HIV and ID Observations

August 10th, 2014

Waiting (and Preparing) for Ebola

For Infectious Diseases doctors, there’s a certain life cycle to the big ID topics that make their way to the lay press, and it’s playing out right now big time with the terrible Ebola outbreak in Western Africa. It goes like this: Someone reports an outbreak in a venue like ProMED. Almost synchronously, it is covered by the […]

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July 31st, 2014

Simeprevir, Sofosbuvir, and the Limitations of the COSMOS

These are exciting times for hepatitis C treatment, as the approval of simeprevir and sofosbuvir in late 2013 have made curing this disease a whole lot easier. Since that sentence barely conveys the transformative nature of this medical advance, allow me this tortured analogy: Before simeprevir and sofosbuvir, curing hepatitis C was like making a transatlantic […]

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July 30th, 2014

Hepatitis Day “Celebration” and a Reminder

July 28 is “World Hepatitis Day” (how do they choose the dates for these things?), and I wrote a bit over on the Oxford University Press site on the incredible progress we’ve made already — with more to come. Definitely plenty of reasons to celebrate — safe and effective immunizations for hepatitis A and B, treatment […]

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July 27th, 2014

Really Rapid Review — AIDS 2014, Melbourne

For the second time — the first time was in Sydney, 2007 — the annual “summer” international AIDS conference took place in Australia, this time in Melbourne way down in the southern part of the country. I’ll note again how the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 cast a sad note over the opening sessions, and […]

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July 14th, 2014

Despite Baby’s Relapse, HIV Cure Research Marches On

The big news in the HIV world over the past week was of course the virologic rebound of the Mississippi Baby, who up to this point was considered possibly the second person cured of HIV. (Timothy Brown — stem-cell transplant recipient from CCR5 negative donor — remains the first and only HIV cure. Every report on this topic […]

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June 28th, 2014

CDC Nixes HIV Western Blot in Latest Testing Guidelines

Finally, it’s official — the Western blot is no longer recommended as a confirmatory test for HIV infection. From the latest Laboratory Testing for the Diagnosis of HIV Infection, updated June 27: The HIV-1 Western blot and HIV-1 immunofluorescence assay, previously recommended to make a laboratory diagnosis of HIV-1 infection, are no longer part of the recommended algorithm. […]

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June 24th, 2014

At Long Last, Some New Antibiotics That Might Make a Difference

Compared to HIV, HCV, and antifungal agents, development of novel antibacterial drugs has been in a bit of a funk for quite some time now. Here’s what’s been approved in the past 10 years, with year of approval and a few comments: Telithromycin (2004):  The first ketolide antibiotic, it was supposed to overcome macrolide-resistant respiratory pathogens. But there were huge […]

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June 15th, 2014

Poll: Should ID Doctors Still Do HIV Primary Care?

My friend and colleague Ken Freedberg is giving a talk soon at our regional IDSA meeting called, “Who Should Be Providing HIV Care?” He’s a very smart guy (except during the football playoffs, when he is possessed by evil forces), so maybe he’ll answer this question that has strangely bedeviled our field for decades. But I’m sure […]

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June 4th, 2014

Anti-Vaccine Movement Slammed By Daily Show; ID Doctors, Pediatricians Happy

The anti-vaccine crowd gets a pretty good drubbing here from Samantha Bee on The Daily Show. I’d feel a tiny bit bad for them — gosh their opinions are pathetic — but since I’m an ID specialist married to a pediatrician, I can only rejoice in the brilliance of this piece. And yes, stupidity crosses political party lines. Enjoy! The Daily Show […]

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May 28th, 2014

Some ID Stuff We’re Talking About on Rounds

Just finished two weeks on the inpatient general medical service — hence the radio silence — giving me a chance to work with residents, interns, and medical students. Here’s a smattering of the ID topics we discussed, along with a comment or two: “Common” causes of gram negative soft tissue infection (at least for board exam purposes), and […]

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