HIV and ID Observations

October 31st, 2009

Would Changing Restrictive HIV Testing Laws Improve Survival?

Emphatically yes — to the tune of >600,000* years of life gained nationwide.  So says a nifty paper being presented at the annual IDSA meeting today by Mike April, under the direction of Rochelle Walensky. (*Original abstract said 549,437, cited in the link; number at the actual presentation, though, was 609,656.) Bottom line is that laws that […]

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October 20th, 2009

Well That Was Fast! HIV Vaccine Trial Published

Remember the HIV vaccine trial press release?  The one announcing the first-ever positive result? Then the backlash, with people questioning how the analyses were done, and reported? Now, less than a month later, we have the scientific presentation and the paper appear on the same day. Read all about it here and here. If you want the view […]

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October 17th, 2009

Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Another Retroviral Disease?

Here’s a surprising report in Science: Studying peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from CFS patients, we identified DNA from a human gammaretrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), in 68 of 101 patients (67%) compared to 8 of 218 (3.7%) healthy controls … These findings raise the possibility that XMRV may be a contributing factor […]

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October 5th, 2009

No Baseball Tonight

“Are you writing another funny blog post because there’s no baseball?” asks my son J. As “funny” is very much in the eye of the beholder, that remains to be seen.  But here are a few things on my mind the last few days: No data supporting N95 over surgical masks for flu.  One huge logistical issue […]

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September 30th, 2009

The Battle for Colonic Microflora

My two favorite newspapers (New York Times and Wall Street Journal — sorry, hometown paper) have just covered opposite ends of a topic on the edges of ID practice — namely, colonic micro-organisms. Too few? Too many? Wrong type? In the Times, a review of the probiotic debate: Probiotics are live micro-organisms that work by restoring the balance of intestinal […]

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September 24th, 2009

HIV Vaccine Study Shows Promise …

So says this press release by the US Military HIV Research Program: A Phase III clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adult volunteers in Thailand has demonstrated that an investigational HIV vaccine regimen was safe and modestly effective in preventing HIV infection. According to final results released by the trial sponsor, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, […]

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September 18th, 2009

Integrase Inhibitors: In Search of an Abbreviation

The alphabet soup that characterizes HIV therapeutics has always been one of its quirky challenges — for example, who could possibly know that 3TC, CBV, TZV, EPZ, and LAM all refer to drugs that are (or contain) lamivudine? This drives our ID fellows nuts, and is certainly a strong deterrent to non-HIV specialists to learning the field. […]

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September 16th, 2009

News Flash: The Internet Cannot Replace an Actual Human

Interested in researching the cause of AIDS?  Well go ahead and give NetBase Solutions’ healthBase a try, but don’t expect much in the way of filtering: One of the most unfortunate examples is when you type in a search for “AIDS,” one of the listed causes of the disease is “Jew.” Really. The ridiculousness continues. […]

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September 12th, 2009

49th ICAAC Starts Today

Browsing through the program book, I see these topics extensively covered: H1N1 and seasonal flu, in all their glory — transmission, pathogenesis, treatment, predictions Highly resistant GNR — acinetobacter, carbapenemases, ESBL, etc. MRSA — my personal favorite C diff — though perhaps a little less this year? While no one expects ICAAC to be an HIV-focused […]

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September 4th, 2009

For Suspected H1N1, Get Out the N95 Masks?

So says the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations for protection of health care workers: Healthcare workers (including those in non-hospital settings) who are in close contact with individuals with nH1N1 influenza or influenza-like illnesses should use fit-tested N95 respirators … Employers should ensure that the use and fit testing of N95 respirators be conducted in accordance with […]

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