HIV and ID Observations

March 8th, 2015

Measles Vaccine Videos and the Challenge of Changing Someone’s Mind

I suspect most of you have already been treated to this highly amusing video about the measles outbreak from Jimmy Kimmel — a comedy segment featuring real-life doctors, imagine that. Not your typical late-night comedy show performers, but they forcefully (and obscenely) get their message across. If you have just returned from a tropical island where the internet connection was iffy, however, […]

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February 15th, 2015

Should Antibiotics be Part of End-of-Life Care?

There’s been some truly outstanding work done recently on end-of-life care, and how we deal with it — or more accurately, how we typically don’t deal with it until the very last moment, at which time often many unfortunate decisions and events occur. Here are three I can strongly recommend: Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is probably the […]

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January 28th, 2015

Quick Question: Should We Still Be Recommending This Year’s Flu Vaccine?

From a football-obsessed primary care provider, written to me on one very snowy day in New England: Hi Paul, I’ve been reading about this year’s flu vaccine, and how ineffective it is. Not surprisingly, my patients have been hearing this too, and it has only increased their reluctance to go through with it. Should I just […]

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January 7th, 2015

Are the STI Screening Guidelines for Gay Men Overkill? (And Pedro Video.)

Our “healthcare system” recently distributed a set of guidelines entitled, Primary care for gay men: screening and treatment recommendations. It included, among other things, recommendations for screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and anal cancer. The former it adopted from CDC guidelines, which are this this: Screening at least once a year for syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea for all sexually […]

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December 20th, 2014

New HCV Option Effective, Safe, Well-Tolerated — And Use Will Likely Be Driven by Payors

As expected, the FDA approved the next treatment option for HCV on Friday — “Viekira Pak”, a (sometimes complete) regimen consisting of ritonavir-booted parataprevir and ombitasvir given as a two pills once a day, plus one pill of of dasabuvir given twice daily. It is indicated for treatment of HCV genotype 1. For those of you mechanistically inclined, parataprevir […]

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December 14th, 2014

2014 Top Stories in HIV Medicine

Boy do we love end-of-year “Best of …” and “Top Stories of …” lists! Love them! They never gets old! Until January, that is. My own particular favorites are the Best Movies of the Year lists, since for whatever reason it always seems like some masterpiece slips by. Missed it! So we leave it up to the […]

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November 23rd, 2014

Five ID/HIV Things to be Grateful for this Holiday Season, 2014 Edition

Amidst outbreak hysterias, anti-vaccine imbecility, electronic medical record whining, and slug-related eosinophilia, I bring you this year’s version of the good news — the 2014 edition of Five ID/HIV Things to be Grateful for this Holiday Season, just in time for your holiday turkeys. (Needless to say, the bird will be properly cooked to ensure it’s salmonella-free, with all cooking […]

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October 19th, 2014

Almost Filovirus-Free (That is, Ebola-Free) ID Link-o-Rama

If you’re an ID doctor right now, the filovirus of the moment Ebola is consuming a big chunk of all of your non-clinical time — and this is particularly true for those heavily involved in Infection Control, who are spending every waking hour responding to public hysteria, to various clinicians who seem to have all the answers, and to ever […]

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October 15th, 2014

Second U.S. Healthcare Worker with Ebola Further Underscores Urgent Need for Enhanced Preparedness — and Perhaps Designated Care Centers

If you’re like most of us, when you heard that a healthcare worker in Dallas had been diagnosed with Ebola virus disease, you assumed that the exposure occurred during his first visit to the hospital. That is, before he was diagnosed with Ebola, and before infection precautions had been instituted. But no, it happened after he was […]

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October 12th, 2014

Approval of Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir Was Expected, but Still Is a Huge Advance

As expected, the FDA just approved the first single-pill treatment for hepatitis C genotype 1, a tablet containing 400 mg of sofosbuvir (SOF) and 90 mg of ledipasvir (LDV). For those not following this story closely, sofosbuvir is the pan-genotypic NRTI polymerase inhibitor approved last December to much rejoicing — and controversy about the price. Ledipasvir […]

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