HIV and ID Observations

July 13th, 2011

More Favorable Results on PrEP, But …

As part of the usual flurry of studies released just before major scientific meetings, results of two pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trials in heterosexual men and women have just been made public: In the CDC TDF2 study, 1200 HIV-uninfected men and women in Botswana were randomized to take oral tenofovir/FTC or placebo daily. Tenofovir/FTC was found to reduce the […]

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July 12th, 2011

A Thank You to Nice Patients

Yesterday I saw one of my favorite long-term patients. She’s just wonderful, and it’s always a joy to see her. Here are some reasons: She’s uniformly nice — not just to me, but to all the nurses and social workers and other support staff in our clinic. She shows up on time for her appointments. Love […]

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July 5th, 2011

Unofficial CROI 2012 Dates: March 4-10, in Seattle

No, there’s nothing up yet (as of July 5, 2011) on the official CROI web site. But someone was kind enough to send me this link that lists upcoming meetings in Seattle.  Here’s an extract: Note that only those events with green shading are “Definite.” And since these dates haven’t yet been confirmed by the CROI-meisters, it’s […]

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June 19th, 2011

Abacavir Agonistes

The studies on abacavir and its potential association with increased cardiovascular risk have been inconsistent ever since the news first broke at CROI 2008. But recently the data have been swirling around so fast and furious that it seems appropriate to take out this famous Greek epithet. A summary of some recent notable studies: An FDA meta-analysis […]

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June 15th, 2011

Hockey Helicobacters

Today’s ID/HIV items come to you courtesy of a winter game being played during a summer month: So it appears that community-based care of HCV augmented by telemedicine is just as good as traditional clinic visits to specialists. My first thought on reading this important paper is that there are undoubtedly lots of ways to incorporate […]

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June 13th, 2011

More on Generic Antiretrovirals …

In the recent post on the approval of generic Combivir — and the lack of availability of generic Epivir (lamivudine, 3TC), which was both anticipated and likely to be more useful — I speculated there were several possible causes of this surprising turn of events. But ultimately I concluded, “In sum, the real reason there’s no generic […]

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June 4th, 2011

HIV Epidemiology and Something Even Many Smart Medical Students Don’t Know

Periodically I like to give an informal quiz to the medical students about HIV epidemiology. It’s a multiple choice question that goes something like this: Based on the recent epidemiology of HIV in the United States, in what group are new cases of HIV infection rising the fastest? Men who have sex with men (MSM) Injection drug […]

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May 26th, 2011

Surprise! It’s Generic Combivir!

After last week’s unveiling of the new NNRTI rilpivirine, now we have a different kind of drug approval from the FDA: FDA granted approval for a generic formulation fixed dose combination of lamivudine and zidovudine tablets, 150 mg/300 mg, two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of […]

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May 23rd, 2011

Rilpivirine Approved — the “iPod” of NNRTIs?

From the FDA on Friday (it’s always on Friday, isn’t it): FDA approved Edurant (rilpivirine) 25 mg tablets, a new non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) for the treatment of HIV. Rilpivirine is an antiviral drug that helps to block reverse transcriptase, an enzyme necessary for HIV replication. The recommended dose of rilpivirine is one 25 mg […]

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May 18th, 2011

HIV Exceptionalism and the Department of Unintended Consequences

Quick question:  If there were one piece of information — clinical or lab — that you would use to determine the quality of care in an HIV program, what would it be?  (Choose one.) Rates of influenza vaccine administration Receiving PCP prophylaxis with CD4 < 200 Adherence counseling before starting antiretroviral therapy Baseline toxoplasmosis serology Proportion of […]

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