HIV and ID Observations

June 4th, 2015

A Slightly Less Painful Way to Learn the Three-Letter Abbreviations for HIV Meds

One of the stupid things about being an HIV/ID specialist is the highly arcane code we use to abbreviate HIV treatments. Why was zidovudine originally AZT, and now ZDV? Why is lamivudine 3TC? And tenofovir TDF? Of course there are legitimate biochemical reasons why these are the right abbreviations, but they are lost to most of us who do […]

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May 27th, 2015

START is STOPPED: Study Confirms HIV Treatment Is Beneficial for All, Even Those with High CD4 Cell Counts

The Strategic Timing of AntiRetroviral Treatment (START) study began in 2009, enrolling over 4000 asymptomatic people with HIV and CD4 cell counts > 500, and randomizing them to immediate ART or to wait until the count dropped to 350. Now, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases comes this important announcement: Though the study was expected […]

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May 6th, 2015

An Apology to Subscribers, and Five Random ID/HIV Questions to Ponder

Some of you have been kind enough to enter your email address in the little box on the right side of this page, which gives you a “subscription” to this site. It looks like this: We thank you for signing up! Delivery is usually prompt and reliable (even during this past winter’s historic snowstorms), and the price […]

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May 4th, 2015

A Drug for Neck Fat, and Some Thoughts on Fat Accumulation Syndromes in HIV

It’s not often that a FDA drug approval for cosmetic dermatologists and plastic surgeons will get the attention of HIV/ID specialists, but this past week was an exception. From the FDA report: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Kybella (deoxycholic acid), a treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe fat below the chin, known as submental […]

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April 8th, 2015

New HIV Treatment Guidelines, and the End of an Era

The new Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) HIV treatment guidelines are out, and thanks to skillful direction by Alice Pau, it’s as usual a must-read document — all 288 pages, of course! There are several major changes, so a good place to start is the all-important “What’s New in the Guidelines” summary page. Some of the […]

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April 3rd, 2015

Melting Snow ID Link-o-Rama

A few ID/HIV tidbits to contemplate as we go from slipping on ice and snow to dodging the mud: Beta-lactam therapy alone is non-inferior to regimens that also cover “atypicals” for hospitalized patients with pneumonia. These results challenge a dogma that has been present for a couple of decades — namely, that all patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia should get either […]

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March 28th, 2015

Quick Question: Should HIV-Negative People in Serodiscordant Relationships All Get PrEP?

From a very thoughtful and experienced primary care provider came this query: Hey Paul, quick question — One of my patients, an HIV-negative gay man, is in a long-term relationship with one of your HIV-positive patients — my patient says his partner has been on successful HIV treatment for years. Obviously I can’t check his partner’s […]

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March 1st, 2015

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2015, Seattle

For the 3rd time in its illustrious history, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) returned to Seattle this past week for it’s 22nd meeting. For those of us living in the North Pole, 50 degrees and drizzle never felt so wonderful! (See image below for graphic representation — that’s my dog Louie wondering what happened to his world. […]

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February 8th, 2015

Snowstorms-a-Plenty ID Link-o-Rama

A few items to discuss as we settle in for yet another Boston megastorm: The measles outbreak continues to bring forth excellent commentaries on the selfishness of vaccine-refusers, with this one from Frank Bruni one of my recent favorites. Question: Will it take a hospitalization — or even worse, a death — of an American child with measles to stop this […]

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December 14th, 2014

2014 Top Stories in HIV Medicine

Boy do we love end-of-year “Best of …” and “Top Stories of …” lists! Love them! They never gets old! Until January, that is. My own particular favorites are the Best Movies of the Year lists, since for whatever reason it always seems like some masterpiece slips by. Missed it! So we leave it up to the […]

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