HIV and ID Observations

February 3rd, 2012

More on Low (but Detectable) Viral Loads — Is Knowing This Useful?

I have a very smart, very experienced colleague — clue, his initials are CC, and he doesn’t pitch for the Yankees — who continues to use bDNA testing for HIV viral load monitoring. You know, the assay with a lower limit of detection of 75 copies. He knows that bDNA is less sensitive than PCR. He knows […]

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January 29th, 2012

Pre-Super Sunday Scombroids

Some quick ID/HIV links while we await big guys playing the big game with a big (or at least bigger) ball. Did you see how this doctor cheated Medicaid out of more than $700,000 by prescribing HIV meds to people who didn’t have HIV? Not surprisingly, he’s going to jail. Proof that if there’s money behind a […]

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January 22nd, 2012

Generic Lamivudine Has Arrived

An e-mail from a patient last week: Just got refills. Epivir is now generic???  Refill is simply labeled Lamivudine Tablets by Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc …but made in India.  Should I be concerned about that??? John I told John (not his real name) not to be concerned — he is merely substituting the generic for the […]

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January 8th, 2012

Journal Club: In Early HIV Infection, Little Reason to Delay Therapy

Every experienced HIV clinician will recognize the following new-patient scenario: At least one, but often several negative HIV antibody tests in the past, generally due to being in a “high risk” group. Recent non-specific viral-type illness that, in hindsight, was undoubtedly acute HIV infection, undiagnosed. Now completely recovered, but found to be newly HIV antibody positive. […]

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December 28th, 2011

Why We Still Need HIV/ID Specialists

Over on Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care, we periodically publish a tricky case — always drawn from clinical practice — then ask some experts how they would manage it, and why. The most recent case pretty much has it all: Multiple prior regimens Multi-class drug resistance Metabolic complications Bad allergy history, one event nearly requiring hospitalization Disfiguring […]

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December 24th, 2011

Making a List and Checking it Twice, Then Making Sure 052 is On It

How big a news story was HPTN 052, which demonstrated that HIV treatment reduced transmission by at least 96%? (I like to emphasize that “at least” bit, since it’s likely that none of the study subjects with undetectable HIV RNA levels transmitted to their partners — the one case that did transmit did so before virologic suppression.) […]

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December 14th, 2011

No HIV in Pepsi? Now THAT’S a Relief

How reassuring to be treated with the following news: An SMS has been circulating that Pepsi products are contaminated with HIV but Permanis Sandilands Sdn Bhd has clarified that this is a hoax. Its marketing vice-president Hemalatha Ragavan said there was no truth to it. She urged people not to believe such claims. I have a couple of […]

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December 11th, 2011

An Unlikely Interviewee Discusses “Six-Class” HIV Drug Resistance

He’d never acknowledge it, but in our field, it’s no secret this guy is something of a rock star. I can think of several key principles in HIV pathogenesis and treatment that he and his research group have discovered, or elucidated most clearly, or simply explained the best — largely through his unique ability to link […]

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December 1st, 2011

World AIDS Day Wanderings

Some quick HIV and ID Observations (better blog title anyone?) for this 2011 World AIDS Day: Through meticulous, painstaking research that took me all of 10 seconds, I’ve learned that the first World AIDS Day was in 1988. What ever did we do before the internet? Looks like New York City’s health department  is following San […]

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November 29th, 2011

HIV Cure Makes the NY Times — Anything New to Report?

It’s right there, on page 1 of today’s Science Times: Medical researchers are again in pursuit of a goal they had all but abandoned: curing AIDS.  Until recently, the possibility seemed little more than wishful thinking. But the experiences of two patients now suggest to many scientists that it may be achievable. Two patients? What, did I […]

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