HIV and ID Observations

May 29th, 2017

Healthcare Providers Shouldn’t Come to Work While Sick, but They Do — Here’s Why

Let’s start with two questions: Have you ever seen a doctor, nurse, PA, pharmacist or other person directly involved in patient care wearing a surgical mask because they have a respiratory tract infection? Has this mask-wearing person ever been you? Bold prediction: Virtually every reader who works in a hospital or large office practice answered “Yes” to #1. Some […]

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April 30th, 2017

Celebrating the Invaluable Knowledge and Expertise of ID Specialist PharmD’s

Since expression of gratitude makes you happier — hey, I read it on the internet — and whining does the reverse, I’ve decided to turn what was going to be a typical rant about dealing with insurance companies into an expression of thanks to a remarkable group of professionals. Namely, the Doctors of Pharmacy (PharmD’s) who specialize in Infectious […]

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April 5th, 2017

Here’s What Happens When You Search “Infectious Diseases” on a Stock Photo Site

Everyone knows a stock image when they see one. The people don’t look real, the activities are staged, and everything has an air-brushed, frozen quality that screams, “This is not a real thing, but we need some copyright-free graphics and this is the best we can do.” Strangely depersonalized group photos, animals in human activities, and computer-created illustrations just […]

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March 25th, 2017

HIV and Hepatitis C Are No Longer the Most Serious Infectious Threats to People Who Inject Drugs

I had dinner with my daughter Mimi the other evening, and was ruminating about how things have changed since I started work as an Infectious Diseases doctor around 25 years ago. Here’s an excerpt of our chat: Me:  There are way more cases of endocarditis in young people than there used to be, a complication of injecting drugs. People in their 20s and […]

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March 19th, 2017

What Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price Should Be Saying About Required Immunizations

In case you missed it, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price said this past week that the states should make decisions about mandatory vaccination policies. Here’s the actual clip: HHS Secretary Tom Price says it should be up to states to regulate whether immunizations are required https://t.co/soyH0YpO5E — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 16, 2017 What’s notable here isn’t the […]

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March 5th, 2017

High-Dose Flu Vaccine, Robert De Niro Challenge, Antibiotics for Colds, and More: March Comes in Like a Lion ID Link-o-Rama

Here are a few ID/HIV items blowing around the neighborhood on this, a bitterly cold and windy first weekend of March (at least here in Boston): Compared with the standard dose vaccine, the high-dose flu vaccine reduced deaths among older adults. The benefit was seen in the 2012-13 flu season, but not 2013-14. The authors speculate that the circulating […]

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February 26th, 2017

Improving Outcomes with ID Consultation: Three More Papers For the Collection

Several years ago, one of my very brilliant colleagues posed an interesting question. Why do ID specialists even exist? “After all,” he said in an accent that happens to be a distinctive mix of several former British colonies. “There is nothing we do that other doctors couldn’t also do, provided they had the motivation.” He had a point — with no required […]

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February 19th, 2017

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2017, Seattle

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) returned to Seattle this past week for its 24th meeting. It’s the 4th time CROI has been held in Seattle, an excellent city for a meeting of this size, which includes “only” 4200 people. The convention center is pleasant and user-friendly — big but not cavernous, actually encourages […]

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November 6th, 2016

Do ID Clinicians Perpetuate Our Own Stigma?

Infectious Diseases doctors will find this exchange familiar: New person you’re meeting:  What to do you do? ID Doc:  I’m a doctor. New person:  Oh — what kind? ID Doc:  A specialist in Infectious Diseases. New person (making a face, or moving a few feet back, either to be humorous or truly frightened, or both):  Yuck! […]

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July 3rd, 2016

Velpatasvir/Sofosbuvir Makes HCV Treatment Simpler, Especially For Genotypes 2 and 3

One of the ways ID and hepatology hepatitis C experts like to show off is by discoursing on the nuances of cleverly named clinical trials, and how these impact treatment guidelines. It usually goes something like this: “In the EP-CILEON [I made that up] study of [insert HCV regimen here], treatment-experienced patients with genotype [insert non-genotype 1 patients here, […]

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