HIV Infection in Adults: Initial Management.

The HIV epidemic is an important public health priority. Transmissions continue to occur despite effective therapies that make HIV preventable and treatable. Approximately one-half of people with HIV are not receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART). Starting ART early, followed by continuous lifetime treatment, most effectively achieves durable virologic suppression and restoration of immune function that can improve clinical outcomes and prevent transmission to partners who are seronegative. National treatment guidelines include ART options that can be offered immediately after diagnosis, even before the results of baseline HIV drug-resistance testing are available. Initial ART selection should be guided by co-occurring conditions, including viral hepatitis, medications, and other factors such as pregnancy. Identifying and addressing psychosocial barriers to care is a key element of ensuring long-term adherence to treatment. The initial physical examination typically reveals no clinical manifestations of HIV in the absence of advanced disease. A comprehensive laboratory evaluation, including HIV viral load and CD4 lymphocyte monitoring, is necessary to guide decision-making for treatment, opportunistic infection prophylaxis, and vaccinations. The initial management of people with HIV presents a unique opportunity for family physicians to improve patients' long-term health care and reduce HIV transmissions.

Testing and Clinical Management of Health Care Personnel Potentially Exposed to Hepatitis C Virus - CDC Guidance, United States, 2020.

Exposure to hepatitis viruses is a recognized occupational risk for health care personnel (HCP). This report establishes new CDC guidance that includes recommendations for a testing algorithm and clinical management for HCP with potential occupational exposure to hepatitis C virus (HCV). Baseline testing of the source patient and HCP should be performed as soon as possible (preferably within 48 hours) after the exposure. A source patient refers to any person receiving health care services whose blood or other potentially infectious material is the source of the HCP's exposure. Two options are recommended for testing the source patient. The first option is to test the source patient with a nucleic acid test (NAT) for HCV RNA. This option is preferred, particularly if the source patient is known or suspected to have recent behaviors that increase risk for HCV acquisition (e.g., injection drug use within the previous 4 months) or if risk cannot be reliably assessed. The second option is to test the source patient for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), then if positive, test for HCV RNA. For HCP, baseline testing for anti-HCV with reflex to a NAT for HCV RNA if positive should be conducted as soon as possible (preferably within 48 hours) after the exposure and may be simultaneous with source-patient testing. If follow-up testing is recommended based on the source patient's status (e.g., HCV RNA positive or anti-HCV positive with unavailable HCV RNA or if the HCV infection status is unknown), HCP should be tested with a NAT for HCV RNA at 3-6 weeks postexposure. If HCV RNA is negative at 3-6 weeks postexposure, a final test for anti-HCV at 4-6 months postexposure is recommended. A source patient or HCP found to be positive for HCV RNA should be referred to care. Postexposure prophylaxis of hepatitis C is not recommended for HCP who have occupational exposure to blood and other body fluids. This guidance was developed based on expert opinion (CDC. Updated U.S. Public Health Service guidelines for the management of occupational exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and recommendations for postexposure prophylaxis. MMWR Recommend Rep 2001;50[No. RR-11]; Supplementary Figure, https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/90288) and reflects updated guidance from professional organizations that recommend treatment for acute HCV infection. Health care providers can use this guidance to update their procedures for postexposure testing and clinical management of HCP potentially exposed to hepatitis C virus.

Behavioral Science Rounds: Identifying and Addressing the Challenging Issues That Residents Face on a Family Medicine Inpatient Service.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Training residents in the care of hospitalized patients offers an opportunity to integrate behavioral science education with medical care and to foster professional growth, given the severity of coexisting medical and psychosocial problems and the formation of intense transient relationships. Rarely do residents have the time or guidance to reflect on how these experiences and relationships affect them. Weekly behavioral science rounds (BSR) provide dedicated time to reflect on and discuss challenging clinical and professional developmental issues arising during inpatient training. METHODS: To understand the range of issues that learners experience, we analyzed facilitator notes of 45 consecutive BSR discussions. Through open coding analysis we identified the common topics and recurring themes raised by residents. RESULTS: The most common topics related to residents' emotional responses, clinical challenges, and interpersonal conflicts. We identified frequently recurring themes, including understanding the power and limitations of the physician, defining roles and responsibilities, and articulating personal beliefs and values. Early first-year residents had difficulty acclimating to increased responsibility and worried about competence; later, they experienced strong emotional reactions, feared becoming cynical, and were apprehensive about future leadership roles. CONCLUSIONS: Inpatient BSR can serve as an important educational intervention and professional development tool at a critical time in training. BSR requires a commitment of teaching resources, an assurance that they will occur regularly, and a culture of safety in which residents trust their discussions will be confidential and that they will be treated with respect and caring.

