HIV and ID Observations

May 22nd, 2025

The Pros and Cons of the Latest FDA Actions on COVID Vaccines

In case you missed it, last week the FDA granted full approval for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine, which uses a more traditional protein-plus-adjuvant strategy instead of the mRNA approach of Pfizer and Moderna, is no longer in “Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)” limbo. Here’s what that means in practical terms: It shows the data the company […]

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May 7th, 2025

FDA’s Latest Appointment Is … Interesting

Those of us who follow infectious diseases and vaccine science closely (OK, obsessively) know that the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) plays an enormous role in public health. Vaccines, gene therapies, monoclonal antibodies, blood products — all pass through CBER on their path to approval. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this center became […]

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March 22nd, 2025

Really Rapid Review: CROI 2025 San Francisco

Wow, that was an interesting conference — in ways both good and bad. The good part was the content, as the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) is our leading HIV research conference. There was plenty of interesting stuff. The not-so-good part was the stunned state of many HIV clinicians and researchers. So much of […]

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March 5th, 2025

What Is the Future of Treatments for COVID-19?

In this raging flu season, where people with influenza-related illness outnumber those with COVID-19 for the first time since the pandemic hit in 2020, we might be fooled into thinking that we no longer need better treatments for COVID-19. This would be a mistake — this virus still causes much misery, peaking each winter but […]

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January 3rd, 2025

On the Inpatient ID Consult Service, Oral Antibiotics Have a Rocky Road to Acceptance

Having just completed a stint doing inpatient ID consults, I came away impressed with three things: Staph aureus remains the Ruler of Evil Invasive Pathogens in the hospital setting. You can “jinx” a holiday season by saying it’s usually quiet on Christmas. This year it sure wasn’t quiet, hoo boy. Some surgeons aren’t ready to accept […]

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December 8th, 2024

Who’s Going to Get Lenacapavir for HIV Prevention?

At the International AIDS Conference this past summer, Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker brought down the house presenting the results of the PURPOSE 1 trial of twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for prevention of HIV in women. The results — zero infections out of over 2000 participants — demonstrated clear superiority over oral PrEP with TDF/FTC. The study simultaneously […]

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November 27th, 2024

Some ID Things to Be Grateful for This Holiday Season — 2024 Edition

The calendar says it’s nearly the fourth Thursday of November, so here in the United States, the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us. It’s a day when we gather with family and friends to express thanks, to eat plenty (usually too much), to watch a bunch of spectacular athletes bash themselves to smithereens in the name […]

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October 30th, 2024

The Riveting Conclusion of How PCP Became PJP

Before I get back to the saga of Brave New Name — How PCP Became PJP and Why It Matters, allow me to share that I had some trepidation about publishing this thing. A deep dive down a hole with very high-risk for tularemia exposure (see what I did there?), it veered off topic more than half-baked […]

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July 25th, 2024

Lenacapavir PrEP Trial Brings Down the House at the International AIDS Conference

Yesterday, at the 2024 AIDS Conference in Munich, we experienced one of those thrilling moments you always hope for when attending a scientific conference. Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, speaking on behalf of the study investigators, presented the data on the PURPOSE-1 study of HIV prevention using twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir; results were simultaneously published in the New England […]

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June 9th, 2024

The Mysteries and Challenges of the RPR — and a Proposed Clinical Trial

Last week, we had a real treat for our weekly ID/HIV clinical conference — a review of controversies in the management of syphilis in adults by Dr. Khalil Ghanem, from Johns Hopkins. He’s a well-known expert in the field of sexually transmitted infections, syphilis in particular. A highlight of the talk was his dismantling of a […]

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