Edelweiss Journal of AIDS, is a peer reviewed Journal, which provides platform for researchers all over the world to share and discuss the upcoming research, issues and development in the area of HIV-AIDS.

Authors can submit their research/review/case reports/commentaries as an attachment at edelweisspublications@gmail.com

Editorial Board Members

·         Yi-Qun Kuang, Professor, Huaihe Clinical Institute, Henan University, China

·         Li Hong-Jun, Professor, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

·         Jo-Ann Passmore, Associate Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa

·         Roopali Sharma, Associate Professor, Long Island University, Brooklyn, USA

·         Patrick Chung-Ki Li, Vice Chairman, Hong Kong AIDS Foundation, Hong Kong

·         A.K. Gupta, Additional Project Director, Delhi State AIDS Control Department, India

Core Fields Covered

Acute HIV infection: This is first stage to infection in these large amounts of virus are being produced in human body. Symptoms that includes fever, chills, swollen glands, sore throat, rash, muscle and joint aches and pains, stomach upset and headache. This is called Acute Retroviral Syndrome (ARS) or primary HIV infection. Throughout this period of infection, large amounts of virus are created in human body. These viruses take CD4 cells to replicate and destroy them in the process. Because of this problem CD4 cells can fall quickly. During this stage of infection people are at high risk of transferring HIV to sexual or needle-sharing partners because these levels of HIV in patient blood stream are hugely high. For this reason, it is very important to take steps to minimize risk of transmission.

Edelweiss Journal of AIDS is maintained by Edelweiss publications, which ensures of Rapid Peer review with the help of its Editorial Board. HIV Medicine Journals  of AIDS publish case reports which have impact on the treatment of HIV patients. Authors may submit their valuable research at edelweisspublications@gmail.com

Clinical latency/Chronic stage: After the first stage of HIV infection, it moves to second stage called clinical latency stage. In this stage the replication of viruses decreases as such that they cannot be detected in the lab test but they can be transmitted to others. The risk of transferring is highly reduced by HIV treatment. As the disease progress especially viral load will begin to rise and CD4 count will begin to death. It may begin to have constitutional symptoms of HIV as the virus levels grows in body before people develop AIDS.

HIV Medical journals aim to publish the international research papers. This includes researches in the field of HIV Medicine, Pharmacological, Epidemiological, Ethical, Clinical, Pre-clinical and invitro studies.
Edelweiss Publications Inc is a USA based publisher and Edelweiss Journal of AIDS, Openaccess is part of Edelweiss Publications Inc.

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome):This is the final stage to HIV infection that occurs when immune system is badly injured by infections. When the number of CD4 cells falls below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (200 cells/mm³), and are considered as move to AIDS. Without the treatment of disease the life span of person can be for three years. The Symptoms of AIDS includes: Pneumonia, Tuberculosis and Oral infections in mouth or throat. Treatment of HIV-AIDS includes antiretroviral therapy, this helps to protect CD4 cells, keeping the immune system strong enough to fight against disease.

Current topics of HIV include HIV in primary care, Pediatric HIV infections, HIV in pregnancy, Cytomegalovirus encephalitis in HIV, Ocular manifestation of HIV infections. Edelweiss publication, review process is done by their active Editorial Board Members, which help in reducing the timeline for publishing the manuscript after submission.

Edelweiss publications include rigorous peer review process and high scientific publishing standard to ensure superior contribution to scholarly literature added with high quality production.
Edelweiss Journal of AIDS aims to publish scientific research related to HIV-AIDS in the form of Research/Review/Case Report/short commentaries/Mini Reviews.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs): Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are infections that spread from one person to another during sex or close intimate contact. STDs also called sexually transmitted infections, or STIs.STDs research articles in our journal involve aspects related to public health, diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Edelweiss Journal of AIDS, invite the researchers to publish their research work in our journal. STDs research articles in our journal have rapid peer review process and try to publish the manuscripts within 4-6 weeks.

