HIV and ID Observations

November 11th, 2019

When TV Gets ID Wrong — Or At Least Not Quite Right

A busy week for Infectious Diseases on television! First, Dr. Aditya Shah, an ID doctor at Mayo Clinic, treated us to several snippets of truly idiotic ID-related drama in a network television show. After seeing them, I commented: Hey, my services to this show to help you talk about infectious diseases without sounding dumb are available at a […]

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June 9th, 2019

Is It Safe to Alter the CCR5 Receptor? And How Will This Influence HIV Cure Studies?

The HIV cure effort suffered a potential setback this week, as researchers reported an association between having two copies of the CCR5-∆32 mutation and shorter survival. (Quick reminder — the CCR5 receptor is required for most HIV strains to enter target cells. People homozygous for the CCR5-∆32 mutation are almost completely protected from contracting HIV.) By evaluating […]

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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 […]

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December 14th, 2014

2014 Top Stories in HIV Medicine

Boy do we love end-of-year “Best of …” and “Top Stories of …” lists! Love them! They never gets old! Until January, that is. My own particular favorites are the Best Movies of the Year lists, since for whatever reason it always seems like some masterpiece slips by. Missed it! So we leave it up to the […]

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March 10th, 2014

CROI Is Over — and a Baby Once Again Takes Center Stage

One of our fellows asked me this AM when I was posting a RRR (Really Rapid Review™) of CROI 2014, and my response was to clear my throat, make some vague excuses, and curse the respiratory viruses that seem as perpetual as the cold weather this year. It’s in the works, promise — but in 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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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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August 1st, 2012

Really Rapid Review — 2012 International AIDS Conference, Washington, DC

Last week’s International AIDS Conference in Washington got plenty of media attention, mostly because it was the first time in umpteen years that it was held in the United States, the delay between meetings due to our absurd (and now repealed) immigration laws regarding HIV. (Quick trivia question — where was the conference supposed to be […]

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April 9th, 2011

And Now, for a More Comprehensive CROI Report …

Although I’ve already provided a Really Rapid Review™ of the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), the editors of Journal Watch/AIDS Clinical Care have put together a more comprehensive summary here. I sometimes wonder what research from these conferences will not only stand the test of time, but will grow in importance and […]

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