An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
December 28th, 2011
Why We Still Need HIV/ID Specialists
Over on Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care, we periodically publish a tricky case — always drawn from clinical practice — then ask some experts how they would manage it, and why. The most recent case pretty much has it all: Multiple prior regimens Multi-class drug resistance Metabolic complications Bad allergy history, one event nearly requiring hospitalization Disfiguring […]
December 24th, 2011
Making a List and Checking it Twice, Then Making Sure 052 is On It
How big a news story was HPTN 052, which demonstrated that HIV treatment reduced transmission by at least 96%? (I like to emphasize that “at least” bit, since it’s likely that none of the study subjects with undetectable HIV RNA levels transmitted to their partners — the one case that did transmit did so before virologic suppression.) […]
December 18th, 2011
Let’s Just Say I’m Glad the Grades Don’t Count
A friend alerted me to this test of scientific literacy. Give it a try — no google cheating — and let me know how you do. And even though I got the first 5 questions right, my final score (to be disclosed in the comments, eventually) left little doubt that I was an English major in college. Yeah, that’s […]
December 14th, 2011
No HIV in Pepsi? Now THAT’S a Relief
How reassuring to be treated with the following news: An SMS has been circulating that Pepsi products are contaminated with HIV but Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd has clarified that this is a hoax. Its marketing vice-president Hemalatha Ragavan said there was no truth to it. She urged people not to believe such claims. I have a couple of […]
December 11th, 2011
An Unlikely Interviewee Discusses “Six-Class” HIV Drug Resistance
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 link […]
December 8th, 2011
Big TB Prevention Study Important, Highly Relevant — Even Here
As I’ve noted before, tuberculosis is disappearing from the United States — which means that the bulk of cutting-edge research in TB (both clinical and basic science) has little relevance to US-based practitioners. But over in NEJM, a much-anticipated TB study is published today that is highly relevant: We conducted an open-label, randomized noninferiority trial comparing 3 […]
December 4th, 2011
Images are Back
This site has been looking awfully plain the last couple of weeks. No pictures! The reason? You figure it out. But now we’ve got an exciting new treasure-trove of images, and I’m going to take advantage of this resource and provide some very exciting visuals for your enjoyment. Like this one, if you’re feeling cold: And this one too, […]
December 1st, 2011
World AIDS Day Wanderings
Some quick HIV and ID Observations (better blog title anyone?) for this 2011 World AIDS Day: Through meticulous, painstaking research that took me all of 10 seconds, I’ve learned that the first World AIDS Day was in 1988. What ever did we do before the internet? Looks like New York City’s health department is following San […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
Biography | Disclosures | Summaries
Learn more about HIV and ID Observations.
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