Opportunistic pneumonias are major causes of morbidity and mortality in HIV infected individuals. The majority of new HIV infections in Malaysia are adults aged 20 to 39 years old and many are unaware of their HIV status until they present with an opportunistic infection. HIV associated opportunistic pneumonias can progress rapidly without appropriate therapy. Therefore a proper diagnostic evaluation is vital and prompt empiric treatment of the suspected diagnosis should be commenced while waiting for the results of the diagnostic studies. Tuberculosis, Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) and recurrent bacterial pneumonias are common causes of AIDS-defining diseases and are discussed in this article.
Malaysia is confronted with an increasing incidence of HIV and AIDS among adolescents and young adults. The effectiveness of various programs offered to school going teenagers is unknown. The objective of this study is to measure the effectiveness of two hours talk on sex education offered by a non governmental organization (NGO) in improving youngsters' knowledge and perception towards HIV and AIDS. A cross sectional study was conducted among the adolescent students from a secondary school in Ipoh, Perak, a province of Malaysia. A total of 182 students participated in the study. A standard questionnaire consisting of demographic data, knowledge and perception towards HIV/ADIS were distributed before (pre-test) and after the intervention (post-test). Performance of participants was compared to establish the effectiveness of the intervention. Our findings suggests that there was a significant increase in participants' knowledge and perception after the intervention (p = 0.000). Knowledge improvement was found in both genders however, improvement in perception was higher among female students. Interestingly, 80% of participants disagree that sexual education will encourage sex among youngsters. NGOs are playing a supplementary role in providing sex education programs in schools. This program although of short duration but it is effective in enhancing adolescence awareness about HIV/AIDS.
Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections; HIV Infections/prevention & control*
Orang Asli, the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia comprises only 0.5% of total Malaysia population but contribute to 0.06% of total notified HIV cases in the country. Their current knowledge, attitude and practice related to HIV was not known. A cross-sectional study on knowledge, attitude and practice among Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia was carried out involving 2706 Orang Asli from 33 remote and 47 fringe villages. Generally, the level of knowledge was fair (30%-50%) with mean scores of 55.7% (SD 31.7) while attitudes were negative. There was gender bias towards misconception on HIV transmission and sources of information. HIV seroprevalence of 0.3% was detected while risk behaviors were low. This study provides baseline information for HIV/AIDS preventive programs to the Orang Asli communities.
A descriptive study was conducted on premarital HIV screening programme in Johor over a three year period. HIV screenings were done at government clinics and confirmed by accredited laboratories. As a result, 123 new HIV cases were detected (0.17%) from 74,210 respondents. In 2004, 24 cases (64.9%) advanced to marriage (n = 37) after they underwent counselling and six of them married among themselves. Positivity rate from this programme (0.17%) is higher than antenatal screening (0.05%). Despite the implementation of the premarital HIV screening programme, marriage application in Johor rose 2.8% in 2004 compared with 2002. This programme had partly contributed to public awareness against HIV and provides another option in early detection of the disease.
In 1985, when HIV testing first became available, the main goal of such testing was to ensure blood safety. Hemophiliacs and other patients who were transfusion-dependent were the initial patients that needed to be protected as they were exposed to iatrogenic risk. It dawned very quickly to health authorities even then that alternative testing sites had to be quickly established to deter persons from using blood bank facilities for HIV testing purposes. At that time, professional opinion was divided regarding the value of HIV testing and whether HIV testing should be encouraged because no consensus existed regarding whether a positive test predicted transmission to sex partners or from mother to infant. No effective treatment existed then and stigma and discrimination faced by those who were found positive was rampant in many parts of the world. Counseling was designed, in part, to ensure that persons tested were aware of the implications of a positive result and in part, to address the person’s risk behavior to reduce transmission to others.
Exposure to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may lead to adverse effects related to mitochondrial toxicity such as lactic acidosis. We describe two cases of severe lactic acidosis in HIV-positive patients to illustrate the clinical symptoms and abnormal laboratory results associated with this condition. There is a lack of awareness about the risk factors for developing severe lactic acidosis and recognition of its onset with dire consequences.
Nepal is a low prevalence country for HIV/AIDS but has progressed into the category of a "concentrated" epidemic. The epidemic remains concentrated in a few vulnerable populations, namely Female Sex Workers and their clients, Intravenous Drug Users and Seasonal Migrant Workers. There is a big difference between estimated and reported cases for HIV, >60000 and almost 5000 respectively1 . There might be many more undiagnosed cases. Mother–to–child transmission is the largest source of HIV infection in children in Nepal so far.
It has been almost two decades ago since the first AIDS case was reported in Malaysia. It has also been approximately eight years ago when the method of backcalculation was used to estimate the past HIV infection rate from the AIDS incidence data and an estimate of the incubation period distribution. This method is used because it makes use of the Malaysian AIDS incidence which is fairly reliable and reflects the trend of the epidemic as compared to the HIV infection rate recorded. The latest results generated show a slowdown in the increase of the number of estimated infected HIV+ cases in the late 1990s and this trend is supported by a slowdown in the increase of the number of AIDS cases recorded.
