Romijnders Kim A G J, de Groot Laura, Vervoort Sigrid C J M, Basten Maartje G J, van Welzen Berend J, Kretzschmar Mirjam E, Reiss Peter, Davidovich Udi, Rozhnova Ganna
Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
J Virus Erad. 2022 Feb 25;8(1):100066. doi: 10.1016/j.jve.2022.100066. eCollection 2022 Mar.
When an HIV cure becomes available, it will have consequences for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and key populations who are vulnerable to HIV. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perceived impact of two HIV cure scenarios (post-treatment control when HIV is suppressed without the need for ongoing antiretroviral treatment (ART) and complete HIV elimination) on the quality of life of PLHIV and key populations living without HIV in the Netherlands.
Participants were purposefully sampled from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies, the AGEhIV Cohort Study, the outpatient clinic of the University Medical Centre Utrecht and the Dutch HIV Association to increase variability. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted between October 2020 and March 2021 and thematically analysed.
Of the 42 interviewed participants, 29 were PLHIV and 13 represented key populations (i.e., men who have sex with men and people injecting drugs). Both PLHIV and participants from vulnerable key populations hoped that a cure would result in normalization of their lives by removing the need to disclose HIV, reducing stigma and guilt, increasing independence of ART, and liberating sexual behaviour. Both groups believed only HIV elimination could accomplish this desired impact.
While the post-treatment control scenario seems a more plausible outcome of current HIV cure research, our findings highlight that participants may not perceive it as a true cure. Involvement of PLHIV and vulnerable key populations in devising acceptable and feasible experimental approaches to HIV cure is essential to ensure their future successful implementation.
当艾滋病治愈方法出现时，它将对艾滋病病毒感染者（PLHIV）以及易感染艾滋病病毒的关键人群产生影响。这项定性研究旨在探讨两种艾滋病治愈方案（在无需持续抗逆转录病毒治疗（ART）的情况下抑制艾滋病病毒后的治疗后控制以及完全消除艾滋病病毒）对荷兰艾滋病病毒感染者和未感染艾滋病病毒的关键人群生活质量的感知影响。
从阿姆斯特丹队列研究、AGEhIV队列研究、乌得勒支大学医学中心门诊以及荷兰艾滋病协会中进行有目的抽样，以增加样本的多样性。在2020年10月至2021年3月期间进行了半结构化深度访谈，并进行了主题分析。
在42名接受访谈的参与者中，29名是艾滋病病毒感染者，13名代表关键人群（即男男性行为者和注射吸毒者）。艾滋病病毒感染者和来自脆弱关键人群的参与者都希望治愈能通过消除披露艾滋病病毒的必要性、减少耻辱感和内疚感、增加抗逆转录病毒治疗的独立性以及解放性行为，使他们的生活正常化。两组都认为只有消除艾滋病病毒才能实现这种预期影响。
虽然治疗后控制方案似乎是当前艾滋病治愈研究中更有可能出现的结果，但我们的研究结果表明，参与者可能不认为这是真正的治愈。让艾滋病病毒感染者和脆弱关键人群参与设计可接受且可行的艾滋病治愈实验方法，对于确保其未来的成功实施至关重要。
