HIV and ID Observations

May 20th, 2018

Why the Dolutegravir Pregnancy Warning Is Important — and What We Should Do Now

Last week, in response to newly available surveillance data, multiple agencies issued a warning about the HIV integrase inhibitor dolutegravir (DTG) and pregnancy. The warnings cite an increased risk of neural tube defects in babies born to women who became pregnant while receiving the drug. From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: The concern stems from […]

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May 13th, 2018

Why Experienced HIV/ID Doctors Leave Clinical Practice

Three of my good friends — they’re way more than just colleagues after all this time — in the HIV/ID world have left clinical practice recently. Abigail (Abbie) Zuger, Joel Gallant, and Chuck Hicks, each of them brilliant in different ways, won’t be caring for people with HIV anymore, something they’ve all been doing since the […]

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April 8th, 2018

Latest DHHS Guidelines for Initial HIV Therapy Now Include 5 Choices — But Really 2 Are Best

On March 28, the Department of Health and Human Services Guidelines issued an update to the HIV treatment guidelines, with a focus on the recent approval of bictegravir/TAF/FTC: BIC/TAF/FTC is an effective and well-tolerated INSTI-based regimen for initial therapy in adults with HIV, with efficacy that is noninferior to DTG/ABC/3TC and DTG plus TAF/FTC for up […]

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December 10th, 2017

Injection Drug Use-Related HIV Cases Increase in Massachusetts — Is This the Start of a Trend?

Recently the Massachusetts Department of Public Health sent out this concerning notice: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has noted an increase in newly diagnosed and acute HIV infections among persons who inject drugs (PWID). To date in calendar year 2017 (through November 21), there have been 64 HIV infections reported among individuals who inject […]

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October 22nd, 2017

Price’s “Quarantine” Comment a Startling Example of Remaining HIV Stigma and Ignorance

In case you missed it, Betty Price, a Georgia state representative, said the following last week: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFTGZyVnzo0] If you head over to the Youtube page with the above video, and read the comments (yes, I know, wading in such waters can give one a dim view of humankind), you’ll see she’s hardly alone in holding this […]

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October 15th, 2017

The Best Antiretroviral Therapy for Pregnant Women? The Controversy Continues

There’s considerable controversy in an area of HIV medicine that one would think should be all but solved by now. It’s what HIV treatment we should give pregnant women. The issue isn’t how to prevent the virus from being transmitted to the newborn — suppress the virus in mom, baby doesn’t get it — it’s what’s safest […]

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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 […]

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June 4th, 2017

Can’t HIV Serodiscordant Couples Now Just Have Children the Regular Way?

MMWR just published a paper entitled, Strategies for Preventing HIV Infection Among HIV-Uninfected Women Attempting Conception with HIV-Infected Men — United States, and it’s both a welcome and a very strange document indeed. It’s welcome because it acknowledges that serodiscordant couples may wish to have children without the use of an HIV-negative sperm donor. Advances in HIV prevention […]

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May 21st, 2017

The Curious Case of M184V, Part 1

Thanks to our sophisticated research team here at NEJM Journal Watch, we have an excellent idea who reads this thing for its scintillating ID/HIV content. Most of you are clinicians — doctors, nurses, PAs, PharmDs. A smaller proportion are researchers, lab-oriented types who wandered over here unexpectedly after an errant search, expecting the latest in CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and […]

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April 30th, 2017

Celebrating the Invaluable Knowledge and Expertise of ID Specialist PharmD’s

Since expression of gratitude makes you happier — hey, I read it on the internet — and whining does the reverse, I’ve decided to turn what was going to be a typical rant about dealing with insurance companies into an expression of thanks to a remarkable group of professionals. Namely, the Doctors of Pharmacy (PharmD’s) who specialize in Infectious […]

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