HIV and ID Observations

June 24th, 2008

HIV Occupational Post-exposure Prophylaxis: Do the Right Thing

From one of our local HIV providers: There were two occasions recently when our local infectious disease doctor was consulted by the emergency room to decide what type of post exposure prophylaxis regimen to recommend for individuals who had sustained an occupational exposure (needlesticks) to two of our HIV positive patients.  It had been known […]

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June 15th, 2008

Curbside Consults: What are They Worth?

Below is a friendly email exchange I had last week with with one of our hospital’s primary care providers: Dear Paul, do you know anything about whether pts should be given prophylactic antibiotics prior to dental procedures etc. if they have an indwelling IV catheter?  I have a pt. who has a BardPort porta cath in […]

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June 2nd, 2008

Zoster Vaccine Guidelines — Official Answers, but Still Some Questions

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has just released the “official” guidelines for use of the zoster vaccine. And none too soon — if I had a dollar (or these days, make that a euro) for every curbside consult I’ve received about the zoster vaccine … The vaccine’s indications are simple — age over 60, […]

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May 14th, 2008

Certification in HIV Medicine — Another Try

In March, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) issued a proposal for a “Maintenance of Certification” (MOC) pathway in HIV medicine for general internists. This is the second such special pathway ABIM is considering (the first was hospitalist medicine). Regardless of whether you agree with the proposal, it’s a good read, providing an excellent […]

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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 general […]

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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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