HIV and ID Observations

May 16th, 2016

Lots of College Graduations ID Link-O-Rama

For those of us living and working in Boston, we are most definitely smack dab in the middle of college graduation season — which means traffic is crazy, restaurants are booked, and energetic young adults are everywhere wearing gowns and funny hats. In other words, a good excuse for an ID Link-o-Rama: FDA advises against use of fluoroquinolones for uncomplicated […]

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April 24th, 2016

Why Getting Old Isn’t Always So Terrible — and Why People with HIV Can Now Get Life Insurance

Two patient-related anecdotes, then a news item. Anecdote #1: A little email exchange I had with one of my patients recently: Hi Paul, Wondering if you got the refill request for my meds from my mail-order pharmacy — their customer service is lousy, and I can’t tell if it’s been approved. I’d like to get this settled before […]

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March 27th, 2016

One-Week-to-Baseball ID Link-o-Rama

(Important note:  Title has nothing to do with this post’s content. I just felt like writing something about baseball.) As some of us eagerly await the start of the 2016 baseball season — especially Cubs fans — here are some ID/HIV items yearning to shag flies, toss around the horsehide, and play some pepper: Famous anti-vaxxer — and notorious scientific fraud — […]

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March 9th, 2016

Approval of TAF/FTC/RPV, Another Single Pill HIV Treatment Option

The approval last week of TAF/FTC/RPV — that’s coformulated tenofovir alafenamide, emtricitabine, and rilpivirine — brings us another one-pill, once-daily option for HIV treatment. It’s essentially the same as the existing TDF/FTC/RPV, with similar pros/cons, but with three notable differences coming with the substitution of TAF for TDF. Specifically: Likely reduced renal and bone toxicity. Since approval was based on bioequivalnce, this hasn’t […]

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February 28th, 2016

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2016, Boston

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) returned to Boston last week, bringing together over 4000 HIV researchers and clinicians from all over the world. And note I put “researchers” first — this is certainly the only conference I attend where we are asked to list published papers as part of the registration process! You can […]

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February 13th, 2016

“Choosing Wisely” in HIV Medicine — Sensible (But Safe) Suggestions

The American Board of Internal Medicine has a noble program called Choosing Wisely®, which is both trademarked (look, I even included the “®”), and pretty darn sensible — it has the goal of “advancing a national dialogue on avoiding wasteful or unnecessary medical tests, treatments and procedures.” If you clicked on the above link, you’ll be […]

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January 18th, 2016

IV and Injectable HIV Treatments Are Much Discussed — But Won’t Be Here Anytime Soon

Something interesting happens when you poll people who treat HIV — and people who have HIV — about whether they’d prefer a treatment option that consists of a periodic injection or infusion in place of the pill or pills that they take every day. Lots of them say yes. Even people who are taking just one pill […]

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January 10th, 2016

Medical Marijuana and Painful Neuropathy — An Opportunity to Make Us Believers

Medical marijuana is now officially available in New York, the city with by far the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. Reporting on the first dispensary in Manhattan, the aptly named Julie Weed (yes! her real name!) writes: One of the most promising areas for research is the substitution of medical marijuana for […]

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November 26th, 2015

Five (OK, Six) ID/HIV Things to be Grateful for this Holiday Season, 2015 Edition

Some quick ID/HIV gratitude items for 2015, done rapidly as we’re hosting a big meal later today. I wonder what that might be. New Ebola virus disease cases and deaths have dramatically declined. I write that sentence with some trepidation, as cases continue to occur sporadically, and this late relapse in a nurse was a chilling reminder of […]

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November 22nd, 2015

Just Wondering: Quick ID Questions to Consider

Several quick ID queries, some of them answerable on the Google machine — but I’m not going there. Too busy laundering my white coat! What ever happened to amphotericin A? What’s the difference between a “serovar” and a “serotype”? Do dogs feel bad that Pasteurella multocida is more famous than Capnocytophaga canimorsus? Colistin resistance is bad — but how often does colistin actually work […]

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