An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
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 […]
October 20th, 2016
Back to School: Questions from “ID in Primary Care” — Shared and Answered!
Once again, we’re giving our “Infectious Diseases in Primary Care” post-graduate course in beautiful Boston — where the weather is perfect, the air crisp and clear, and we are all watching with excitement as the few remaining baseball teams and presidential candidates make a mad dash to the end of their respective races. (You might have heard something […]
October 2nd, 2016
“Brink of HIV Cure” ID Link-o-Rama
There, that title got your attention, didn’t it? Anyway, this HIV cure news thing and a few other ID/HIV topics to contemplate while buying your pumpkin, celebrating the New Year in October, or shaking your head that all the stores seem to be putting out their Christmas stuff already. I mean, come on — it’s not even Halloween! Are […]
November 29th, 2015
Flu Vaccine Keeps Taking Hits, Still the Best We’ve Got — Don’t Stop “Belivin'” [sic]
For reasons understood only by the geniuses in Mountain View, CA, for some reason my Google news feed picked up this bit of “scientific” reporting: Let me allow the author, an unfortunately named “Clapway” (gonorrhea researcher?), to speak for him/herself: However, is the flu vaccine really worth it? The author of this article never takes it and […]
October 19th, 2014
Almost Filovirus-Free (That is, Ebola-Free) ID Link-o-Rama
If you’re an ID doctor right now, the filovirus of the moment Ebola is consuming a big chunk of all of your non-clinical time — and this is particularly true for those heavily involved in Infection Control, who are spending every waking hour responding to public hysteria, to various clinicians who seem to have all the answers, and to ever […]
September 8th, 2012
People Fear EEE and West Nile, but not Influenza — Can Someone Explain Why?
OK, here’s a quick quiz — match the viral infection with the average annual US deaths: 1. Eastern Equine Encephalitis A. 36,000, mostly in the elderly 2. Influenza B. < 10, mostly in the elderly I know, it was an easy one — 1 goes with B, and 2 with A. Here’s a good reference for more on […]
August 26th, 2009
Late Summer Odds and Ends: Circumcision, H1N1 Vaccine, Lyme Movie, etc.
A few ID/HIV items to cover before summer “unofficially” ends (Sept 1? Kids back at school? Labor Day?): Will US Public Health officials recommend infant male circumcision to prevent HIV? They might be considering such a move, but I suspect it will not be strongly promoted. After all, none of the studies demonstrating its efficacy have […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
Biography | Disclosures | Summaries
Learn more about HIV and ID Observations.
NEJM Journal Watch — Recent Infectious Disease Articles- Observations from ID and Beyond: The Riveting Conclusion of How PCP Became PJP
- Rising Rates of Perinatal HIV: Maryland, 2022
- Do Children Need a Booster of Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine?
- Infection with Tecovirimat-Resistant Mpox Virus Is on the Rise in the U.S.
- Kidney Transplantation: Offering HOPE for Those with HIV