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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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)He’d never acknowledge it, but in our field, it’s no secret this guy is something of a rock star. I can think of several key principles in HIV pathogenesis and treatment that he and his research group have discovered, or elucidated most clearly, or simply explained the best — largely through his unique ability to [...]
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)It’s been several years since the “preferred” or “recommended” initial regimens for HIV treatment have been consolidated into one of the following four: TDF/FTC + efavirenz TDF/FTC + atazanavir/r TDF/FTC + darunavir/r TDF/FTC + raltegravir Any room for improvement in this “TDF/FTC + key third drug” approach? With the recent approval of TDF/FTC/rilpivirine, certainly this [...]
(No Ratings Yet)From the FDA Advisory: There have been postmarketing reports of cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis and erythema multiforme, as well as hypersensitivity reactions characterized by rash, constitutional findings, and sometimes organ dysfunction, including hepatic failure. Intelence therapy should be immediately discontinued when signs and symptoms of severe skin or hypersensitivity reactions develop. These [...]
(No Ratings Yet)A couple of months ago, I presented these three clinically stable, virologically suppressed patients — and asked if they should switch treatment: 50 year old man on ABC/3TC, EFV since 2000. No renal disease. Hyperlipidemia, on atorvastatin 80 mg a day. Father died of an MI age 48. 63 year old man, on EFV + [...]
(No Ratings Yet)We recently published a case in AIDS Clinical Care entitled “Too Many Options”, describing a patient with longstanding HIV infection, virologic failure, and resistance to NRTIs, NNRTIs, and PIs. Fortunately, resistance and tropism testing gave him several options for a new drug regimen — including darunavir, etravirine, maraviroc, enfuvirtide, and — if one believes phenotypic [...]
(No Ratings Yet)As part of our regular series “Antiretroviral Rounds” in AIDS Clinical Care, today we post a case of a highly treatment-experienced patient with dreaded “triple class” resistance — that is, resistance to NRTIs, NNRTIs, and PIs. The good news now, of course, is that we have more than these three drug classes. The tough part [...]
(No Ratings Yet)I’ve written before how the number of treatment experienced patients who have no options for successful therapy has dwindled to a tiny — but unfortunate — few. Darunavir, maraviroc, raltegravir, and etravirine (in order of FDA approval) are that good. Two presentations at recent scientific meetings confirmed the staggering efficacy of these newer drugs. Notably, [...]