OBJECTIVE: Medical students are future doctors who are trained to treat all kind of diseases including people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) without prejudice. This study was to determine the factors associated with knowledge on HIV/AIDS and stigma towards PLWHA among medical students.
METHODS: This was a cross sectional study with stratified random sampling conducted in a public university, Malaysia. The participants were preclinical-year (year 1 and year 2) and clinical-year (year 3 and year 4) medical students. Simple randomisation was carried out after stratification of medical students into preclinical and clinical-year. The self-administered questionnaires were consisted of socio-demographic data, items assessing HIV/AIDS knowledge and items assessing stigmatisation attitudes towards PLWHA.
RESULTS: We had 100% response rate of 340 participants. Pre-clinical and clinical year medical students each contributed 170 (50%). Majority was female (64.1%). About two-thirds (60.6%) was Malay, followed by Chinese (31.2%) and Indian (7.1%). Pre-clinical students were significantly more stigmatizing in subscale of "attitudes towards imposed measures" (t=3.917, p<0.001), even with adjustment for previous encounter and ethnicity (B= 1.2, 95% CI 0.48 to 1.83, p=0.001). On the other hand, clinical students were found to be significantly less comfortable in handling HIV/AIDS cases (t=0.039, p=0.039), even after controlled for previous encounter and ethnicity (B=0.6, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.98, p< 0.001).
CONCLUSION: Clinical encounter with PLWHA was associated with higher knowledge in HIV/AIDS. Medical students in preclinical years were having stigmatizing attitude towards imposed measures compared to the clinical years who had more stigmatizing attitude in being less comfortable with PLWHA.
Occupational risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a matter of concern for health care workers. We conducted a study to gauge the level of awareness amongst HCW (doctors and nurses) working in Hospital Sungai Petani regarding the post-exposure prophylaxis in case of needle stick injuries from confirmed or suspected cases of HIV. Nineteen Doctors (56%) and 13 nurses (25%) were aware of correct risk of transmission. None identified all the four risk fluids correctly. 94% of doctors and 98% of nurses correctly stated that washing the site with soap and water is the initial procedure, but only few (1/10 of doctors and 1/3 of nurses) knew whom to contact immediately after injury. Twenty three doctors (67%) and 41(78%) nurses were aware of the use of Zidovudine but only 10 participants were aware of the use of second drug. Only 6 doctors (17%) and 8 nurses (15%) knew the correct duration of post-exposure prophylaxis. Twenty-three doctors (67%) and 35 nurses (67%) knew that the drugs were available in Hospital Pharmacy and 11 doctors and 12 nurses knew the approximate cost of therapy. On the average about 50% of doctors and nurses have fair knowledge of post exposure prophylaxis against HIV. Ongoing awareness and training are necessary to improve the same.
Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/prevention & control*; HIV Infections/transmission*
In the Asia Pacific region Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often acquired in individuals already infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). The immune suppression caused by HIV infection reduces cellular immune response against HBV and liver inflammation may improve, but the risk of developing cirrhosis is not. HBV infection does not affect the progression of HIV disease. Anti-retroviral agents may be directly hepatotoxic and cause ALT elevations in patients with chronic hepatitis. Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) improves immunity and as cytotoxic lymphocyte responses improve, hepatitis flares can occur, usually r within 3 months of initiation of HAART. These hepatitis flares may be followed by normalization of ALT and clearance of HBVDNA. If lamivudine is included in the HAART regime, hepatitis flares may not occur till late and these late flares signal the development of lamivudine resistant HBV strains (90% of HBV/HIV co-infection). Treatment options for chronic HBV infection include interferon (IFN), and nucleoside analogues. Lamivudine, adefovir dipivoxil, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (DF) are nucleoside analogues with activity against both HBVDNA polymerase and HIV reverse transcriptase. The latter two compounds have added activity against lamivudine resistant HBVDNA. Lamivudine should be avoided in the initial treatment of both hepatitis B as well as HIV because of the high incidence of resistance. Interferon should be considered first for treatment of HBV in HIV co-infected individuals and is usually unsuccessful in the later stages of HIV infection when immune suppression is extreme. As new and improved agents in HAART continue to prolong survival, the use of liver transplantation for cirrhotic patients co-infected with HIV and HBV may increase.
Liver transplantation has been successfully used in the treatment of a large number of liver diseases. The largest patient group comprises patients with end stage decompensated liver disease. Decompensation is defined as the presence of cirrhosis and one or more of the following: jaundice, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome or bleeding oesophageal varices. In general patients in this category should be considered for liver transplantation, if available. Guidelines for liver transplant assessment have been published by both the British Society of Gastroenterology and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease. These guidelines provide a good basis for patient selection. As new information becomes available the indications for individual diseases may change somewhat. One of the most important changes in recent years was the introduction of the MELD/PELD scoring system. This is the model for end stage liver disease which provides a reasonably robust estimate of prognosis for individual patients. Prior to this patient waiting time on the transplant list was one of the principal determinants of priority for liver allocation. The MELD scoring system has been widely adopted with the aim of allocating the available livers to patients in the greatest clinical need.
