• 作者：Richard J Lessells ; Janice Main ; Graham S Cooke
• 关键词：20-Hydroxyecdysone ; aesthetasc ; aggressive behaviour ; chemoreceptor ; American lobster ; Homarus americanus ; moulting hormone ; pheromone ; steroid
• 刊名：The Lancet Infectious Diseases
• 出版年：2008
• 期刊代码：183_14733099
• 类别：med
• 出版时间：April 2008
• 卷：8
• 期：4
• 页码：210-211
• 文件大小：55 K

Results

Of 226 adults (39%male), median (range) age 35 (14–80) years, 81%had a history of traditional scarification, 12%a history of blood transfusion and 11%a history of jaundice. HIV antibodies were present in 76.1%, HBsAg in 17.5%and HCV in 4.5%, with HIV/HBV coinfection in 20.4%and HIV/HCV coinfection in 5%of those with HIV. There was no correlation between prevalence of any of the three viruses and demographic risk factors or presence of either of the other two viruses. Point of care tests gave misleading results with prevalence estimates of 38%for HBV and 4.5%for HCV. For both of these POC tests the performance indices were unacceptable for individual patient management or epidemiological survey purposes.

Conclusions

The high prevalence of hepatitis/HIV coinfections may impact on treatment with antiretroviral therapy, especially if there are unintended interruptions of therapy, and studies are needed to document the possible clinical impact on ART programmes. The poor performance of POC tests for HBV and HCV may be due to local operational problems or to unexpected technical issues not revealed by early validation tests. These tests are widely used in resource poor settings and should be revalidated in prospective field studies in areas of the tropics with high HIV prevalence rates.