HIV and ID Observations

May 12th, 2013

FDA: Fecal Transplants Need Investigational New Drug Application

Gastroenterologists, ID doctors, C diff-sufferers, and microbiome-obsessed humanoids everywhere were treated to this surprising news recently — a decision by the FDA about fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). From an email sent by the IDSA: Because fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is not approved for any therapeutic purposes, an investigational new drug (IND) application is needed for the […]

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May 2nd, 2013

How to Interpret Medical Breakthroughs in the Mainstream Media

There it is, right in your daily paper, on your tablet or computer screen, or wherever you get your news today — a headline about a great medical breakthrough everyone’s been waiting for: Scientists on brink of HIV cure Researchers believe that there will be a breakthrough in finding a cure for HIV “within months” Yes, […]

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April 10th, 2013

Simeprevir and Sofosbuvir Submitted to FDA — Clock Ticking on Boceprevir, Telaprevir, Even Interferon

Two weeks, two companies, two press releases, two future HCV drugs that begin with “S”: March 28, 2013: Janssen Research & Development announced that it has submitted a New Drug Application to the FDA seeking approval for simeprevir (TMC435), an investigational NS3/4A protease inhibitor, administered as a 150 mg capsule once daily with pegylated interferon and ribavirin for the […]

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April 5th, 2013

Another “Important Advance” in HIV Vaccine Research?

On reading this other real news about a single patient and how it may shape the future of HIV vaccine research, I decided to write the following fake news, drawing liberally on many similar stories over the years: Scientists today reported a discovery that could finally pave the way for an effective AIDS vaccine. In the study, published […]

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April 2nd, 2013

Banner Day for ID on Physician’s First Watch, and a Big Pitch to Sign Up Now

Every weekday morning, right around the time the rest of my family gets up, the smart people at Physician’s First Watch send me an email listing the top medical news stories of the day. Imagine my delight yesterday when the following were deemed worthy for specific mention: Coccidioidomycosis! Valley fever cases on the rise in the USA. You […]

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March 28th, 2013

Poll: How Often Do You Measure CD4 Cell Counts?

Over in Clinical Infectious Diseases, a recent study pretty much nails the fact that routine measurement of CD4 cell counts in clinically stable patients is an all but useless exercise.  As summarized by Abbie Zuger in Journal Watch, here’s the key finding: When patients with an unrelated cause for an alteration in CD4-cell count such as […]

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March 10th, 2013

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2013, Atlanta

As noted previously by Carlos del Rio in his nice summary, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) turned 20 this year. It also made it’s first-ever stop in Atlanta, home of many things that begin with “C” — CDC (note that insiders rarely say, “the CDC”), CNN, Coca Cola, and Carlos himself. I’ll spare […]

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March 5th, 2013

Exploring the Media Fascination with the Baby Cured of HIV

As undoubtedly you’ve heard by now, there’s another person cured of HIV out there — this time, it’s a baby born to an HIV-infected mother. Here’s the story: The mother didn’t know she was HIV positive until delivery, and the baby was found to be infected by both HIV DNA and RNA right at birth. […]

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February 28th, 2013

Guest Post: CROI at 20 — A Look Back

The inimitable Carlos del Rio looks back at our premier scientific meeting, the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which starts this Sunday: CROI, which started as a small national conference held in a hotel in Washington DC, will hold its 20th meeting this year . When CROI first took place, we had just returned from Berlin, and HIV scientists […]

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February 17th, 2013

An Adherence Intervention That Works — But There’s a Catch

In a previous post, we reviewed the various flavors of medication non-adherence, and concluded with this tantalizing line: Next up:  An Adherence Intervention that Actually Works — But There’s a Catch Well here it is, just published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. Dr. Robert Gross (a long-time HIV adherence researcher from U Penn) and colleagues enrolled 180 patients […]

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