Population-Based Research Studied to Understand Disease Dynamics towards Effective Management of Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS, Including Co-Morbidities and Co-Infections Phase-II of the Collaborative Programme on HIV/AIDS Research
Objectives:
- Establish well-characterised cohorts of HIV-infected individuals;
- Identification and characterisation of host and viral biomarkers for HIV-1 latency, persistence and treatment outcomes towards informing cure research
Abstract:
Over 2.1 million people are currently living with HIV in India. The drugs that are currently used to treat people with HIV cannot completely cure the infection and have to be taken regularly and for life. Some individuals fail to respond to some drugs. Moreover, other infections and conditions, such as Tuberculosis (TB), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, hepatitis and many others pose additional health and treatment challenges for HIV infected people in India.
The purpose of this research is to study how HIV affects the body, how HIV is controlled by the body immediately after the virus is acquired by an individual and the impact when Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is started right away. Physical examination of the participants will be performed, and blood samples will be collected, tested and analysed. This information will be helpful to research partners in conducting research studies to evaluate any new product for HIV treatment as well as implementation feasibility of related interventions. Similar research will also be conducted with samples from HIV infected individuals in the Netherlands and Sweden and comparison of the research outcomes among all the regions will be done to help in the development of new products and solutions to manage the HIV disease in a better way, especially in India and other areas of the world most affected by this disease.
