HIV and ID Observations

May 16th, 2012

Azithromycin Linked to Cardiovascular Death — Not A Placebo After All

I’ve commented before about azithromycin, that remarkable antibiotic that clinicians seem to prescribe for, gosh, you-name-it. But a paper just published in the New England Journal of Medicine links use of azithromycin to an increased risk of cardiovascular death, a reminder that “azithro” is in fact a drug — and that all drugs have side […]

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May 10th, 2012

Advisory Meeting Today on Tenofovir/FTC for PrEP, and a Proposed “Niche” for its Use

From Bloomberg News: Gilead Sciences Inc.’s pill Truvada was safe and effective when used to protect uninfected people from getting HIV, U.S. regulators said in a report indicating the main concerns are when and how it should be used … The FDA asked its advisers to suggest who should get Truvada; what testing would be […]

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May 7th, 2012

Difficulties and Differences on C difficile

Some things in our field — diseases, treatments, generalizations, cliches, fads — have really changed since back in the early 1990s, when I started in this business. Here are a few that quickly come to mind: “Double coverage” of pseudomonas with a beta lactam plus an aminoglycoside was de rigueur MRSA was an inpatient concern […]

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April 23rd, 2012

An Answer to a Commonly Asked Question: Is Treatment 100% Effective in Preventing HIV Transmission?

The excitement about “treatment as prevention”, and the results of Study 052, have led to many patients asking the question (if not in these words, than using others with a less medical slant), “So if I’m on treatment and doing well, just what is the risk of my transmitting HIV to others?” It’s not a […]

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April 18th, 2012

Been There, Done That

I’d estimate the verisimilitude of the following video at approximately 100%: (Thanks to Raphy Landovitz for the link!)

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April 17th, 2012

EASL Starts Tomorrow — Get Ready for the HCV Treatment Deluge

I can’t think of a single upcoming scientific meeting in ID that’s likely to be more “game changing”  — sorry for the tired metaphor — than the 47th European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) meeting, which starts tomorrow in Barcelona. As a hint of what’s to come, earlier this month Abbott released […]

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April 10th, 2012

A Skeptical Look at “Test and Treat”

Over in Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care, Abbie Zuger has written a fascinating perspective on the recent enthusiasm for universal HIV treatment. Her take? Let’s just say she doesn’t share the enthusiasm of public health officials and members of guidelines committees. Well, that’s a huge understatement. Specifically: This strategy, which calls for universal voluntary HIV […]

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April 4th, 2012

Infectious Diseases Specialists Take the Best Medical Histories

In an era where control-c followed by control-v — that’s cut and paste, for those of you who don’t use keyboard shortcuts — is the prime method by which most clinicians write their medical notes, I’d like to come right out and brag that ID doctors take the best medical histories. You could argue (as […]

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March 15th, 2012

CROI 2012 Really Rapid Review — with CROI 2013 Dates!

Some highly subjective highlights — a Really Rapid Review™– from this year’s Number One Greatest Super Scientific HIV Conference, the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which ended last week in Seattle: Need more evidence that maintaining a CD4 cell count > 500 is beneficial? This compelling analysis from the SMART and ESPRIT  studies found […]

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March 4th, 2012

Be Careful What You “Catch”

On the eve of the 19th Retroconference, or “CROI” — and I’m headed to Seattle right this moment — two baseball players have intersected with the world of Infectious Diseases. Ike Davis of the Mets has Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever). And Ryan Howard of the Phillies has an infection after achilles tendon surgery. Bottom line, it’s quite […]

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