HIV and ID Observations

August 31st, 2012

“PEARLS” Study a Massive, Impressive Accomplishment

One of the most frequent criticisms of randomized clinical trials of HIV therapy is that certain patient groups — in particular gay men — are over represented compared to the HIV population as a whole. For example, in the recently published and presented clinical trials of the Quad and dolutegravir, women accounted for < 20% of […]

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August 28th, 2012

“Quad” Approved by FDA

We now have a third single-pill treatment available for HIV treatment, co-formulated tenofovir/emtricitabine/elvitegravir/cobicistat. From the FDA announcement: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Stribild (elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), a new once-a-day combination pill to treat HIV-1 infection in adults who have never been treated for HIV infection. Stribild contains two previously approved HIV […]

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August 13th, 2012

A Poll: Clintons vs Bush

Got this email recently from a former colleague who now does mostly international work: Hey Paul — nice recap of the IAC conference. But I was wondering if you’d forgotten about someone very important when you wrote, “I can’t think of any major politicians who have done more for HIV than the Clintons.” Um, how about […]

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August 9th, 2012

New PrEP “Guidance” Released by CDC

The CDC issued its second “Interim Guidance” on the use of tenofovir/FTC as pre-exposure prophylaxis for prevention of HIV, this time for prevention of HIV in heterosexually active adults. The rationale? Since January 2011, data from studies of PrEP among heterosexual men and women have become available, and on July 16, 2012, the Food and Drug […]

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August 8th, 2012

Must-Read Piece: “Imagine a World Without AIDS”

With all the hoopla at last month’s International AIDS Conference about ending AIDS and curing AIDS and bringing us an AIDS-free generation, there was plenty of ink spilled on the topic. Ironically, the attention the meeting received was inversely proportional to its scientific content, which was actually fairly light on a content-per-day scale. The meeting probably […]

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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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July 26th, 2012

Pigs are Flying: Written Consent No Longer Needed for an HIV Test in Massachusetts

Let the record show that as of July 26, 2012, a person in Massachusetts can legally get an HIV test without signing a written consent. Hooray. There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

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July 25th, 2012

AIDS Quilt, the Early 1990s, and Sadness

The early 1990s has potentially many associations — the break-up of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War, the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, The Lion King, Forest Gump, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and the cancellation of the baseball season, to name a few. But we HIV/ID specialists will always […]

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July 23rd, 2012

IAS-USA HIV Guidelines Updated

With the International AIDS Conference in Washington just starting, the International Antiviral (ahem) Society-USA has revised its HIV treatment guidelines, updating the 2010 version. As has been the case for several years now, it’s published in JAMA and also available on the IAS-USA web site. It’s a well written, evidence-driven summary of the current state of […]

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July 5th, 2012

Home HIV Test Big News — But Why? And What Impact Will It Have?

The recent FDA approval of a home HIV antibody test (OraQuick In-Home HIV Test) was covered just about everywhere. It’s an oral swab test, takes 20-40 minutes, and will be available over-the-counter. How big a news story was it? Several hundred sources featured it on the day of the announcement, and the total count is now well over a thousand […]

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