Initial Management of Patients with HIV Infection.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has become a treatable chronic disease with near-normal life expectancy when patients receive antiretroviral therapy (ART). Family physicians and other primary care clinicians commonly provide long-term comprehensive care for persons with HIV infection. This article describes the scope of initial care, including obtaining a thorough history; physical examination for HIV-associated manifestations; attention to HIV-specific immunization schedules; routine and HIV-specific laboratory evaluation; and ensuring standard health care maintenance to prevent HIV- and non-HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Clinicians should encourage combination ART as early as possible, although careful assessment of patient readiness and ability to sustain lifelong treatment must be weighed. After ART initiation, monitoring viral load and CD4 lymphocyte response is essential to ensure viral suppression and evaluate immune system restoration. Opportunistic infections are now less common than in the past because ART usually prevents or markedly delays progression to advanced HIV disease. The most important reasons for consultation or comanagement with an HIV expert include management of antiretroviral drug resistance or drug toxicities, as well as special circumstances such as viral hepatitis coinfection or pregnancy.

Teleconsultation improves primary care clinicians' confidence about caring for HIV.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine can facilitate communication between primary care clinicians and specialists. Generalists who use telemedicine for consultation (teleconsultation) may be able to practice more independently and reduce the number of formal referrals to specialists. In the United States, a federally funded human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) teleconsultation service (HIV Warmline) offers clinicians live telephone access to HIV specialists; however, its impact on clinicians' self-perceived clinical competence and referral rates has not been studied. OBJECTIVE: To determine if primary care clinicians who used the HIV Warmline felt more capable of managing HIV in their own practices. DESIGN: Online survey. PARTICIPANTS: Primary care physicians and mid-level practitioners who used the HIV Warmline for teleconsultation between 1/2008 and 3/2010. MAIN MEASURES: Participants compared the HIV Warmline to other methods of obtaining HIV clinical support, and then rated its impact on their confidence in their HIV skills and their referral patterns. KEY RESULTS: Respondents (N = 191, 59% response rate) found the HIV Warmline to be quicker (65%), more applicable (70%), and more trustworthy (57%) than other sources of HIV information. After using the HIV Warmline, 90% had improved confidence about caring for HIV, 67% stated it changed the way they managed HIV, and 74% were able to avoid referring patients to specialists. All valued the availability of live, free consultation. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care clinicians who called the HIV Warmline reported increased confidence in their HIV care and less need to refer patients to specialists. Teleconsultation may be a powerful tool to help consolidate HIV care in the primary care setting, and could be adapted for use with a variety of other medical conditions. The direct impact of teleconsultation on actual referral rates, quality of care and clinical outcomes needs to be studied.

Teleconsultation for clinicians who provide human immunodeficiency virus care: experience of the national HIV telephone consultation service.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the infrastructure, successes, and challenges of a teleconsultation service for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinicians. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The HIV Warmline is a telephone consultation service providing free, live HIV/AIDS management advice to U.S. clinicians. We present descriptive data about callers, patients, and consultation topics gathered by electronic query of the HIV Warmline database for 2009. Caller satisfaction survey results for 2009 are also presented. RESULTS: The HIV Warmline has provided more than 37,000 consultations since its inception in 1992. The service provides consultations to clinicians from all 50 states, from a variety of professional backgrounds, and with a wide range of HIV experience levels. The majority of call topics concern antiretroviral therapy. Callers are generally pleased with the service, giving a mean Likert scale rating of 4.7 on satisfaction survey questions. CONCLUSION: The experience of the HIV Warmline can serve as a model for other programs planning to develop remote consultation systems. HIV teleconsultation has been relatively simple to implement and can be useful for many types of clinicians. HIV teleconsultation should continue to be evaluated as a way to improve HIV care, especially in areas without easy access to HIV expertise.

Applying HIV testing guidelines in clinical practice.

An estimated one fourth of persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are not aware they are infected. Early diagnosis of HIV has the potential to ensure optimal outcomes for infected persons and to limit the spread of the virus. Important barriers to testing among physicians include insufficient time, reimbursement issues, and lack of patient acceptance. Current HIV testing guidelines address many of these barriers by making the testing process more streamlined and less stigmatizing. The opt-out consent process has been shown to improve test acceptance. Formal pretest counseling and written consent are no longer recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nevertheless, pretest discussions provide an opportunity to give information about HIV, address fears of discrimination, and identify ongoing high-risk activities. With increased HIV screening in the primary care setting, more persons with HIV could be identified earlier, receive timely and appropriate care, and get treatment to prevent clinical progression and transmission.