HIV and ID Observations

July 26th, 2012

Pigs are Flying: Written Consent No Longer Needed for an HIV Test in Massachusetts

Let the record show that as of July 26, 2012, a person in Massachusetts can legally get an HIV test without signing a written consent. Hooray. There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

---

July 25th, 2012

AIDS Quilt, the Early 1990s, and Sadness

The early 1990s has potentially many associations — the break-up of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War, the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, The Lion King, Forest Gump, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and the cancellation of the baseball season, to name a few. But we HIV/ID specialists will always […]

---

July 23rd, 2012

IAS-USA HIV Guidelines Updated

With the International AIDS Conference in Washington just starting, the International Antiviral (ahem) Society-USA has revised its HIV treatment guidelines, updating the 2010 version. As has been the case for several years now, it’s published in JAMA and also available on the IAS-USA web site. It’s a well written, evidence-driven summary of the current state of […]

---

July 1st, 2012

“HAART Era” Now Longer Than “Pre-HAART Era” — Can We Officially Retire “HAART”?

As I’ve shared before, I’m no fan of the term “HAART” and do everything I can to stop people from using it. (I’m a fun guy to have at parties.) I’m returning to this pet peeve of mine because I realized recently that we’ve passed a milestone of sorts: Period of no effective HIV treatment, 15 years (1981-1996) […]

---

June 29th, 2012

HIV Testing Roundup, and a Brief Rant

I’ve written so many times about HIV testing that a complete list of the headlines fills two full web pages. But since the last entry on the topic was more than a month ago, one might think I’ve lost interest in the topic. Never! Three items on the HIV Testing radar, two national, one local. First, for a classic […]

---

June 20th, 2012

Abacavir Becomes the Latest Generic Antiretroviral Agent

Hot on the heels of generic nevirapine comes generic abacavir: On June 18, 2012, FDA granted approval for a generic formulation of abacavir tablets, 300 mg, manufactured by Mylan Pharmaceuticals, indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. FDA has determined that the generic formulation is bioequivalent and, therefore, therapeutically equivalent to the […]

---

June 17th, 2012

For Inpatients, HIV Medication Errors Common — Then Promptly Corrected

Several papers have shown that antiretrovirals may be incorrectly prescribed for hospitalized patients with HIV. How do they do at Johns Hopkins — the site of one of the best comprehensive HIV programs in the country (and perennial US News and World Report #1 Hospital in the Universe)? As described in a new CID paper, investigators reviewed ART […]

---

June 13th, 2012

Questions About HIV Cure, and a Very Funny Quote

The single case of HIV cure following allogeneic bone marrow transplant is in the news again, this time because of data just presented at “The International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Virus Drug Resistance and Curative Strategies” (formerly known as the “HIV Resistance Workshop” — how’s that for rebranding?). I’m not at the meeting, which is too […]

---

June 8th, 2012

SPARTAN: Two-Drug, NRTI-Sparing Strategies Continue to Disappoint

Just published is the cleverly named “SPARTAN” study — spartan because it leaves out both NRTIs and ritonavir — and the results are very interesting. Ninety-three treatment-naive HIV-positive study subjects were randomized 2:1 to receive either a two-drug regimen of raltegravir 400 mg BID + atazanavir 300 mg BID, or a standard regimen of TDF/FTC + boosted atazanavir. […]

---

June 2nd, 2012

Cryptococcal Meningitis Study Stopped — Early HIV Therapy Clearly Harmful

From NIAID, an important clinical trial has been stopped early: The Phase IV study … was evaluating whether HIV-infected participants hospitalized with cryptococcal meningitis (CM) but not yet taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) would improve their chances of survival if they began ART while receiving CM treatment as inpatients compared with the standard practice of beginning ART […]

---