HIV and ID Observations

July 15th, 2018

On-Service Digest, July 2018 — with Special Section Just for Staph aureus

I’m currently on-service for the inpatient ID consult team, and this is July. At a teaching hospital.  Here’s where some would play scary music. After all, the interns and fellows have just started! YIKES! But no scary music for me — I love working with the July newbies. Because whatever they lack in experience or efficiency, they […]

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October 1st, 2017

With Several Wrong Predictions Behind Me, Here’s One I Got Right

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been wrong on several predictions that ultimately came to pass. Whoppingly wrong. A partial list: Cameras in cellphones are a short-lived gimmick. My kids still tease me about that one. Buying clothing — and especially shoes — on the internet will never catch on. C’mon, you can’t try things on! How […]

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July 19th, 2017

Mystifying Cochrane Library Review on HCV Therapy Elicits Strong Response from IDSA

Last month, the Cochrane Review published a controversial paper on HCV therapy that left many ID doctors and hepatologists perplexed. After reviewing 138 randomized clinical trials using directly acting, non-interferon based therapies, they came to the following conclusions: The use of sustained virologic response (“SVR”) — or “cure”, if you want to use plain English — […]

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March 25th, 2017

HIV and Hepatitis C Are No Longer the Most Serious Infectious Threats to People Who Inject Drugs

I had dinner with my daughter Mimi the other evening, and was ruminating about how things have changed since I started work as an Infectious Diseases doctor around 25 years ago. Here’s an excerpt of our chat: Me:  There are way more cases of endocarditis in young people than there used to be, a complication of injecting drugs. People in their […]

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November 20th, 2016

Seven ID/HIV Things to Be Grateful For This Holiday Season, 2016 Edition

I know, I know — you read that title and thought, “Grateful now? He must be out of his mind.” But with the (unsurprising) concession that I too felt that watching the election returns was akin to witnessing a slowly developing and incomprehensible train wreck, I remind you that the expression of gratitude is well known to make you […]

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July 3rd, 2016

Velpatasvir/Sofosbuvir Makes HCV Treatment Simpler, Especially For Genotypes 2 and 3

One of the ways ID and hepatology hepatitis C experts like to show off is by discoursing on the nuances of cleverly named clinical trials, and how these impact treatment guidelines. It usually goes something like this: “In the EP-CILEON [I made that up] study of [insert HCV regimen here], treatment-experienced patients with genotype [insert non-genotype 1 […]

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November 26th, 2015

Five (OK, Six) ID/HIV Things to be Grateful for this Holiday Season, 2015 Edition

Some quick ID/HIV gratitude items for 2015, done rapidly as we’re hosting a big meal later today. I wonder what that might be. New Ebola virus disease cases and deaths have dramatically declined. I write that sentence with some trepidation, as cases continue to occur sporadically, and this late relapse in a nurse was a chilling […]

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November 18th, 2015

Are There Remaining Challenges in HCV Therapy?

Prompted by (yet more) spectacular HCV study results, I posted the following questions on Twitter: Is velpatasvir/sofosbuvir the endgame for HCV? And what will HCV researchers do now? https://t.co/vL2A9FOttR @NEJM — Paul Sax (@PaulSaxMD) November 18, 2015 To which I got this reply from one of our very energetic second-year ID fellows: @PaulSaxMD @NEJM what […]

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October 24th, 2015

Pumpkin-Flavored ID Link-o-Rama

As the leaves change colors and fall from the trees, the days grow shorter and colder, and pumpkin-colored and flavored merchandise shows up everywhere, I ask you this important question: What precisely are the infectious risks of bobbing for apples? Off we go. Receiving antibiotics in childhood is associated with weight gain. The important finding in this study […]

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September 7th, 2015

Two Drugs with High Prices — One is (Surprise!) Good Value, The Other is Truly a Rip-off

By now, the fact that HCV treatment carries a high price is a fact as well known to the medical and non-medical public as 1) a million dollars doesn’t get you much in Manhattan or Bay-area real estate; 2) a Rolex is an expensive way to know what time it is; and 3) even though […]

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