ArticlePLOS global public health2025
Antiretroviral pause for HIV remission trials: A mixed methods study of people living with HIV in Soweto, South Africa.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Trials may pause antiretroviral treatment to study HIV remission, but little is known about the perspectives of people living with HIV in highly prevalent regions. This mixed methods study qualitatively explored perspectives and quantitatively measured research participation willingness. Using snowball sampling, we included consenting adults with HIV in Soweto, South Africa. Of 100 people who completed questionnaires of demographics and participation willingness, 49 without analytic treatment interruption experience participated in 1 of 5 stratified focus groups, and 1 with analytic treatment interruption experience participated in an individual interview. We conducted the study at a research facility during 2024. The analyst performed manual inductive coding on transcripts from audio-recordings and analyzed thematically. We summarized quantitative data using descriptive statistics, compared groups using the Kruskal-Wallis test and assessed factors associated with willingness using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Of 100 participants (44% female, median age 39 years) surveyed, 96% were willing to participate in HIV cure research, varying by study procedure: 75% if antiretrovirals paused, 97% if blood collected, 57% if lymph nodes, 41% if gut, and 39% if cerebrospinal fluid sampled. Willingness to pause antiretrovirals was similar for people aged 40+ versus 18-39 years (p = 0.248), antiretroviral duration 1-8 versus 9 + years (p = 0.759) and females versus males (p = 0.740). Prior cure research participation increased willingness to pause antiretrovirals (RR: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.17-1.58). The focus groups (n = 49) and interview (n = 1) revealed themes about pausing HIV treatment: physical and emotional health considerations, social considerations including non-adherence stigma and selective conditional disclosure, lifestyle optimization and healthcare interactions. Recommendations for researchers conducting analytic treatment interruption trials in South Africa include: counselling about monitoring, lifestyle health and treatment re-initiation; offering disclosure support; communicating directly with antiretroviral clinics about treatment pauses; and minimising mandatory invasive procedures. Negative healthcare experiences suggest treatment programmes should address staff burnout.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.