Heterosexual oral and anal sex in Kinshasa (D.R.Congo): Data from OKAPI prospective cohort

Background Sexually transmitted infections can be spread through oral and anal heterosexual sex. There are few data on these practices in Sub-Saharan Africa. We analyzed the prevalence of heterosexual oral and anal sex among HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) attendees in Kinshasa and the associated sociodemographics, perceptions and behavioral factors. Methods OKAPI (Observational Kinshasa AIDS Prevention Initiative) prospective cohort study. It evaluates the VCT impact on HIV-related knowledge and behaviors at 6 and 12-month follow-up. Since April 2016 until April 2018, 797 persons aged 15–59 years were HIV tested and replied to a baseline interview, including information about anal and oral sex. Descriptive, bi- and multivariate analyses were performed using baseline data. Results Among 718 sexually active participants reporting heterosexual sex, 59% had had oral sex, 22% anal sex and 18% both practices. Among participants reporting “not” having had sex, 6% reported oral sex, 3% anal sex and 1% both. Oral sex was associated with a daily use of the Internet/mobile phone, perceiving low community HIV risk, reporting HIV-related behaviors (multiple partners, inconsistent condom use, anal, paid and forced sex) and having been pregnant. Being married-monogamous was inversely associated with oral sex. Anal sex was directly associated with having other risk sexual behaviors. Conclusions Oral and anal sex were common among people reporting heterosexual sex in Kinshasa. Perceiving a low community HIV risk and having other sexual risk behaviors are associated with these practices, which are commonly not considered as risky despite their strong association with HIV/STIs. They need to be considered when designing preventive strategies in Kinshasa

Immune surveillance for six vaccinable pathogens using paired plasma and dried blood spots in HIV infected and uninfected children in Kinshasa

Child vaccination reduces infant mortality rates. HIV-infected children present higher risk of diseases than non-infected. We report the protection coverage rates for 6 vaccine-preventable diseases in a paediatric population from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the impact of HIV infection, providing the first data on the validity of dried blood samples (DBS) to monitor the immune protection. During 2016-2018 DBS from 143 children/adolescents were collected in Kinshasa (DRC), being 52 HIV-infected. Forty-two had a paired plasma sample. Protective IgG was quantified (VirClia-IgG,VIRCELL) to obtain the optimal cut-off in IgG detection in DBS. ROC curves were generated with R software and statistical analyses with Stata. Protective IgG levels varied across pathogens, not reaching herd immunity. HIV-infected presented lower vaccine protection than uninfected for all analyzed pathogens, except rubella, with statistically significant differences for measles (30.8% vs. 53.8%; p = 0.008) and tetanus (3.8% vs. 22%; p = 0.0034). New cut-offs were calculated when using DBS to improve test performance. We reinforce the necessity to increase pediatric vaccination coverage in Kinshasa, especially in HIV seropositive, with less capacity to maintain adequate antibody levels. DBS were useful to monitor vaccination coverage in seroprevalence studies in resource-limited settings, after optimizing the cut-off value for each pathogen

High drug resistance levels could compromise the control of HIV infection in paediatric and adolescent population in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Background The inadequacy of HIV viraemia and resistance monitoring in Africa leads to uncontrolled circulation of HIV strains with drug resistance mutations (DRM), compromising antiretroviral therapy (ART) effectiveness. This study describes the DRM prevalence and its therapeutic impact in HIV-infected pediatric patients from Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC). Methods From 2016-2018, dried blood were collected from 71 HIV-infected children and adolescents under ART in two hospitals in Kinshasa for HIV-1 DRM pol analysis, predicted ARV-susceptibility by Stanford and phylogenetic characterization. Results HIV-1 sequences were recovered from 55 children/adolescents with 14 years of median-age. All had received nucleoside and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI, NNRTI), 9.1% protease inhibitors (PI) and only one integrase inhibitor (INI). Despite the use of ART, 89.1% showed virological failure and 67.3% carried viruses with major-DRM to one (12.7%), two (47.3%), or three (5.5%) ARV-families. Most children/adolescents harbored DRM to NNRTI (73.5%) or NRTI (61.2%). Major-DRM to PI was present in 8.3% and minor-DRM to INI in 15%. Dual-class-NRTI+NNRTI resistance appeared in 53.1% of patients. Viruses presented high/intermediate resistance to nevirapine (72.9% patients), efavirenz (70.9%), emtricitabine/lamivudine (47.9%), rilpivirine (41.7%), etravirine (39.6%), doravidine (33.3%), zidovudine (22.9%), among others. Most participants were susceptible to INI and PI. Great diversity of variants was found, with a high rate (40%) of unique recombinants. Conclusion The high DRM prevalence observed among HIV-infected children and adolescents in Kinshasa could compromise the 95-95-95-UNAIDS targets in the DRC. It also reinforces the need for routine resistance monitoring for optimal rescue therapy election in this vulnerable population to control the spread of resistant HIV in the country

