HIV and ID Observations

September 17th, 2010

What Are These Conferences?

With ICAAC now completed — which took place in a city called Boston but seemed far, far, from home (see picture) — it seems timely to inquire about another form of “scientific” conference. Every so often, I’ll receive an email like this (slightly edited to protect the sender, whomever he or she may be): Dear Dr. Professor Sax, […]

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August 26th, 2010

Lyme Cases Up — Anecdotes, True Epidemiology, and More Anecdotes

All of us New England-based ID doctors (and internists and family practitioners and pediatricians and NPs/PAs in primary care) who have been in practice a while will tell you that Lyme cases have been increasing for years. And it’s not just the number of cases, it’s also where and when they are occurring.  A few years ago […]

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August 18th, 2010

Wednesday Wolbachias

Some scattered HIV/ID issues as the days remain warm but are (sadly) growing shorter: Here’s another one of these legal cases in which a person with HIV is charged with a crime for not warning partners about being HIV positive.  Interesting twists this time:  it’s a woman, and it’s in Germany.  This other one in Texas […]

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August 10th, 2010

Curbside Consults: The Yin and the Yang

One of the simultaneously most enjoyable and exasperating aspects of being an Infectious Disease specialist is the large volume of “curbside” consultations we get from colleagues. For example, here’s this week’s talley — and it’s only Tuesday — done from memory and without systematically keeping track of emails, pages, phone calls, etc.: Duration of antibiotics after urosepsis, […]

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July 14th, 2010

Common Sense on the HIV Testing Law in the Bay State

From yesterday’s Boston Globe: Existing state law puts up a speed bump, by demanding a special written consent form before doctors can check for the AIDS virus. A bill before the state Senate would bring the rules for HIV screening closer to those for other routine tests. The change is warranted, yet some AIDS activists are […]

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June 16th, 2010

Another HIV Drug Development Program Bows Out

Last month, Avexa announced that they will not be going forward with their development of the investigational NRTI apricitabine. Now Myriad says its program to develop bevirimat is closing as well. The problems with these drugs — twice daily dosing with apricitabine, formulation and mixed responses with bevirimat — are not the real story here, since arguably we […]

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May 18th, 2010

Electronic Medical Records and (LONG) ID Notes

When it comes to writing consult notes, it often seems as if we ID specialists have a blatant form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Every detail is fair game — travel history, dietary habits, all sorts of seemingly trivial exposures, and of course microbiologic data stretching back to the Cretaceous period. I’ll never forget receiving sign-out from the graduating […]

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May 14th, 2010

The Luxury of the START Study … and Running Out of ART in Uganda

Over on our Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care site, we did a poll asking about the ongoing START study: In the START study, HIV-infected patients with CD4 counts greater than 500 cells per cubic mm are being randomized to start antiretroviral therapy right away or to wait until the CD4 count falls to 350 cells per […]

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May 9th, 2010

Amusing Medical Cartoons … and Humor in Medicine

Someone pointed out this cartoon to me. What an eloquent depiction of the interior dialogue of a young doctor as she considers various non-medical careers. Brilliant! Which led me to thinking more broadly about humor in medicine, about which I quickly remembered that anyone writing about humor (as opposed to writing humorously) will be instantly unfunny. Sorry. So […]

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April 24th, 2010

Choosing an Official State Microbe

Wisconsin has selected Lactococcus lactis as its official state microbe: The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:  SECTION 1. 1.10 (3) (t) of the statutes is created to read: 1.10 (3) (t) The bacterium Lactococcus lactis is the state microbe. SECTION 2. 1.10 (4) of the statutes is amended to […]

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