Immunology: Immunology deals with the study of immune system in all the living organisms and is an important branch in medical and biological sciences.The immune system protects us from infection through various diseases. The disability of immune system in its functioning can result in diseases which may be autoimmune, allergy or cancers.It explains how to protect the body against infectious diseases caused by bacteria, virus, microorganisms and protozoans. Immunology research articles involveclinical studies related to molecular immunology, classicalimmunology,clinicalimmunology, cancer immunology. It also focuses on various other topics like immune pathology, immune disorders, immunodeficiency, and immunotherapy, transplantation immunology.

Edelweiss Journal of AIDS is a scholarly journal maintaining high standards of Immunology research articles with scientific excellence. Immunology research articles published in our journal will undergo rapid peer review process. We try to publish the manuscript within 4-6 weeks of time after submission.

HIV Awareness:HIV Awareness is important for the safe practices to prevent HIV infection and result in people being more careful. HIV Awareness ultimately decreases disease and infection rates. HIV Awareness program helps people to be aware of the disease and the levels of care and treatment they receive. This program educates the people and provides knowledge to the community members about the disease and helps to overcome it.

Keywords

HIV-1: AIDS is the most severe stage of HIV. The word HIV mostly named as HIV-1. It is spread directly via body fluids like blood, semen and genital secretions or from infected mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding of infected person. HIV-1 is the most common pathogenic strain of the virus. The divisions of HIV-1 include Group M which is a major group and Group N, O and P, are the minor groups.

HIV-2: HIV-2 infection is endemic to West Africa. It is directly spread via body fluids like blood, semen, and genital secretions, or from an HIV-infected mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding of infected person. It is less mortal compared to HIV-1 and takes more time to develop symptoms of HIV.

Research/Review/Case Reports can be submitted towards Edelweiss Journal of AIDS OpenAccess.

Stigma: Stigma refers to the shame or disgrace attached to something regarded as socially unacceptable. HIV positive people are insulted, rejected from social activities.  This makes the infected person great fear of coming out and taking treatment. This may also leads to silence, depression and other psychiatric conditions.

Transmission: HIV is a contagious disease and it can be transmitted from person to another person. HIV can transmit by three ways that is by sexual contact, infected body fluids or tissues and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, breastfeeding. It is not transmitted through nasal secretions, saliva, sputum, sweat, tears, urine, feces or vomit.

ELISA: ELISA stands for Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. ELISA isalso called as EIA for enzyme immunoassay and is used to detect the HIV antibodies and antigens in the blood. This ELISA test is commonly ordered by a healthcare provider. It checks the proteins that the body makes in response to HIV. If it is positive, the Western blot test is normally conducted to confirm the diagnosis. If it is negative, but person thought they may have HIV and should be tested again in one to three months.

As per our policy at Edelweiss Publications, we encourage students and researchers to submit their valuable research in our journal and we shall provide them favorable discounts in the publication charges.

Western Blotting: Western blot test is commonly used to confirm a positive HIV diagnosis. During this test blood sample is taken and it is used to detect HIV antibodies and not for HIV virus itself. This test detects HIV antibodies by separating blood proteins which indicates the positive result of the infection. Western blot is used to confirm positive ELISA and the combined both tests are approximately 99.9%.

NATs: NATs stands for Nucleic Acid Test are used to detect HIV in between 7 to 28 days following a high-risk exposure to HIV infection. This test can give either a positive or negative result or an accurate amount of virus present in the blood is known as a viral load test. Generally this test is not used for screening individuals as it is very expensive unless they have high-risk or a possible exposure to HIV infection.

Integrase Inhibitors: The action of integrase enzyme is prevented by the integrase inhibitors. This is a viral enzyme which effect T-cells in the body. The most common HIV drugs used in the treatment of HIV infected people are integrase inhibitors that have maximum therapeutic effect and minimal side effects. Dolutegravir, elvitegravir, raltegravir etc. are the examples of integrase inhibitors.

Protease Inhibitors: It is the second most commonly used drug to treat HIV/AIDS. Protease inhibitors prevent replication of the viruses by binding to viral protease which inhibits the production of viral particles by blocking proteolytic cleavage of protein precursors. Some protease inhibitors are only approved by the FDA for hepatitis C, are not used for treatment of HIV infection. Some examples of Protease inhibitors are atazanavir, Darunavir, lopinavir, ritonavir, atazanavir, darunavir, fosamprenavir, tipranavir etc.

