By Brenna Matendere
Three Zimbabweans will be rewarded for putting together research abstracts on scientific ways that can turn around HIV prevention and treatment measures at the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in Africa (ICASA) next month.
This was revealed by Dr Mike Chirenje, the ICASA 2023 Scientific Programmes chairperson, speaking at a press conference Wednesday at the National Aids Council (NAC) offices in Harare.
Guest of honour at the event was Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora.
Chirenje revealed that all abstracts on HIV presented by researchers had been grouped and the best six finally shortlisted.
“Among the best six abstracts, three are of Zimbabweans. This therefore means that three Zimbabweans will get awards for best scientific abstracts on HIV prevention and treatment,” he said.
He added that in previous years, there had been remarkable efforts in researching on HIV and this year will unearth more findings.
“There shall be presentations on how the Malaria vaccine was discovered as a way to motivate similar researches on HIV,” he said.
Zimbabwean HIV research experts are making a mark on the global stage.
In August, they combined with compatriots from Uganda and Zambia, to produce research on HIV which found out safer and effective options for second-line HIV treatment in children.
The research was presented during the 12th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2023) held in Brisbane in August this year.
In coming up with the research findings, experts from Zimbabwe who joined their continental counterparts made all children randomised to take one of two NRTI backbone medicines.
CD4 cell counts increased across all arms and there was no evidence of a difference according to either the NRTI or anchor regimen randomisation.
The findings therefore highlighted the need to develop a child-friendly fixed-dose combination of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate and emtricitabine plus dolutegravir as an anchor medicine.
Alternatively, darunavir or atazanavir could be used as the anchor.
The research has since been shortlisted as one of the major five findings taken from across the globe.
The other four, researchers presented the latest data on antiretrovirals, their side effects and how to best use them in medical care.
One study found that adherence counselling reversed viral rebound on dolutegravir in 95% of cases, meaning people did not need to switch treatment.
Two studies found that switching away from integrase inhibitors did not reverse weight gain, and instead, people who switched continued to gain weight at a similar rate to those who didn’t. One study looked at weight changes following a switch to a protease inhibitor-based regimen, the other following a switch to doravirine/islatravir.
Researchers noted that in the future, managing weight gain could be very important for preventing metabolic disorders in people with HIV. This may include pharmaceutical interventions, but these are expensive, and studies looking at their effects on people living with HIV are needed.
Zimbabwe has made great strides in prevention, resulting in a decline in estimated HIV prevalence rates from 26.5 per cent in 1997 to 14.3 per cent to date.
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