BACKGROUND: Co-infection by human immunodeficiency and hepatitis C viruses (HIV/HCV) is common and results in significant morbidity and mortality despite effective antiretroviral therapies (ART).
METHOD: A retrospective and prospective evaluation of the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon alfa 2a/2b plus ribavirin (PEG-IFN/RBV) in consecutive HIV/HCV co-infected patients treated in real life clinical practice in Malaysia.
RESULTS: Forty-five HIV/HCV co-infected patients with a median age (interquartile range, IQR) of 41 years (37; 47) were assessed for treatment with PEG-IFN/RBV. All except one are of male gender and the most common risk behaviour was injecting drug use. At baseline 75.5% was on ART and the median (IQR) CD4 count was 492 cells/μl (376; 621). The HCV genotypes (GT) were 73 % GT3 and 27% GT1. Liver biopsies in forty patients showed 10% had liver cirrhosis and another 50% had significant liver fibrosis. The treatment completion rate was 79.5% with 15.9% dropped out of treatment due to adverse effects (AE) or default and 4.6% due to lack of early virological response. The AE causing premature discontinuations were neuropsychiatric and haematological. The overall sustained virological response (SVR) was 63.6% with a trend towards higher SVR in GT3 compared with GT1 (71.9% vs. 41.7%; p=0.064). In patients with bridging fibrosis plus occasional nodules or cirrhosis on liver biopsy, the SVR was significantly lower at 20% (p=0.030) compared to those with milder fibrosis.
CONCLUSION: HIV/HCV co-infected patients can be successfully and safely treated with PEG-IFN/RBV achieving high rates of SVR except in cirrhotic patients.
Study site: co-infection clinics at Sungai Buloh Hospita
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a RNA virus transmitted enterically. A study of anti-HEV antibodies in 145 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected subjects found that 14.4% of them were reactive to anti-HEV antibodies. Anti-HEV IgG and anti-HEV IgM was detected in 10.3% and 4.1% of the subjects respectively. Prevalence of anti-HEV (either IgG or IgM) was similar across all adult ages (p = 0.154), between the three ethnic groups (p = 0.378), and across risk groups (p = 0.120). The results showed that HEV infection in subjects recruited in this study was most likely transmitted via faecal-route.
Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/immunology*; HIV Infections/virology*
The method of backcalculation estimates past HIV infection rates from available AIDS incidence data and an estimate of the incubation period. The method is used on the Malaysian data to model the AIDS epidemic because it makes use of the Malaysian AIDS incidence data which is fairly reliable and is more reflective of the trend of the epidemic as compared to the HIV infection rate recorded. An application is made on the monthly AIDS incidence data in Malaysia from January 1995 until August 1996 released by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia using the backcalculation program from Bacchetti et al and the incubation period distribution from Brookmeyer to generate the current HIV infection rate for Malaysia (until August 1996).
A study was conducted in the Dermatology cum Genitourinary Clinic, Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru to determine a local population's knowledge of HIV and their sexual behaviour in relation to it. A total of 231 men and 217 women were interviewed. The sexual culture seen is one of relatively late age of first sexual intercourse, low level of partner change and low level of condom use. Men reported a higher involvement in risk behaviour. Nearly all the respondents (95.8%) have heard of HIV/AIDS but had incorrect perceptions of its mode of transmission and its associations with risk groups. This study enable us to gain background information about our patients sexual behaviour and HIV knowledge. There is a need to continue HIV education to improve our public's HIV knowledge and the results of this study provides a baseline against which future educational interventions can be gauged.
Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/prevention & control*; HIV Infections/transmission
Between 1987 to 1995, a total of 334 patients infected with HIV were treated at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur. There were 159 Malays, 108 Chinese, 64 Indians, and 3 from other ethnic groups. Three hundred and twenty-one (96.1%) of these individuals were males and 262 (65.9%) were between the ages of 26-45 years. Intravenous drug users made up 77% (256) of the attributable risk behaviour from the group although many of them also had added risk behaviours like heterosexual activity with multiple partners (50 patients), tattoos (7 patients), homosexual practice (4 patients) and previous transfusions (3 patients). The others acquired their infection through heterosexual promiscuity (59 patients), homo/bisexual activity (7 patients), previous transfusion (5 patients) and tattoos (1 patient). Sixty-six patients (all males) had since progressed to full blown AIDS and 10 have died. The two commonest AIDS-defining events were tuberculosis infection and Pneumocystic carinii pneumonia occurring in 37 (56%) and 15 (22.7%) of patients respectively. Forty-one patients with AIDS presented for the first time with their AIDS-defining infections. The mean CD4 count of the patients when they progressed to AIDS was 130/mm3. The mean time for progression from "known" seropositivity to AIDS was 2.42 years. These results suggest that Malaysians infected with HIV are not coming forward for treatment until they are in the advanced stage of the disease.