HIV and ID Observations

November 25th, 2016

ID Cartoon Caption Contest #2 Winner — and a New Contest for the Holidays

Every so often, one of my regular readers (which must number at least a dozen at this point, including my extended family, dog, and cat) asks me where I come up with ideas. The answer, of course, is that there are infinite sources of inspiration in the field of Infectious Diseases — the difficulty is choosing what fascinating topic […]

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November 20th, 2016

Seven ID/HIV Things to Be Grateful For This Holiday Season, 2016 Edition

I know, I know — you read that title and thought, “Grateful now? He must be out of his mind.” But with the (unsurprising) concession that I too felt that watching the election returns was akin to witnessing a slowly developing and incomprehensible train wreck, I remind you that the expression of gratitude is well known to make you happier. […]

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November 13th, 2016

Poll: Should We Be Starting HIV “Elite Controllers” On Antiretroviral Therapy?

(Note to readers: This will have nothing to do with the election — for obvious reasons. Yes, there’s a poll at the end, but your political views will not matter one bit. There, I feel better.) Just received this email from a longstanding leader in HIV care and research: I would like to ask for you a favor. […]

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November 6th, 2016

Do ID Clinicians Perpetuate Our Own Stigma?

Infectious Diseases doctors will find this exchange familiar: New person you’re meeting:  What to do you do? ID Doc:  I’m a doctor. New person:  Oh — what kind? ID Doc:  A specialist in Infectious Diseases. New person (making a face, or moving a few feet back, either to be humorous or truly frightened, or both):  Yuck! […]

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October 29th, 2016

Are Antibiotics Useful for Small Skin Abscesses? Now There’s an Answer

Let’s start with the clinical controversy, one that’s been bouncing around Emergency Rooms, outpatient practices, postgraduate courses, and medical journals for years. Specifically, are antibiotics helpful for skin abscesses that are adequately drained? It’s still debated since of course most patients with this annoying problem will get better on their own provided the drainage is adequate. What do the antibiotics […]

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October 20th, 2016

Back to School: Questions from “ID in Primary Care” — Shared and Answered!

Once again, we’re giving our “Infectious Diseases in Primary Care” post-graduate course in beautiful Boston — where the weather is perfect, the air crisp and clear, and we are all watching with excitement as the few remaining baseball teams and presidential candidates make a mad dash to the end of their respective races. (You might have heard something […]

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October 9th, 2016

Why Guessing An ID/HIV Doctor’s Political Affiliation Is Easy

One of our medical school’s most beloved teachers gives a wonderful lecture on how to give an effective presentation. He offers many invaluable tips for a successful talk, such as 1) Show up early; 2) Know your audience; 3) Don’t read your slides; 4) Never include a slide that you need to preface by saying, “I know you can’t […]

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October 2nd, 2016

“Brink of HIV Cure” ID Link-o-Rama

There, that title got your attention, didn’t it? Anyway, this HIV cure news thing and a few other ID/HIV topics to contemplate while buying your pumpkin, celebrating the New Year in October, or shaking your head that all the stores seem to be putting out their Christmas stuff already. I mean, come on — it’s not even Halloween! Are […]

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September 25th, 2016

Is There a Hospitalist “Bounce-Back” to ID?

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published two outstanding pieces on hospitalists, and they had pretty much diametrically opposing perspectives. Both should be required reading for anyone practicing medicine, and indeed anyone who might know — or be — a patient in a U.S. hospital one day. In short, everyone. But since you may not have time, let me […]

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September 18th, 2016

Ten Years After Landmark HIV Testing Guidelines, How Are We Doing? Specifically in Emergency Departments?

In the late 1990s, a patient was admitted to our hospital with HIV-associated PCP. He had advanced AIDS, a CD4 cell count < 100, and was sick enough to require a temporary stay in our ICU. Those clinical details aren’t so remarkable — “late” diagnoses of HIV still happen, and happened even more back then. What’s […]

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