Consensus statement on the role of health systems in advancing the long-term well-being of people living with HIV.

Health systems have improved their abilities to identify, diagnose, treat and, increasingly, achieve viral suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Despite these advances, a higher burden of multimorbidity and poorer health-related quality of life are reported by many PLHIV in comparison to people without HIV. Stigma and discrimination further exacerbate these poor outcomes. A global multidisciplinary group of HIV experts developed a consensus statement identifying key issues that health systems must address in order to move beyond the HIV field's longtime emphasis on viral suppression to instead deliver integrated, person-centered healthcare for PLHIV throughout their lives.

The distribution of sex acts and condom use within partnerships in a rural sub-Saharan African population.

INTRODUCTION: In an HIV/AIDS epidemic driven primarily by heterosexual transmission, it is important to have an understanding of the human sexual behaviour patterns that influence transmission. We analysed the distribution and predictors of within-partnership sexual behaviour and condom use in rural Zimbabwe and generated parameters for use in future modelling analyses. METHODS: A population-based cohort was recruited from a household census in 12 communities. A baseline survey was carried out in 1998-2000 with follow-up surveys after 3 and 5 years. Statistical distributions were fitted to reported within-partnership numbers of total, unprotected and protected sex acts in the past two weeks. Multilevel linear and logistic regression models were constructed to assess predictors of the frequency of unprotected sex and consistent condom use. RESULTS: A normal distribution of ln(sex acts+1) provided the best fit for total and unprotected sex acts for men and women. A negative binomial distribution applied to the untransformed data provided the best fit for protected sex acts. Condom use within partnerships was predominantly bimodal with at least 88% reporting zero or 100% use. Both men and women reported fewer unprotected sex acts with non-regular compared to regular partners (men: 0.26 fewer every two weeks (95% confidence interval 0.18-0.34); women: 0.16 (0.07-0.23)). Never and previously married individuals reported fewer unprotected sex acts than currently married individuals (never married men: 0.64 (0.60-0.67); previously married men: 0.59 (0.50-0.67); never married women: 0.51 (0.45-0.57); previously married women: 0.42 (0.37-0.47)). These variables were also associated with more consistent condom use. DISCUSSION: We generated parameters that will be useful for defining transmission models of HIV and other STIs, which rely on a valid representation of the underlying sexual network that determines spread of an infection. This will enable a better understanding of the spread of HIV and other STDs in this rural sub-Saharan population.

Counting hard-to-count populations: the network scale-up method for public health.

Estimating sizes of hidden or hard-to-reach populations is an important problem in public health. For example, estimates of the sizes of populations at highest risk for HIV and AIDS are needed for designing, evaluating and allocating funding for treatment and prevention programmes. A promising approach to size estimation, relatively new to public health, is the network scale-up method (NSUM), involving two steps: estimating the personal network size of the members of a random sample of a total population and, with this information, estimating the number of members of a hidden subpopulation of the total population. We describe the method, including two approaches to estimating personal network sizes (summation and known population). We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and provide examples of international applications of the NSUM in public health. We conclude with recommendations for future research and evaluation.