Welcome
Dear Reader,
On 27 November 2012, the 6th Netherlands Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Prevention and Treatment will again take place at the Royal Tropical Museum in Amsterdam. This newsletter includes interviews with some of this year’s guest speakers including Richard Koup, John Blandford and Jan van Bergen. Each interview focuses on the subject they will be discussing during the conference.
Also, data collector Mieke van den Akker has written an article about the recent Review Day for data collectors that SHM holds at least once a year.
Finally, as I will soon be leaving SHM, the newsletter also includes an interview about my time at the foundation as I look back at 11 years with SHM. Once again, I hope that you enjoy reading the newsletter and please contact us with any feedback.
Kind regards,
Frank de Wolf
Director, Stichting HIV Monitoring
The quest for an HIV vaccine – an interview with Dr. Richard Koup
 Dr. Richard Koup is a senior investigator and chief of the Immunology Laboratory and Immunology Core at the Vaccine Research Center at the US National Institutes of Heath. He has been a leader in the field of understanding the role of HIV-specific T cells in the control of HIV infection and his work has helped to lay the immunological basis for the future development of an HIV vaccine. Dr. Koup is presenting the opening keynote at NCHIV 2012 and kindly agreed to talk to us about the ongoing search for an HIV vaccine. Read more
Dr. John Blandford discusses the economics of treatment as prevention
 John Blandford, PhD is a keynote speaker at NCHIV 2012. He currently heads up the Health Economics, Systems and Integration branch in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Trained as an economist, he has worked extensively with healthcare professionals and epidemiologists to gain an understanding of the economic benefits and value of various HIV-related programs, especially from a public health perspective. His work at the CDC also supports sustainable scale-up and maintenance of global HIV programs under the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). We spoke with Dr. Blandford about his ideas on the value of treatment as prevention. Read more
Normalising HIV testing in general practice – An interview with Dr. Jan van Bergen
 For the last 15 years, Dr. Jan van Bergen has been active in education and research in the field of sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), focusing particularly on HIV and Chlamydia. Through his work as Professor of STI primary care at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Medicine (AMC-UvA), Programme Manager at Soa Aids Nederland and as STI primary care consultant for the RIVM he makes a significant contribution to the quality of STI primary care, but it is through his work as a GP that he receives direct feedback on the reality of managing STI’s at the patient level. During NCHIV 2012, Dr. van Bergen will speak on “Proactive HIV-testing by the GP: fact or fiction”. We caught up with him prior to the conference to learn more about his vision on HIV testing in practice. Read more
Frank de Wolf reviews 11 years at SHM
 After 11 years as director of Stichting HIV Monitoring (SHM), Frank de Wolf has decided to say goodbye to the foundation. He will continue his career at biopharmaceutical company Crucell as Medical Director and General Manager of the Crucell Vaccine Initiative. He will continue working at SHM until December 1, 2012. In this article he looks back at his time with the foundation. Read more
Review Day for data collectors
 On 6 November 2012 the Review Day for all SHM and non-SHM data collectors working throughout the Netherlands took place. Usually held at least once a year, these review days are organised for educational purposes and for reuniting with colleagues. Read more
Monitoring Report 2012
 The SHM Monitoring Report 2012 is now published and available for download through our website, www.hiv-monitoring.nl. A Dutch summary is also available for download.
During the 6th Netherlands Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Prevention and Treatment (NCHIV 2012) Frank de Wolf, SHM Director, will present the main points and conclusions from the Monitoring Report 2012. For more information about NCHIV 2012 visit www.nchiv.org.
Publication Review
Effect of hepatitis C treatment on CD4 cell counts and the risk of death in HIV-hepatitis C co-infected patients; COHERE collaboration.
After starting hepatitis C treatment among 780 patients in COHERE, the CD4 cell counts appeared to drop in the first 12 weeks and gradually recover after that. Despite this decline, hepatitis treatment does not have a negative effect on survival rates or liver related mortality. Read the abstract
Antiretroviral drug-related liver mortality among HIV-positive persons in the absence of HBV or HCV co-infection. The Data Collection on Adverse Events of Anti-HIV Drugs (D:A:D) Study.
Liver disorders are among the leading causes of death among HIV patients, mainly due to hepatitis B or C co-infection. Among patients without hepatitis, liver-related death is rare. In these cases, liver damage is caused by alcohol abuse or toxicity of HIV medications. Read the abstract
Similar virologic response after initiation of triple-class antiretroviral therapy in primary and chronic HIV infection.
Several studies found that viral load decreases more rapidly after starting HIV treatment during primary infection than after starting treatment during the chronic phase. The Primo SHM study found no difference in viral response between 70 primary patients and 80 chronic patients on triple-class therapy. Read the abstract
Facts and figures
Frank de Wolf worked a total of 2640 days at SHM. In that period he published 220 articles and SHM published 11 monitoring reports.
© Stichting HIV Monitoring 2012 |
