Impact of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy on Chronic Hepatitis B Serological Markers among Senegalese HIV Co-infected Children

International audienceBackground: Coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes complex interactions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence and HBV evolution among HIV coinfected children receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 252 HIV infected children enrolled in the Hôpital d'enfants Albert Royer, Dakar, Senegal, from April 2013 to March 2015. Clinical characteristics, immuno-virological status, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, and HBV serological marker were taken from the patients' medical records.Results: Overall, 7 children were HBsAg positive with a determinate prevalence rate of 2.8%. Median age at HIV diagnosis was 3.5 years (1.3-14.4 years). According to World Health Organization (WHO) staging, 40.1% of children were stage 4 and 25.8% were stage 3. Of the 7 HIV/HBV-co-infected children, 6 (86%) received lamivudine alone at initiation of treatment, and only one child received tenofovir associated with emtricitabine. Overall median HAART duration treatment including lamivudine alone or tenofovir+lamivudine (or emtricitabine) was 7.7 years (3.3-11.3). Only the two children (29%) receiving lamivudine during follow-up had high HBV DNA load despite having good immuno-virological status. Suppression of HBV DNA replication was achieved in 5 (71.4%) of 7 children.Conclusion and Global Health Implication: HIV/HBV coinfection prevalence was low in our study. HBsAg and HBeAg loss were low while suppression of HBV DNA replication was still higher on tenofovir. Screening and monitoring HBV infection among all HIV infected children are required to direct treatment in order to improve children HBV/HIV coinfected outcome

DAGS: Key encapsulation using dyadic GS codes

Code-based Cryptography is one of the main areas of interest for the Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization call. In this paper, we introduce DAGS, a Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) based on Quasi-Dyadic Generalized Srivastava codes. The scheme is proved to be IND-CCA secure in both Random Oracle Model and Quantum Random Oracle Model. We believe that DAGS will offer competitive performance, especially when compared with other existing code-based schemes, and represent a valid candidate for post-quantum standardizatio

Summary of advantages and challenges according to interviewees.

<p>Summary of advantages and challenges according to interviewees.</p

Instructions for the activation and use of the Uniject device.

<p>Instructions for the activation and use of the Uniject device.</p

Uniject components.

<p>Uniject components.</p