International Conference on STD Prevention

Sexually transmitted disease refer to a condition passed from one person to another through sexual contact. STDs used to be called venereal diseases or VD. They are among the most common contagious diseases.

•  Chlamydia

• HPV (human papillomavirus)

• Syphilis

• HIV

• Gonorrhea

• Trichomoniasis

• Herpes

Opportunistic infections are infections that occur more severe in people with weakened immune systems than in people with healthy immune systems. People with weak immune systems include people living with HIV. Here are examples of some of the most common OIs in people with HIV.

• Herpes simplex virus (HSV)

• Salmonella infection

• Candidiasis

• Toxoplasmosis

HIV testing shows whether a person has HIV. HIV testing detect HIV infection, but it can’t tell how long a person has had HIV or if the person has AIDS. There are three types of tests used to diagnose HIV infection: antibody tests, antigen/antibody tests, and nucleic acid tests (NATs).

• Antibody tests check for HIV antibodies in blood. HIV antibodies are disease-fighting proteins that the body produces in response to HIV infection. Common rapid tests and home use tests are antibody tests.
• Antigen/antibody tests can detect HIV antibodies and HIV antigens in blood.
• NATs look for HIV in the blood.

The counseling process includes the evaluation of personal risk of HIV transmission and the facilitation of preventive behaviour. HIV testing and counseling on HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. HIV counseling helped millions of people to know their status either they are positive or negative. It helps in preventing the spread of HIV and allows the public to have access to medical care when tested positive. Multiple approaches are used by counselors in providing education and prevention counseling to ‘at risk’ individuals and also individuals who have been infected with the HIV virus.

Antiretroviral treatment (ART) is one of the most effective tools in our arsenal of interventions to fight HIV – keeping people healthy and reducing the risk of onward transmission.

The ability of HIV to alter and reproduce itself in the presence of antiretroviral drugs is called HIV drug resistance.
HIV drug resistance occurs when the virus starts to make changes (mutations) to its genetic make-up (RNA) that are resistant to certain HIV drugs, or classes of HIV drugs. They can lower the chances of transmitting HIV. The goals for these medicines are

• Control the growth of the virus

• Improve how well your immune system works

• Slow or stop symptoms

• Prevent transmission of HIV to others

Researchers have been working on an HIV vaccine since the 1980s, but progress towards an current vaccine has been much slower than anticipated. An HIV vaccine is a more realistic prospect today than a decade ago and an optimistic forecast of HIV vaccine availability is that one might be available by 2030.

Pregnant women with HIV should take HIV medicines during pregnancy for their own health and to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Utmost HIV medicines are safe to use during pregnancy. In common, HIV medicines don’t increase the risk of birth defects. With the implementation of HIV testing, counseling, antiretroviral medication, delivery by cesarean section prior to onset of labor, and discouraging breastfeeding, the mother-to-infant transmission has decreased to less than 2%. 

The epidemiology of pediatric HIV, prophylactic treatment of infants born to HIV-infected mothers, diagnostic testing for HIV in young children, the approach to febrile HIV-infected infants and children, and issues connected to HIV infection in adolescents are discussed separately

• Epidemiology of pediatric HIV infection

• Intrapartum management of pregnant women with HIV and infant prophylaxis in resource-rich settings

• Diagnostic testing for HIV infection in infants and children younger than 18 months.

Awareness is the process of presenting information, learning as an individual or group of individuals recognize its importance as a technique of prevention and education for behavior change mainly related to STI’s/HIV and AIDS. Increase awareness among new generations concerning STDs. Reduce incidence of HIV/AIDS and STDs in new generation, performing a larger scale educational programs should provide awareness.

• Safe sex
• Avoid intravenous drugs
• using latex gloves and other barriers
• Get tested for HIV

HIV attacks and destroys the CD4 cells of the immune system. CD4 cells are white blood cell that play a key role in protecting the body from infection. HIV procedures the machinery of the CD4 cells to multiply and spread throughout the body. This procedure, which is carried out in seven steps or stages, is called the HIV life cycle.