HIV-1 diagnosis using dried blood spots from patients in Kinshasa, DRC: a tool to detect misdiagnosis and achieve World Health Organization 2030 targets

Introduction: Currently, only 54% of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) know their HIV status. The aim of this study was to detect HIV misdiagnosis from rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) and to evaluate serological immunoassays using dried blood spots (DBS) from patients in Kinshasa, DRC. Methods: Between 2016 and 2018, 365 DBS samples were collected from 363 individuals and shipped to Spain. The samples were from people with a new HIV positive ( n = 123) or indeterminate ( n = 23) result, known HIV-positive patients ( n = 157), and a negative control group ( n = 62). HIV serology was performed using Elecsys HIV combi PT (Roche), VIDAS HIV Duo Quick (BioMerieux), and Geenius (BioRad). In addition, HIV RNA detection was performed in all samples using the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS Taqman HIV-1 Test 2.0 (Roche). Results: Overall, 272 samples were found to be positive and 93 to be negative for HIV serology. The sensitivity was 100% for both Elecsys and VIDAS techniques, but specificity was slightly higher for the VIDAS test: 100% (96.1-100%) vs 98.9% (94.1-99.9%). Of the 23 indeterminate cases using RDT, only three cases were true-positives with a detectable viral load. Eleven samples out of the 280 classified as positive by RDT corresponded to nine patients who had received a false diagnosis of HIV through RDT (3.9%); six of them had been on antiretroviral therapy for at least 2 years. Conclusions: Elecsys HIV combi PT and VIDAS HIV Duo Quick immunoassays showed high sensitivity and specificity when using DBS. RDT-based serological diagnosis can lead to HIV misdiagnosis with personal and social consequences in sub-Saharan Africa. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Male condom use, multiple sexual partners and HIV: a prospective case-control study in Kinshasa (DRC)

In the Democratic Republic of Congo no previous studies have assessed the factors associated with different patterns of condom use and with multiple sexual partners and the association between condom use simultaneously taking into account multiple sexual partnerships, and HIV infection. We carried out a prospective case-control study. From December 2010 until June 2012, 1,630 participants aged 15-49 getting HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing in a hospital in Kinshasa were selected. Cases were new HIV diagnosis and controls were HIV-negative participants detected along the study period. We recruited 274 cases and 1,340 controls that were interviewed about HIV-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. Among cases there was a high prevalence of multiple lifetime and concurrent sexual partnerships (89.8% and 20.4%, respectively) and most cases never used condoms with only 1.5% using them consistently. Condom use and multiple partnerships were associated with male, single and high-educated participants. An association was found between multiple lifetime partners and `any condom use´ (OR=2.99; 95%CI: 2.14-4.19) but not with consistent use. Both having two or more multiple concurrent sexual partners or not using condoms were variables similarly and highly associated to HIV risk. The association found between having two or more concurrent sexual partners and HIV was slightly higher (OR=3.58, 95%CI:2.31-5-56) than the association found between never condom use and HIV (OR=3.38, 95%CI:1.15-9.93). We found a high prevalence of multiple lifetime sexual partners and an extremely high prevalence of inconsistent condom use, both strongly associated with HIV seropositivity. Local programs would benefit from comprehensive interventions targeting all behavioural and sociocultural determinants

Misconceptions about HIV infection in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo): a Case-control Study on knowledge, attitudes and practices

