initiating discussion and advising patients on safe sexual practices. The purpose of this study was to identify the possible barriers to the initiation of discussion and advising of patients on safe sexual practices by Mayo Clinic Florida family physician. Data for the study was collected by written surveys. The survey assessed respondent gender, age group, level of medical education and possible barriers to their initiation of discussion and giving of advice to patients on safe sexual practices. With the study, it is hoped that improved knowledge of the perceptions and practices of family physicians in Mayo Clinic-Florida regarding the initiation of discussion and giving of advice to patients on safe sexual practices will arise. The knowledge may, in turn, contribute to better patient care, as the Continuing Medical Education or Clinical Training Program of family physicians may be adjusted to better prepare them to initiate discussion and give advice to patients on safe sexual practices.

Rebeca Antunes Beraldo is currently a PhD student of HIV and Cardiovascular Disease at Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has completed her Master’s degree in 2013. She has been working with HIV patients since 2010, during her specialization period just after graduation in Nutrition at University of Sao Paulo. She has experience in HIV and clinical nutrition area with emphasis on the assessment of nutritional status. She has published 8 papers in reputed journals and has revised many articles of high impact factors’ journals.

Introduction: Several studies have found an association between HIV infection and the development of cardiovascular diseases. The probable etiologic mechanisms include inflammatory and chronic infectious process of the disease, in addition to the adverse effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which would promote metabolic changes towards an atherogenic profile. Objective: To evaluate the metabolic profile of HIV patients on HAART. Methodology: Biochemical tests of lipid profile and fasting glucose were performed. Systemic blood pressure was measured and ankle brachial index (ABI) exam was performed to evaluate peripheral atherosclerotic disease (PAD). Waist circumference (WC) was measured. The criteria suggested by The National Cholesterol Education Program III (NCEP-ATP III) to identify metabolic changes were used. It was also calculated Framinghan risk score (FRS). Duke treadmill score (DTS) was calculated based on results from the exercise test, including ST-segment depression, chest pain and exercise duration. Results: We evaluated 448 patients (53.6% male) with a mean age of 44.13±9.93 years. Among the metabolic disorders, the most frequent changes were reduced HDL cholesterol (66.29%) and hypertriglyceridemia (45.98%). PAD (according to ABI) was present in 27.68%, while hypertension was present in 24.77%. The majority (62.50%) of patients had abdominal obesity. According to FRS, 34.37% of patients had absolute risk of heart attack in 10 years >10%. Also, according to DTS, 10.0% were at moderate risk. Conclusions: The atherogenic metabolic profile of most of the patients highlights the importance of early intervention to prevent cardiovascular complications.

Lilian Andreia Fleck Reinato has completed his Master degree in 2012 from University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing. She is currently a Doctoral student, Member from research group STI, HIV and AIDS since 2010.

People with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) with a compromised immunity and high number of admissions with prolonged use of antimicrobials they are favorable to colonization by numerous microorganisms in the hospital environment, including Staphylococcus aureus. Health professionals, especially nursing professionals during direct contact with these patients, objects and surfaces, constitute a class susceptible to colonization by resistant pathogens. The aim to study was to evaluate the colonization by Staphylococcus aureus in saliva and nasal secretion of nursing professionals who care for PLWH. Cross-sectional study conducted in five inpatient units in state of São Paulo in Brazil. Saliva samples and nasal secretions were obtained from nursing professionals in three stages in the period from April 2014 to February 2015. The nasal secretion samples collected were processed in the institution's microbiology laboratory. All ethical aspects were included. 100 nursing professionals are participated in the study (19 registered nursing, 22 nursing technicians and 59 nursing assistants). The clinical experience was mean 12.9 (SD±7.6) years. We identified 43 (43.0%) nursing professionals with positive cultures to Staphylococcus aureus in the saliva and/or nasal secretions; of these 36 (36.0%) were oxacillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus and seven (7.0%) to oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Regarding to training about standard precautions 91 (91.0%) of the professionals nurses received training. The prevalence of the Staphylococcus aureus in the nasal secretion was 32.0% and saliva 1.0% and both were 10.0%. The training about standard precautions is a measure, essential in preventing the risk of the colonization of these microorganism and infection control.

Lilian Andreia Fleck Reinato has completed his Master degree in 2012 from University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing. She is currently a Doctoral student, Member from research group STI, HIV and AIDS since 2010.

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) are highly vulnerable to colonization by sensitive and/or resistant microorganisms, some risk factors are previous hospitalization and use of antimicrobials. We conducted a cross-sectional study in two hospital units’ specialized care in HIV/AIDS. The nasal secretion samples were collected from PLWH hospitalized in the period from August 2011 to February 2015. All hospitalized patients were invited to participate in the study; the samples were composed by those who had more than one hospitalization during the collection period. Each patient was tested by the presence or absence of a nasal microorganism in the first and subsequent hospitalization. The descriptive statistics were used, obtaining the frequency of each variable and the analytics to compare the groups by the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test; it was considered the significance level as 5%. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 20.0. The ethical aspects were contemplated. From the 527 participants 84 had more than one admission, that’s the study sample. The average age was 40 years (SD±9.1), 64.3% were male and 66.7% reported being white ethnicity, were using antimicrobial 72.6%. The successive hospitalizations were more observed among males (85.2%). Current antiretroviral therapy or use antimicrobial did not impact the association of microorganisms colonization (p=0.650; p=0.255), respectively. The presence of microorganism was identified in 53.6% of patients in some hospital. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in 65.5% of samples when grouped all hospitalizations. The knowledge about the status of colonization of PLWH contributes to institute preventive measures to future infection.

Ibtehaj S Al-Sharif has completed her Bachelor’s degree from the King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Biochemistry. She is currently a Research Assistant at the Immunocompromised host department at KFSH&RC. She has 6 publications to her credit.

Human immunodeficiency virus, type 1/2 (HIV-1/HIV-2) are both lentivirus that cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Unlike HIV-1 virus, the HIV-2 is distantly related to HIV-1, the virus responsible for the global AIDS pandemic. Although HIV-1 and HIV-2 have similar transmission routes and can cause immunodeficiency, patients infected with HIV-2 have lower viral loads than those infected with HIV-1. Therefore, up to date, an HIV-2 viral load assay (or diagnostic test) does not exist. Accordingly, our aim was to develop a sensitive viral load assay utilizing digital PCR to quantify HIV-2 RNA in plasma and to validate it for clinical use. A real-time polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) assay is used that amplifies HIV-2 (LTR region) in parallel with a whole virus internal control; derived from a Mouse Hepatitis Virus (M gene), to monitor the assay performance. In addition a reference of viral stock of HIV-2 is used to report the absolute number of HIV-2 RNA in International Units (IU). The same method was repeated using the stock HIV-2 only, utilizing the digital PCR to validate the viral load assay. Our assay was able detect as low as 8 IU/mL from patient samples which is below the reported minimum level of HIV-2 detection using standard protocols. Our results also show high specificity to HIV-2 with validated reproducible results.