Nucleoside/Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs): NRTIs inhibit the replication of viral DNA polymerase by inhibiting the activity of reverse transcriptase in the body. Reverse transcriptase is a viral DNA polymerase required for the replication of HIV or other retroviruses. Abacavir, lamivudine, zidovudine etc are the examples of NRTIs. All researches in AIDS can be published with us at AIDS journal. It is run by Edelweiss Publications Inc, USA.

                                -  Edelweiss publications embraces the philosophy - Connecting the world of scientific community.

Current Issue Articles

Incidence and Predictors of Tuberculosis among Adult People Living with HIV/AIDS in Afar Public Health Facilities, Northeast Ethiopia

Author: Ausman Ahmed, Desalew Mekonnen, Melaku Kindie

Abstract: Introduction: Tuberculosis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected individuals. Tuberculosis and human immune deficiency virus infections are two major public health problems in many parts of the world. Globally tuberculosis is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV and it is the most potent risk factor for the development of tuberculosis. There for the aim of this study assess incidence and predictors of tuberculosis among adult people living with HIV in Afar health facilities, Northeast Ethiopia. Method: A five year retrospective follow up study was conducted among 503 adult HIV infected individuals who enrolled in HIV care clinic from July, 2010 to June, 2011. All adult HIV infected persons who enrolled newly in to chronic adult HIV care clinic from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 were included in the study and those with incomplete baseline information (WHO stage, CD4 count and Hgb level) were excluded. Data were entered to EPI-INFO version 7 then exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Bivariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model were used to identify predictors. Result: A total of 451 charts were included and followed for a total of 1377.303 Person Years (PY) of observation, the overall incidence density of tuberculosis was 8.6 per 100person-year. More than half 68 (57.14%) of HIV infected persons developed TB at the first year of follow up. The cumulative proportion of TB free survival was 79%, 76%, 74%and 71% at the end of one year, two, three and four year respectively. Having past TB history (AHR=2.32, 95%CI=1.511-3.573); Ambulatory and bedridden functional status at baseline (AHR=2.42, 95%CI (1.05-5.59), (AHR=2.42, 95%CI=1.563.75); Baseline BMI<18.5kg/m2 (AHR=1.621, 95 %CI =1.09-2.40); Not taking IP (Isoniazid prophylaxis therapy) (AHR= 6.96, 95%CI=2.53-19.08); Baseline Hgb <12.5g/ dl (AHR=2.00, 95% CI=1.08-3.71), and Hgb <10 g/dl (AHR= 2.54, 95%CI=1.57-4.11) were predictors that associated for TB incidence. Conclusion and recommendation: TB incidence rate is high among adults living with HIV. TB was high in the first year of follow up. Past history TB, not receiving IPT, low BMI, low Hgb and unable to work were the most significant predictors for occurrence of TB. Therefore the result of the study recommends for an improved TB/HIV collaboration activity and scale up of IPT in the setup to reduce risk of TB.

The Prevalence and Incidence of Hepatitis C in the Anguillan Prison Population

Author: Alexia Kamel, Kristina Candido, David Frias, Henry Sioufi and D. Hammoudi

Abstract: Background: The purpose of this project was to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis C among the inmates of Her Majesty’s Prison in Anguilla, British West Indies, as well as the rate of transmission whilst incarcerated. Participation was voluntarily by 24 participants and confidentiality was maintained by replacing the inmate’s names with numbers. Methods: A validated questionnaire was given and guided towards lifestyle, behaviors while incarcerated and knowledge of the disease and safety precautions. Following the survey, Hepatitis C testing was performed via an immunoassay for the presence of antibodies in the samples serum. Findings: There was one inmate, who tested positive for Hepatitis C as a part of his initial work up upon incarceration, and the same inmate was found to be positive for HCV after our testing; concluding, there was no increase in the number of affected inmates. Conclusion: This research was beneficial in educating the inmates of Anguilla about hepatitis C and its associated risk factors; however, language barriers, and small population size were some of the limitations the researchers came across. Results for Hepatitis C in this Anguillan prison population are significantly lower than results seen in the United States, and Canada.