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of HIV-related misconceptions in an Outpatient Centre of Kinshasa (D.R.Congo) and analyze the association between these beliefs and HIV infection. Methods: A case-control study was carried out from December 2010 until June 2012. We assessed 1,630 participants aged 15-49 attending a primary outpatient centre in Kinshasa: 762 HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing attendees and 868 blood donors. A 59-item questionnaire about knowledge, attitudes and practice was administered during a face-to-face interview, followed by an HIV test. Cases and controls were respondents with a newly diagnosed HIV positive or negative test, respectively. Unconditional logistic regression was used to analyse the association between misconceptions and HIV seropositivity. Results:Two hundred and seventy four cases and 1,340 controls were recruited. Cases were more likely than controls to have a low socioeconomic status, no education, to be divorced/separated or widowed. An association was found between the following variables and HIV-seropositivity: having a poor HIV knowledge (adjusted OR=2.79; 95%CI:1.43-5.45), not knowing a virus is the cause of AIDS (adjusted OR=2.03; 95%CI:1.38-2.98) and reporting more than three HIV-transmission-related misconceptions (adjusted OR=3.30; 95%CI:1.64-6.64), such as thinking an HIV+ person cannot look healthy and that HIV is transmitted by sorcery, God´s punishment, a kiss on the mouth, mosquitoes, coughs/sneezes or undercooked food. Conclusion:Despite having access to health care services, there are still many people in Kinshasa that have HIV-related misconceptions which increase their HIV risk. Our findings underscore the need for a culturally-adapted and gender-orientated basic HIV information into Congolese HIV prevention programs

Utility Of POC Xpert HIV-1 Tests For Detection-Quantifcation Of Complex HIV Recombinants Using Dried Blood Spots From Kinshasa, D. R. Congo

Point-of-Care (POC) molecular assays improve HIV infant diagnosis and viral load (VL) quantification in resource-limited settings. We evaluated POC performance in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo), with high diversity of HIV-1 recombinants. In 2016, 160 dried blood samples (DBS) were collected from 85 children (60 HIV-, 18 HIV+, 7 HIV-exposed) and 75 HIV+ adults (65 treated, 10 naive) at Monkole Hospital (Kinshasa). We compared viraemia with Cepheid-POC-Xpert-HIV-1VL and the non-POC-COBAS®AmpliPrep/COBAS®TaqMan®HIV-1-Testv2 in all HIV+, carrying 72.4%/7.2% HIV-1 unique/complex recombinant forms (URF/CRF). HIV-1 infection was confirmed in 14 HIV+ children by Cepheid-POC-Xpert-HIV-1Qual and in 70 HIV+ adults by both Xpert-VL and Roche-VL, identifying 8 false HIV+ diagnosis performed in DRC (4 adults, 4 children). HIV-1 was detected in 95.2% and 97.6% of 84 HIV+ samples by Xpert-VL and Roche-VL, respectively. Most (92.9%) HIV+ children presented detectable viraemia by both VL assays and 74.3% or 72.8% of 70 HIV+ adults by Xpert or Roche, respectively. Both VL assays presented high correlation (R2 = 0.89), but showing clinical relevant ≥0.5 log VL differences in 15.4% of 78 cases with VL within quantification range by both assays. This is the first study confirming the utility of Xpert HIV-1 tests for detection-quantification of complex recombinants currently circulating in Kinshasa

Immune surveillance for six vaccinable pathogens using paired plasma and dried blood spots in HIV infected and uninfected children in Kinshasa

Child vaccination reduces infant mortality rates. HIV-infected children present higher risk of diseases than non-infected. We report the protection coverage rates for 6 vaccine-preventable diseases in a paediatric population from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the impact of HIV infection, providing the first data on the validity of dried blood samples (DBS) to monitor the immune protection. During 2016-2018 DBS from 143 children/adolescents were collected in Kinshasa (DRC), being 52 HIV-infected. Forty-two had a paired plasma sample. Protective IgG was quantified (VirClia-IgG,VIRCELL) to obtain the optimal cut-off in IgG detection in DBS. ROC curves were generated with R software and statistical analyses with Stata. Protective IgG levels varied across pathogens, not reaching herd immunity. HIV-infected presented lower vaccine protection than uninfected for all analyzed pathogens, except rubella, with statistically significant differences for measles (30.8% vs. 53.8%; p = 0.008) and tetanus (3.8% vs. 22%; p = 0.0034). New cut-offs were calculated when using DBS to improve test performance. We reinforce the necessity to increase pediatric vaccination coverage in Kinshasa, especially in HIV seropositive, with less capacity to maintain adequate antibody levels. DBS were useful to monitor vaccination coverage in seroprevalence studies in resource-limited settings, after optimizing the cut-off value for each pathogen