HIV and ID Observations

March 25th, 2018

Why Is Some Academic Spam Funnier Than Others?

This invitation made me laugh out loud: From: International Journal of Poultry and Fisheries Sciences <poultry@symbiosisonline.us> Date: Friday, March 23, 2018 at 7:03 AM To: “Sax, Paul Edward,M.D.” Subject: Accepting Articles for our Inaugural Issue: IJPFS  Dear Dr. Paul E Sax, Greetings from International Journal of Poultry and Fisheries Sciences! We are privileged to introduce International Journal of Poultry and Fisheries […]

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March 18th, 2018

Why with Extremely Resistant Infections, It’s Extremely Important to Consult ID

Since the only procedures most of us Infectious Diseases doctors do with any regularity are biopsies of patient medical records, we have to justify our existence in other ways — such as collecting data on how our expertise improves patient outcomes. There are a bunch of these papers published, with this one being the most widely […]

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March 11th, 2018

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2018, Boston

The 25th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) just wrapped up in warm, sunny Boston. Everyone in attendance took advantage of the fine March weather to get some much-needed sun, to feel the sand between their toes, to sip a tropical drink, and to hear the latest in HIV research. Well, the last part was true […]

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March 4th, 2018

Winner of ID Cartoon Caption Contest #3, and Here’s #4 Just in Time for CROI

One of the challenging aspects of writing this blog is that there is so much interesting material in the ID/HIV world that sometimes I forget to cover critical items. Example: the winner of the most recent ID Cartoon Caption Contest, which I’m embarrassed to admit, has been awaiting its announcement since late 2016. The winner: It’s a great […]

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February 25th, 2018

Is Self-Administered Postexposure Prophylaxis Another Viable Option for HIV Prevention?

Most of the pivotal trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) have used daily therapy. The lone exception is the IPERGAY study. Men at high risk for acquiring HIV took two tablets of tenofovir DF/emtricitabine (TDF/FTC, Truvada) before sex, and one tablet the next 2 days. The strategy was highly effective in preventing HIV acquisition, and intermittent PrEP is endorsed […]

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February 19th, 2018

Can We Solve the Morass of Outpatient Intravenous Antibiotic Therapy?

If you want to get an ID doctor riled up, here are a few reliable strategies: Get an ID consult on a complex patient just to summarize the chart for your discharge summary. Endorse the view that procedural doctors deserve their vastly higher salaries than MDs in cognitive specialties. Prescribe azithromycin for patients with bad colds. […]

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February 12th, 2018

Shingles Vaccine Video, New Name for C. diff, Flu B Rising, and More — A Pre-Valentine’s Day ID Link-o-Rama

With Valentine’s Day and early spring training baseball both on the horizon this week, it’s obviously time for an extra special ID Link-o-Rama. On to the links, with a bonus non-ID section and a highly recommended video at the end: The ACIP issued its official recommendations for herpes zoster (shingles) immunization. Preferred: the new recombinant zoster vaccine, […]

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February 5th, 2018

The Four States of Clinical Medicine, and a Movie Review (Sort Of)

I finally saw The Big Sick. And hooray, it’s excellent. 9/10. Based loosely on the real-life courtship between comedian Kumail Nanjiani and writer Emily V. Gordon, the movie has great word of mouth, is making gobs of money for an independent comedy, and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Deserves both the the accolades and the cash. In […]

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January 28th, 2018

Apple Wants to Build an Electronic Medical Record — Here’s Where They Should Start

If you want to get a bunch of clinicians riled up — make them really mad — ask them to describe the problems with their current electronic medical record. So when a company like Apple announces it plans to introduce an electronic medical record of sorts, we should rejoice, right? This is the company, after all, that leveraged […]

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January 21st, 2018

Curbside Consults Complex and Silly, the Medicolegal Angle, and a Whole Podcast About Curbsides

Curbside consults are much on my mind this week for several reasons. First: I received an extremely complex curbside — a case of an HIV patient (from another state) who experienced treatment failure, had developed multi-class resistance, including integrase resistance (hate that), and now faced a tricky treatment regimen. The email was a good 300 words long […]

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