TY - JOUR
T1 - The perceived impact of an HIV cure by people living with HIV and key populations vulnerable to HIV in the Netherlands
T2 - A qualitative study
AU - Romijnders, Kim A.G.J.
AU - de Groot, Laura
AU - Vervoort, Sigrid C.J.M.
AU - Basten, Maartje G.J.
AU - van Welzen, Berend J.
AU - Kretzschmar, Mirjam E.
AU - Reiss, Peter
AU - Davidovich, Udi
AU - Rozhnova, Ganna
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the Aidsfonds Netherlands, grant number P-52901.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the participants who were willing to share their experiences with us. In addition, we are thankful to all staff of the Amsterdam Cohort Studies, the AGEhIV Cohort Study, the infectious diseases outpatient clinic of the University Medical Centre Utrecht, and Chair Bertus Tempert and Medical Officer and Heath Advocate Renee Finkelflügel from the Dutch HIV Association for their valuable contribution to our recruitment. We gratefully acknowledge Maartje Dijkstra, Gail Henderson, Holly Peay, Stuart Rennie, and Fred Verdult for their involvement during the initial stages of this study. We thank students M. Diallo and D. Overduin for their contribution during the data collection. Finally, we thank our collaborators on the Aidsfonds project P-52901 (Daniela Bezemer, Maarten Schim van der Loef, Pythia Nieuwkerk, Godelieve de Bree, Janneke Heijne, Myrthe Verburgh, Sebastiaan Verboeket, Franco Romero, and Ard van Sighem) for the helpful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Introduction: 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.Methods: 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.Results: 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.Conclusions: 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.
AB - Introduction: 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.Methods: 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.Results: 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.Conclusions: 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.
KW - HIV cure
KW - HIV elimination
KW - HIV post-treatment control
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Quality of life
KW - Sexual and gender minorities
KW - Sexual behaviour
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125764423&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jve.2022.100066
DO - 10.1016/j.jve.2022.100066
M3 - Article
C2 - 35280938
SN - 2055-6640
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Journal of virus eradication
JF - Journal of virus eradication
IS - 1
M1 - 100066
ER -