July 30th, 2017

Really Rapid Review — Paris IAS 2017

Last week, the International AIDS Society meeting returned to Paris for the first time since 2003.

Yes, you and I are that old. Jeeze.

Here’s a Really Rapid Review® of some of the conference highlights, roughly ordered by “cure”, prevention, treatment, and complications.

As always, feel free to use the comments section for notable studies I might have missed — thank you!

Now for a few non-scientific observations:

  • Paris Street; Rainy Day. Gustave Caillebotte, 1877. Art Institute of Chicago.

    The weather was mostly, cool, cloudy, and intermittently wet. Regardless, Paris is among the most beautiful and lively cities in the world. (Not such an original opinion, I know.)

  • A bike race visited Paris at the same time. Lots of excitement.
  • What a weird conference center. Numerous escalators, winding hallways, and a disorienting layout made getting around tricky. At least the session halls for the slide sessions were very comfortable (though some over-crowded).
  • Why can’t we have a subway system like that? The Paris Metro seems to get better all the time — fast, clean, reliable, inexpensive. I’m sure it’s not perfect, but is there a better urban rapid transit system in a large city anywhere else?
  • Although per capita cigarette consumption is roughly the same in France and the USA, it sure doesn’t seem that way. I’ll anecdotally say that lots of professionals (even doctors, gasp) and other well-to-do people smoke in France — you don’t see that much in the USA anymore.
  • Next year’s conference is in Amsterdam. July 23-27.

Speaking of bicycling around Paris …

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8ErsO92Bfw]

 

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8 Responses to “Really Rapid Review — Paris IAS 2017”

  1. Omar Sued says:

    Hi Paul! Excellent as usual!. The other important topic is the great attention to anti/PD1 compounds as potential remission therapy. This was extensively discussed also in the previous forum that mixed Cancer and HIV as paradigm for remision/cure.
    Also worthy to mention the long long opening ceremony (we should do something more fun next time), but where we should mention the incredible intervention of the transgender activist.
    Finally, U2 was in town!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Incredible show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Brenda Crabtree says:

      Great replay Omar and agree that it is a very good summary of the most important topics at the IAS 2017… I would add that not only the City is beautiful, but the food fantastic!
      I also went to U2 and yes… we are that old (30 years since Youshua Tree)
      Thanks

  2. Jeanne Marrazzo says:

    Thanks so much Paul. One other intriguing report (Toledo etc all) was the population registry based analysis from South Africa that noted a modest reduction in HIV prevalne (and interestingly HSV-2 prevalence) among younger women who reported that their male partners were circumcised relative to those who were not. I’m eager to read this when it’s published as the methodology is quite interesting and there are obviously a number of limitations, but it’s in contrast to the Rakai prospective data and the fact that the prevalence of other STIs, notably syphilis and HSV2, aligned with those for HIV support the biological plausibility of this observation.

  3. Josep M Llibre says:

    Outstanding summary!

  4. Jorge Martinez says:

    Excellent meeting!!..very good summary.All Argentine proud with Dr Cahn and his group!!!

  5. Mimi Breed says:

    Hi Paul: Excellent succinct report. My 9 y/o grandson really enjoyed the “Paris is My Playground” video.

  6. Laura Leifman says:

    One correction about the case report of the child in HIV remission: The child’s treatment started around 2 months of age, not 1 month.

HIV Information: Author Paul Sax, M.D.

Paul E. Sax, MD

Contributing Editor

NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases

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