HIV and ID Observations

October 17th, 2022

Big In-Person Medical Meetings and Cognitive Dissonance for ID Docs

Dissonance: lack of agreement; inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one’s actions and one’s beliefs; a mingling of sounds that strike the ear harshly. It started shortly after the chaotic, disruptive, and all together unpleasant Omicron wave of 2021–22. It continued through the BA.2 and BA.5 surges, and now plays on through the swarm of […]

---

October 25th, 2020

(Not) Attending Professional Meetings in the COVID-19 Era

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), our professional society, held its annual meeting this week, IDWeek. As usual, I registered for and attended the meeting. Of course I should have written “attended” the meeting, as instead of having an in-person meeting in Philadelphia (the original planned venue), it was entirely done online. Another “virtual” meeting […]

---

October 8th, 2018

“Mini”-Really Rapid Review — IDWeek 2018, San Francisco

Once upon a time, the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) wasn’t much of a research conference. It consisted mostly of review sessions on topics deemed worthy of an update or a refresher, led by noted experts in the field. They would cite the latest literature on endocarditis, or mycoplasma, or prosthetic […]

---

October 29th, 2016

Are Antibiotics Useful for Small Skin Abscesses? Now There’s an Answer

Let’s start with the clinical controversy, one that’s been bouncing around Emergency Rooms, outpatient practices, postgraduate courses, and medical journals for years. Specifically, are antibiotics helpful for skin abscesses that are adequately drained? It’s still debated since of course most patients with this annoying problem will get better on their own provided the drainage is adequate. What do the antibiotics […]

---