TR Dizin İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / TR Dizin Indexed Publications Collection
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14365/4
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Article Citation - Scopus: 3Clinical Impact of Hepatitis C Virus Genomic Variations(Ankara Microbiology Society, 2015-10-08) Ergünay K.; Abacioglu H.; Ergünay, Koray; Abacioglu, HakanHepatitis C virus (HCV) is a globally-dispersed agent of chronic hepatitis with a significant public health threat, affecting over 110 million individuals throughout the world. The increased risk for chronicity after exposure and the lack of a protective vaccine make HCV is a leading infectious cause of cirrhosis, liver failure requiring transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma. The replicative process and infection dynamics in the host enable HCV to generate an array of closely-related but non-identical genetic variants known as quasispecies in the infected individuals. Pathogenesis and outcome in HCV infections are directly affected by the virus genetic heterogeneity, reflected as the emergence of quasispecies in infected individuals. The evolution of these highly-diverse viral populations in the host directly influences the disease course, via providing a pool of variants capable of resuming viral replication under extrinsic and/or intrinsic selective pressures. Viral quasispecies go through several alterations during the course of the infection, and provide a background for the selection of escape mutants from the host humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and antiviral treatment. Supported by the robust next generation sequencing techniques, recent studies have provided significant insights on the genomic diversity and progression as well as on the origin and the epidemiology of HCV. This review provides an overview of the mechanisms of HCV genetic variability, and the interactions with the host, that affects clinical disease, covering viral and host determinants of humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, alterations during the early and late stages of the infection and disease progression leading to chronicity. In addition, current findings in virus evolution and epidemiology were briefly interpreted from the inter-species and population perspectives. The impact of viral genomic heterogeneity on antiviral treatment in the era of direct-acting agents is also discussed, along with an overview of current methods employed for the characterization of viral diversity.Article Citation - WoS: 32Citation - Scopus: 32Covid-19 Anxiety in People Living With Hiv: an Online Cross-Sectional Study(Tubitak Scientific & Technical Research Council Turkey, 2020-12-17) Kuman Tuncel, Ozlem; Pullukcu, Husnu; Erdem, Huseyin Aytac; Kurtaran, Behice; Tasbakan, Selin Ece; Isikgoz Tasbakan, Meltem; Tuncel, Ozlem KumanBackground/aim: The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had an enormous emotional impact on sonic vulnerable groups, such as people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (PLHIV). This study was planned with the aim of assessing the anxiety levels of PLHIV and the sources of their anxiety. Materials and methods: A web-based questionnaire was sent to PLHIV using the virtual snowball sampling method. The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic status, information about HIV infection, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Additionally, some opinions of the participants about COVID-19 were asked. Results: A total of 307 respondents, with a median age of 33 years, from 32 different cities, participated in the study. More than half of the respondents reported the belief that COVID-19 was not sufficiently well-known by the medical community and nearly 45% believed that they would have snore complications if they contracted COVID-19. One-fourth of the participants had anxiety. Having a preexisting psychiatric disorder, perceiving that they were practicing insufficient preventive measures, not being sure about the presence of any individuals with COVID-19 in their environment, and living with a household member with a chronic disease were found to be the risk factors of PLHIV for having anxiety during this pandemic. The BAI scores were correlated with the patient-reported anxiety levels about the spread of COVID-19 in Turkey, acquiring COVID-19, transmitting COVID-19 to another person, and transmitting HIV to another person. Among the stated conditions, the most common concern was the spread of COVID-19 all over the country, while the least common was transmitting HIV to someone else. Conclusion: The results revealed that a significant proportion of the sample had anxiety, and the findings were essential for developing evidence-based strategies for decreasing the anxiety of PLHIV, especially for those who had risk factors and to provide them with better health care during this pandemic or other pandemic-like crises.
