HIV and ID Observations

June 17th, 2018

Remembering Robert H. (Bob) Rubin, Father of Transplant Infectious Diseases

During my ID fellowship, Robert (Bob) Rubin was my very first attending. It was the transplant service in July, and Bob and I would round with the surgeons each morning. Early each morning. That was part of it. We needed to be there with them, before they disappeared to the OR. If we weren’t there, […]

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June 7th, 2018

What’s Your Favorite Off-Patent Antibiotic Brand Name?

Each time the FDA approves a new drug, they also approve a new brand name. The FDA and other regulators want something safe. They critically want to avoid names that sound or look similar to existing drugs, which could trigger medication errors. And names that imply an ingredient or an action not supported by clinical […]

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May 28th, 2018

Predatory Journals Are Such a Big Problem It’s Not Even Funny

I’ve made fun of academic spam numerous times on this site. It’s those emails from dubious “predatory journals,” written in cheerful but awkward prose, with flowery praise and open invitations to submit research on various scientific topics. You know, the emails that start: Dear Dr. Paul E. Greetings for the day! Most of my coverage […]

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May 6th, 2018

Looking Back on a Decade of Blogging About HIV and Infectious Diseases

Last week, Dr. Wendy Armstrong from Emory kindly invited me to spend some time with their smart, energetic ID fellows. (See if you can pick me out of the group in the photo at right — hint, I’m the old guy on the left.) Before the trip, Wendy asked them whether they’d rather hear me […]

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April 29th, 2018

ID Learning Unit: Clinically Important Streptococcal Infections You Need to Know

As mentioned last week, I’m currently attending on the general medical service, a chance to brush up on non-ID clinical skills, and more importantly, to work with smart, energetic house staff and medical students. Not surprisingly, there’s a wide range of clinical ID on this service, and this year we’ve had a rash of streptococcal […]

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April 22nd, 2018

Some ID Stuff We’re Talking About on Medical Rounds — with Bonus Andy Borowitz Podcast

As an infectious diseases specialist attending on the general medical service each year, I am the beneficiary of a wonderful knowledge exchange. The smart house staff and my generalist co-attending teach me the latest about hyperkalemia, anticoagulation, anemia, alcohol withdrawal, acute renal injury, COPD, atrial fibrillation, pancreatitis, asthma, diabetes, and congestive heart failure — to […]

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April 16th, 2018

Hepatitis C Positive Organ Donors — Coming Soon to a Transplant Center Near You

There’s one immutable fact in solid organ transplantation — the number of patients awaiting transplant exceeds the number of available organs. This shortage means that ethical, medically safe strategies to increase the donor pool are always a high priority. One such strategy would be to allow transplants from people who have chronic hepatitis C. If […]

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April 8th, 2018

Latest DHHS Guidelines for Initial HIV Therapy Now Include 5 Choices — But Really 2 Are Best

On March 28, the Department of Health and Human Services Guidelines issued an update to the HIV treatment guidelines, with a focus on the recent approval of bictegravir/TAF/FTC: BIC/TAF/FTC is an effective and well-tolerated INSTI-based regimen for initial therapy in adults with HIV, with efficacy that is noninferior to DTG/ABC/3TC and DTG plus TAF/FTC for […]

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April 1st, 2018

News Flash — The World Isn’t Sterile

You might have missed this press release from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): Bethesda, MD April 1, 2018 The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at the National Institutes of Health, invites grant applications which propose research in the following 3 critical world health challenges: 1.  Development of an effective […]

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March 18th, 2018

Why with Extremely Resistant Infections, It’s Extremely Important to Consult ID

Since the only procedures most of us Infectious Diseases doctors do with any regularity are biopsies of patient medical records, we have to justify our existence in other ways — such as collecting data on how our expertise improves patient outcomes. There are a bunch of these papers published, with this one being the most […]

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