HIV and ID Observations

April 23rd, 2008

Antiretrovirals in the Pipeline: And Then There Were … None?

The flurry of drug approvals that began in 2005 with tipranavir – followed rapidly by darunavir, maraviroc, raltegravir, and most recently etravirine – has been nothing short of astounding. Every experienced HIV clinician now has many patients who are on successful (read: suppressive) treatment for the first time ever. The Vancouver HIV program — wonderfully called […]

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April 17th, 2008

Required Reading: Bat-Related Human Rabies

A group of researchers in Canada have done infectious diseases experts a big favor — they’ve summarized a staggering amount of useful data on bat-related cases of human rabies in a paper just published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Note to non-ID specialists: infectious diseases doctors spend a lot of time answering questions about rabies in […]

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April 10th, 2008

Needed: Something Better than “HAART”

I think we all have pet peeves, and so I’ll confess one of mine: I hate the term “HAART.” (I work with someone, by the way, who hates the term “viral load,” preferring “virus load.” Go figure.) Standing for “highly active antiretroviral therapy,” HAART first surfaced in the mid-1990s in order to distinguish potent anti-HIV treatment from the older, […]

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March 20th, 2008

How to Solve at Least One Part of the Healthcare Mess: ADAP for All

The presidential elections have once again made our Byzantine healthcare system a regular feature in the news. A recent film also made quite a splash, and though Michael Moore offered no plausible solutions (Cuba? c’mon!), he certainly made me wonder what I’d do if I had two severed fingers that needed to be reattached and only enough money […]

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March 19th, 2008

How long have I got, Doc?

Some aspects of seeing a patient newly-diagnosed with HIV haven’t changed much over the years — for example, the emotions in the room remain a mix of fear, shame (note to world: this is still a highly stigmatized disease), incredulity, and ultimately relief in finding a clinician who is comfortable with the condition. But a […]

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