New York City Tax Levy.

BackgroundMonitoring of the uptake and efficacy of ART in a population often relies on cross-sectional data, providing limited information that could be used to design specific targeted intervention programs. Using repeated measures of viral load (VL) surveillance data, we aimed to estimate and characterize the proportion of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in New York City (NYC) with sustained high VL (SHVL) and durably suppressed VL (DSVL).Methods/Principal FindingsRetrospective cohort study of all persons reported to the NYC HIV Surveillance Registry who were alive and ≥12 years old by the end of 2005 and who had ≥2 VL tests in 2006 and 2007. SHVL and DSVL were defined as PLWHA with 2 consecutive VLs ≥100,000 copies/mL and PLWHA with all VLs ≤400 copies/mL, respectively. Logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations were used to model the association between SHVL and covariates. There were 56,836 PLWHA, of whom 7% had SHVL and 38% had DSVL. Compared to those without SHVL, persons with SHVL were more likely to be younger, black and have injection drug use (IDU) risk. PLWHA with SHVL were more likely to die by 2007 and be younger by nearly ten years, on average.Conclusions/SignificanceNearly 60% of PLWHA in 2005 had multiple VLs, of whom almost 40% had DSVL, suggesting successful ART uptake. A small proportion had SHVL, representing groups known to have suboptimal engagement in care. This group should be targeted for additional outreach to reduce morbidity and secondary transmission. Measures based on longitudinal analyses of surveillance data in conjunction with cross-sectional measures such as community viral load represent more precise and powerful tools for monitoring ART effectiveness and potential impact on disease transmission than cross-sectional measures alone.

Summary Cigarette smoking has been implicated in reproductive outcomes including delayed conception, but mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear. One potential mechanism is the effect of cigarette smoking on reproductive hormones; however, studies evaluating associations between smoking and hormone levels are complicated by variability of hormones and timing of specimen collection. We evaluated smoking and its relationship to reproductive hormones among women participating in the BioCycle study, a longitudinal study of menstrual cycle function in healthy, premenopausal, regularly menstruating women (n=259). Fertility monitors were used to help guide timing of specimen collection. Serum levels of estradiol, progesterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and total sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) across phases of the menstrual cycle were compared between smokers and nonsmokers. We observed statistically significant phase-specific differences in hormone levels between smokers and nonsmokers. Compared to nonsmokers, smokers had higher levels of FSH in the early follicular phase higher LH at menses after adjusting for potential confounding factors of age, race, BMI, nulliparity, vigorous exercise, and alcohol and caffeine intake through inverse probability of treatment weights. No statistically significant differences were observed for estradiol, progesterone or SHBG. These phase-specific differences in levels of LH and FSH in healthy, regularly menstruating women who are current smokers compared to nonsmokers reflect one mechanism by which smoking may impact fertility and reproductive health.

Data from a 2006 telephone survey representative of New York City adults showed that more than half (56.2%) of those aged 18 to 64 years responded favorably to a question about acceptability of a rapid home HIV test. More than two thirds of certain subpopulations at high risk for HIV reported that they would use a rapid home HIV test, but approximately half who expressed interest had indications of financial hardship. The match of acceptability and HIV risk bodes well for self-testing utility, but cost might impede uptake.

A lack of perception of risk was the most common reason for not testing for HIV sooner among these concurrently diagnosed patients. The majority of these patients were accessing medical care, indicating that this population could have benefited from routine HIV testing.