HIV and ID Observations

March 2nd, 2024

Just as CROI Gets Ready to Start, an Important Change to the IAS-USA HIV Treatment Guidelines

One of the top experiences of my ID career has been working with a research group that does HIV disease modeling. The people involved are without exception smart, collaborative, generous, funny, and hard-working — an amazing combination of positive traits. They get this, I believe, from their leader and founder, Dr. Ken Freedberg, who sets a […]

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September 22nd, 2023

Long-Acting Cabotegravir-Rilpivirine for People Not Taking Oral Therapy — Time to Modify Treatment Guidelines?

HIV treatment guidelines are understandably reluctant to endorse practices that have limited data. Having served on two such panels (previously, DHHS and currently, the IAS-USA guidelines), I totally get this — you don’t want to put a stamp of approval on strategies that may ultimately do more harm than good. With the caveat that I cannot […]

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July 5th, 2023

The Yin and the Yang of Cabotegravir-Rilpivirine: Part Two, the Limitations

In the last post, I cited examples of patients who are doing much better now because they are on long-acting cabotegravir-rilpivirine (CAB-RPV). One of these patients said he preferred it because it’s “simpler,” by which he meant he no longer had to go to the pharmacy to refill his medications each month. I’ll grant for him […]

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June 30th, 2023

The Yin and the Yang of Cabotegravir-Rilpivirine: Part One, the Good News

Long-acting cabotegravir-rilpivirine (CAB-RPV) is the biggest advance in HIV therapeutics in years. It’s also creating quite the challenge for ID and HIV clinicians, which makes its availability a fascinating example of the importance of education, patient communication, and shared decision-making. This post will be the good news about this groundbreaking treatment; in the next post, I’ll […]

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