HIV and ID Observations

September 16th, 2018

Supermarket Chain CEO Defends High Prices of Water, Salt, and Other Items as a “Moral” Requirement

Inspired by recent events in antibiotic pricing. SACRAMENTO, CA. The head of a national supermarket chain is defending a recent substantial increase in the price of water, salt, and other food and kitchen essentials, arguing that this change is the equivalent of a “moral” requirement. Last month, iFoods Plus Stores announced that common low-cost items such as […]

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May 20th, 2018

Why the Dolutegravir Pregnancy Warning Is Important — and What We Should Do Now

Last week, in response to newly available surveillance data, multiple agencies issued a warning about the HIV integrase inhibitor dolutegravir (DTG) and pregnancy. The warnings cite an increased risk of neural tube defects in babies born to women who became pregnant while receiving the drug. From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: The concern stems from […]

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April 16th, 2018

Hepatitis C Positive Organ Donors — Coming Soon to a Transplant Center Near You

There’s one immutable fact in solid organ transplantation — the number of patients awaiting transplant exceeds the number of available organs. This shortage means that ethical, medically safe strategies to increase the donor pool are always a high priority. One such strategy would be to allow transplants from people who have chronic hepatitis C. If the thought of […]

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April 1st, 2018

News Flash — The World Isn’t Sterile

You might have missed this press release from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): Bethesda, MD April 1, 2018 The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at the National Institutes of Health, invites grant applications which propose research in the following 3 critical world health challenges: 1.  Development of an effective HIV […]

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January 28th, 2018

Apple Wants to Build an Electronic Medical Record — Here’s Where They Should Start

If you want to get a bunch of clinicians riled up — make them really mad — ask them to describe the problems with their current electronic medical record. So when a company like Apple announces it plans to introduce an electronic medical record of sorts, we should rejoice, right? This is the company, after all, that leveraged […]

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January 13th, 2018

Just Wondering: Antibiotics for Cough, PJP vs. PCP, TB-Sniffing Rats, Raw Water, and Other Quick ID Items to Ponder

Here are some “quick questions” with an ID theme for people to consider as we head into week 3 of 52 of this new year. Just think, by the end of next week, we’ll be nearly 6% done with the new year. How time flies! For the various items below, if people know the answers, or want […]

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December 16th, 2017

CDC Receives List of Additional Forbidden Words and Phrases

Right on the heels of prohibiting certain words or phrases in the Centers for Disease Control’s budget documents, the President’s Office of Financial Services has issued a second list. Now, not only must CDC officials avoid using words such as “vulnerable”, “diversity”, “fetus”, “transgender”, and “evidence-based”, they also have to steer clear of several other words or phrases. […]

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December 10th, 2017

Injection Drug Use-Related HIV Cases Increase in Massachusetts — Is This the Start of a Trend?

Recently the Massachusetts Department of Public Health sent out this concerning notice: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has noted an increase in newly diagnosed and acute HIV infections among persons who inject drugs (PWID). To date in calendar year 2017 (through November 21), there have been 64 HIV infections reported among individuals who inject […]

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December 3rd, 2017

Why, Even with Depressing Predictions About Flu Vaccine Effectiveness, We Should Still Recommend and Get It

Each year, the print and broadcast media round up a bunch of experts on influenza and ask them to predict the severity of the upcoming flu season. Most of the time their responses are noncommittal — predicting how bad the flu season will be year to year is tricky business, akin to picking stocks, making 12-month […]

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July 19th, 2017

Mystifying Cochrane Library Review on HCV Therapy Elicits Strong Response from IDSA

Last month, the Cochrane Review published a controversial paper on HCV therapy that left many ID doctors and hepatologists perplexed. After reviewing 138 randomized clinical trials using directly acting, non-interferon based therapies, they came to the following conclusions: The use of sustained virologic response (“SVR”) — or “cure”, if you want to use plain English — as a […]

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