• Binding

• Fusion

• Reverse transcription

• Integration

• Replication

• Assembly

• Budding

STDs/STIs leads to infertility mainly when they are left untreated in most cases. Chlamydia and gonorrhoea are the two major sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that causes infertility. Both diseases can be easily treated with antibiotics but many people may not know about them because of the lack of noticeable symptoms. Women showing symptoms may experience abdominal or pelvic pain, spotting, and unusual discharge. When chlamydia and gonorrhoea left untreated, they spread to the uterus or fallopian tubes causing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which leads to inflammation, scarring, and blockage in the reproductive organs, such as the fallopian tubes. Tubal scarring can block the fallopian tubes which prevent the eggs from traveling to the uterus. Women who have damage to their fallopian tubes are also at risk for ectopic pregnancy.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is an effective form of fertility treatment for women who have had damage to their fallopian tubes due to STDs. During IVF, sperm and egg are combined in the lab to allow for fertilization outside of the body with subsequent transfer of the embryo back into the uterus.

Emerging infections are unpredictable. EID rarely stands out as unusual, and the continuous pressure on health care budgets forces clinicians and laboratories to prioritize their diagnostic work-up to common and treatable conditions. Emerging infections can be caused by 

•  Previously undetected or unknown infectious agents

•  Known agents that have spread to new geographic locations or new populations

•  Previously known agents whose role in specific diseases has previously gone unrecognized.

•  Re-emergence of agents whose incidence of disease had significantly declined in the past, but whose incidence of disease has reappeared. This class of diseases is known as re-emerging infectious diseases

Co-infections or super-infections with a non-hepatitis virus are also possible, and for HIV population, it is quite common due to the similarities of the infection route. (About 40% of patients with HIV are co-infected with HCV.) For these conditions, the clinical symptoms and disease courses are usually more complex and serious than a single viral infection case. Although super or co-infections can make the disease more severe and its progression faster, there is also the possibility that one of the agents, such as HCV, could help promote the clearings of the other virus, such as HBV, from the body. HCV could also take over the position of HBV and become the major virus to cause persistent chronic infection.

Adults with immunodeficiencies are much more likely to suffer from molluscum contagiosum. Approximately 90% of patients who are HIV-positive have skin lesions of some sort, including molluscum contagiosum. In one study, 18% of patients who were HIV positive were found to have molluscum contagiosum (Rane et al., 2014).  Immunogenetics helps in understanding the pathogenesis of several autoimmune and infectious diseases and bacterial infections under clinical studies of STDs.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is the spread of HIV from an HIV-infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth (also called labor and delivery), or breastfeeding. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is also called perinatal transmission of HIV. Mother-to-child transmission is the most common way that children become infected with HIV. The HIV medicine reduces the risk of infection from any HIV that may have entered a baby’s body during childbirth.

The connection between HIV/AIDS and certain cancers is not completely understood, but the link likely depends on a weakened immune system. Most types of cancer begin when healthy cells change and grow out of control, forming a mass called a tumor. A tumor can be cancerous or benign. A cancerous tumor is malignant, meaning it can grow and spread to other parts of the body. A benign tumor means the tumor can grow but will not spread. The types of cancer most common for people with HIV/AIDS. People with HIV/AIDS have an increased risk of developing the following cancers:

• Kaposi sarcoma

• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

• Cervical cancer

An explosion of advances in the field has changed the shape of treatment, enabling HIV-infected patients to live for years without symptoms with simple single-tablet treatment regimens. Currently, scientists have hopes for a functional cure –a cure that doesn’t wipe out every possible trace of HIV but keeps it at bay–and a potential vaccine.

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. This condition is most often caused by a virus. The most common causes of viral hepatitis are hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV). HBV and HCV are common among people who are at risk for, or living with, HIV. You can get some of viral hepatitis the same way you get HIV—through unprotected sexual contact and injection drug use. HAV causes a short-term severe illness, is usually spread when the virus is ingested from contact with food and objects (including injection drug equipment).

Infectious diseases are affected by pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi; the diseases can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another. Some are transmitted by insects or other animals. Some other by consuming contaminated food or water or being exposed to organisms in the environment.

. Bacterial infectious diseases

. Communicable infectious diseases

. Parasitic infectious diseases

. Viral infectious diseases