How Have Long-Term Survivors Coped With Living With HIV?

With advances in HIV treatment, more individuals have grown older with the disease. Little is known about factors that have helped these survivors manage everyday life with HIV. In this exploratory, qualitative study, we asked, What has helped survivors cope with challenges of living long-term with HIV? Participants were recruited from a convenience sample of persons living with HIV (PLWH) who obtained treatment at a specialty HIV clinic; 16 long-term survivors of HIV were interviewed. Mean age was 50.13 (SD = 8.30) years; mean time from diagnosis was 16.75 (SD = 5.98) years. Results were broadly dichotomized as coping mechanisms and social supports. Three themes characterized coping mechanisms: disease coping, practical coping, and emotional coping. Social supports included themes of family, friends, professionals, peer groups, and pets. In particular, the power of patient-professional relationships and meanings derived from religion/spirituality were considered influential factors by a majority of participants

Clinical knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infections among emergency medicine providers

Introduction This study examines the association of the domains of knowledge for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among emergency medicine providers (EP). Methods From February 2018 to March 2018, 75 EP (physicians, residents, and advanced practice providers) completed an anonymous, self-administered survey. The primary outcome of strength of correlation between HIV and STI sections of the survey was analyzed using Spearman’s rank-order coefficient. Results Respondents were physicians (54.6%), male (56%), Caucasian (83.7%), with eight years in practice (IQR: 2,16). Spearman’s correlation of HIV and STIs showed a weak positive correlation ( r = 0.35, p = 0.002). There was no association between HIV scores and provider type ( p = 0.67) or provider gender ( p = 0.89) as well as no association between STI scores and provider type ( p = 0.10) or provider gender ( p = 0.79). Conclusion The results of our study reveal that when presented with a patient at high risk for undiagnosed HIV or with undiagnosed symptomatic HIV infection, most providers either do not test or do not have HIV in the differential diagnosis. Similarly, knowledge of STIs is only weakly correlated with knowledge of HIV risk factors and symptomatic HIV infection. Further research and screening efforts may benefit by focusing on HIV education among emergency medicine providers. </jats:sec

A Cross-Sectional Description of Age and Gender Differences in Exercise Patterns in Adults Living With HIV

People living with HIV (PLWH) are living longer and are at greater risk for chronic comorbidities (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer) compared to those not living with HIV. Regular, sustained exercise can prevent and/or mitigate the severity of these comorbidities. Our purpose was to describe patterns of planned exercise implemented in the home setting (i.e., free-living exercise) in PLWH by gender and age. PLWH (n = 102) completed a sociodemographic survey and a 7-day exercise diary documenting daily exercise duration, frequency, and intensity. Women exercised an average of 2.4 (IQR: 0.5, 6.0) hours per week compared to men who exercised 3.5 (IQR: 0.5, 7.5) hours per week (p = 0.18). This relationship was particularly evident during middle adulthood for women versus for men (p = 0.05). PLWH exercised regularly but at less than recommended levels. This is among the first evidence describing free-living exercise patterns of PLWH

SARS-CoV-2 infection in a patient on chronic hydroxychloroquine therapy: Implications for prophylaxis

People exposed to COVID-19 have a risk of developing disease, and health care workers are at risk at a time when they are badly needed during a health care crisis. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been used as treatment and are being considered as prophylaxis. Our patient developed COVID-19 while on hydroxychloroquine and although more work is needed, this calls into question the role of these medications as preventive therapy