A report on Caroline Foster’s presentation “Adolescent lives matter: Staying with it - novel ways to increase adolescent adherence”
In this presentation Caroline, who works at the 900 Youth Clinic at St Mary’s Hospital London, spoke specifically about the challenges around adherence with HIV-positive young people aged 16-24 who are either newly diagnosed or transitioning from children’s services.
One of my key learnings from this session is that poor adherence in adolescents is normal, with poor adherence in those on ARVs at around 20% in London. Adherence patterns are also similar across disease types. For example, this pattern of reduced adherence in PLWH around puberty and the teenage years is equally matched with those living with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, corroborated by reduced glucose control during such years.
A report on Simon Rackstraw’s presentation “Factors associated with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder in an unselected cohort in East and South London: the HAND study”
This presentation demonstrated the findings from a prospective study in which 786 people living with HIV (PLWH) aged >18 were recruited from four HIV clinics across East and South London to determine:
a) the extent of neurocognitive impairment (NCI) within the cohort, and
b) to establish correlation with HIV-related factors and medical co-morbidities.
A report on: Karoline Aebi-Popp’s presentation “What Women Want: Pharmacokinetic studies in women and its impact on clinic practice”
Most women around the world living with HIV are of reproductive age. Worldwide there are high rates of unplanned pregnancies in HIV-positive women and unsurprisingly even higher rates among women not on ARVs. This presentation elucidated that the promotion of effective and safe contraception is critical, and that a choice needs to be offered to women, where possible.
This presentation also highlighted a great resource for practitioners to use: The Liverpool HIV Drug Interactions website which has a section on Contraception with a colour-coded table to guide safe contraceptive choice.
