Paul E. Sax, MD is the Editor-in-Chief, Journal Watch HIV/AIDS Clinical Care, Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
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(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)Last week one of my patients went to refill a Valtrex prescription, and was offered generic valacyclovir for the first time. It made him nervous, so he requested I write a “brand-name only” script. I confess the existence of a generic formulation of valacyclovir — which according to the PharmD here has been available for [...]
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)Two kidney transplant patients are critically ill due to Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis they acquired from the organ donor: The same infection probably killed the organ donor, but it was not diagnosed; his doctors thought he had an autoimmune disease. Two other patients also received heart and liver transplants from the donor, but neither has become [...]
(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)If you enrolled over 14,000 ICU patients into a study on a single day, and then did follow-up, what would you find regarding the relationship of infection to the outcomes of ICU stay and mortality? Just such a study was published in JAMA last week, and here are the not-so-stunning conclusions: Infections are common in [...]
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)A few things to ponder as the flu activity (mercifully) declines, at least for now: Interested in evidence that HIV treatment has become staggeringly effective? Fully 87% of patients receiving treatment in the large British Columbia cohort have an HIV RNA < 50; not only that, the incidence of HIV drug resistance has declined more [...]
(6 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)First the updated WHO Guidelines. Then the following: Updated DHHS Guidelines. Agree? Disagree? Sensible or crazy? Practical or ivory-tower academic? South Africa does the right thing. Yes, it’s about time, but good news nonetheless. 2012 International AIDS Meeting in Washington, D.C. First time in USA in a long, long time — 1990, to be exact [...]
