Herpes simplex virus type 2 and HIV disease progression: a systematic review of observational studies

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 2 Characteristics of included studies and assessment of the risk of bias ^a

Study	Study Characteristics						Assessment of the risk of bias
Study	Population	N^b	% Male	Baseline CD4	Baseline VL	Follow-up time	Eligibility	HSV-2 Ascertain-ment	Endpoints	Confoun-ding	Analysis	Attrition	OVERALL	Impact of bias^c
Barnabas 2011	Men, International	88	100	NR	NR	NR	Moderate	Low	Low	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	↓
Cachay 2007	Male HIV seroconverters, USA	294	100	497	4.97	205 days	Low	Low	Low	Low	Moderate	Low	Low	N/A
Cachay 2008	Male HIV seroconverters, USA	119	100	520	5.04	779 days	Low	Low	Moderate	Low	Moderate	Low	Low	N/A
Crum-Cianflone 2006	USA	367	92	499	NR	NR	Low	Moderate	Moderate	High	Moderate	Moderate	High	?
Nagot 2008	Women, Burkina Faso	140	0	443	4.48	12 weeks	Moderate	Low	Low	Low	Moderate	Low	Low	N/A
Roxby 2011	Pregnant women, Kenya	296	0	422	4.75	18 months	Moderate	Low	Low	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	↓
Suligoi 2001	HIV sero-converters, Italy	380	78	NR	NR	7.8 years	Low	Low	Moderate	High	Moderate	High	High	?

^aMedian values are reported unless noted otherwise. When values were not reported for overall population, a weighted average was taken.
^bN reported for patients included in relevant comparisons only.
^cAssessed only for studies deemed at moderate or high risk of bias. N/A = not applicable (ie. study at low risk of bias), ↓ indicates bias towards null, ? indicates uncertain bias of direction.

ISSN: 1471-2334