{"id":53431,"date":"2015-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/"},"modified":"2022-09-02T20:49:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T01:49:24","slug":"study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\"><p>\nHIV has gone from being a death sentence to something you treat with pills. Today, those with HIV can, by and large, live normal lives.<\/p>\n<p>\n&quot;I believe that part of HIV becoming a long-term chronic illness is allowing families affected by HIV to have the opportunity to have children and to raise children,&quot; said Kim Scarsi, Pharm.D., associate professor of pharmacy practice.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn sub-Saharan Africa, that can prove complicated. Resource-limited settings, Dr. Scarsi said, have much higher levels of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.<\/p>\n<p>\nBut research indicates women in these settings tend to have healthier families when they can plan for them and have some control over their lives and health.<\/p>\n<p>\nDr. Scarsi is principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health-funded team working to improve the lives of women in sub-Saharan Africa, where resources tend to be less plentiful than they often are in the U.S., and where HIV infection is a reality for many.<\/p>\n<p>\nBut the same antiretroviral therapies that keep HIV at bay &#8211; and can effectively prevent HIV transmission from mother to child &#8211; may or may not interact well with hormone contraceptives, for those who choose to use them. That&rsquo;s where clinical pharmacology comes in.<\/p>\n<p>\nDr. Scarsi&rsquo;s collaborators include colleagues from Makarere University and the Infectious Diseases Institute, both in Kampala, Uganda. They studied three groups of HIV-infected women who choose to use contraceptive implants &#8211; those on two types of antiretroviral treatments, and a third group who were not on antiretroviral meds.<\/p>\n<p>\n(In some countries, not every HIV patient goes immediately to antiretroviral meds; instead, levels are monitored until medication is deemed necessary based on national guidelines.)<\/p>\n<p>\nDr. Scarsi recently presented the team&rsquo;s research findings at HIV Therapy in Glasgow and the 2015 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>\nThey found that the hormone concentrations were not reduced in one of the anti-HIV drugs. But with the other, the hormone concentrations were approximately 50 percent lower and three of the women in that group had an unintended pregnancy while receiving the HIV therapy plus the contraceptive implant.<\/p>\n<p>\nUnfortunately, the latter is the preferred anti-HIV medication, which is recommended by the World Health Organization as the first therapy for all HIV-infected patients.<\/p>\n<p>\nSo, the preferred anti-HIV drug does not work as well with hormone contraceptives.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe next step is to try to find a way for the preferred HIV drug to work with the implant, to help these women have family planning options, in addition to highly effective HIV therapy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-discover","author_override-kalani-simpson-unmc-public-relations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Shaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Shaw\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ryan Shaw\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/f532918153ff234280992910aad23556\"},\"headline\":\"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\",\"name\":\"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg\",\"width\":705,\"height\":406},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/f532918153ff234280992910aad23556\",\"name\":\"Ryan Shaw\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives","description":"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives","og_description":"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":705,"height":406,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ryan Shaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ryan Shaw","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Ryan Shaw","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/f532918153ff234280992910aad23556"},"headline":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives","datePublished":"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/"},"wordCount":434,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/","name":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-20T05:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-03T01:49:24+00:00","description":"Some antiretroviral therapies used in sub-Saharan Africa are found to not work well with contraceptives.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/spring15_Scarsi1.jpg","width":705,"height":406},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/08\/20\/study-to-help-hiv-infected-women-live-normal-lives-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Study to help HIV-infected women live normal lives"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/f532918153ff234280992910aad23556","name":"Ryan Shaw","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81812,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53431\/revisions\/81812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}