HIV and ID Observations

Every weekday morning, right around the time the rest of my family gets up, the smart people at Physician’s First Watch send me an email listing the top medical news stories of the day.

Imagine my delight yesterday when the following were deemed worthy for specific mention:

• Coccidioidomycosis! Valley fever cases on the rise in the USA. You too can learn how to spell and pronounce it (only wimps say “cocci”), provided you practice, practice, practice…
• Mycobacterium abscessus!!  Looks like person-to-person transmission can occur, at least according to this paper in the Lancet. 
• Q fever!!! The Centers for Disease Control have issued guidelines on diagnosis and management of Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), thereby fulfilling what was undoubtedly a burning national need. (Sarcasm used with the utmost affection, CDC.)

Not only was I delighted by this threesome, but confess a bit surprised as well. After all, it’s not as if these are garden-variety ID problems; in fact, if all three of these diagnoses showed up in an ID case conference, it would be one heck of a meeting. By chance, one of these — M. abscessus — did get discussed at our conference this week, and boy was I prepared. Thank you, PFW.

All of which is a way of putting in a plug for Physician’s First Watch, which is concise, free of charge, and well worth the 5 seconds it takes to sign up for it.

Even when the coverage does not involve the World’s Greatest Medical Specialty.