HIV and ID Observations

May 20th, 2012

News on HIV and HCV Testing, and in Praise of Accurate Screening Tests

Two recent news items reminded me how lucky we are to have some very accurate screening tests for certain infectious diseases. The news: An expert FDA panel backed approval of the first true home test for HIV, the OraQuick mouth swab test. Approval of OraQuick for home use may occur later this year. While home testing for […]

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December 9th, 2010

Chronic Lyme Tough to Diagnose, Tough to Treat

Over at the Chicago Tribune, there is this superb review of the Chronic Lyme disease issue. Lyme disease is real. The bacterial infection, chiefly transmitted by deer ticks, can cause rashes, swollen joints and inflamed nerves, and usually is curable with a round of antibiotics. But doctors around the country are telling patients with common medical problems […]

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August 26th, 2010

Lyme Cases Up — Anecdotes, True Epidemiology, and More Anecdotes

All of us New England-based ID doctors (and internists and family practitioners and pediatricians and NPs/PAs in primary care) who have been in practice a while will tell you that Lyme cases have been increasing for years. And it’s not just the number of cases, it’s also where and when they are occurring.  A few years ago […]

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June 8th, 2009

H1N1: A Tale of Two Practices

As an adult ID/HIV doctor, I must say the clinical impact of H1N1 thus far has been underwhelming, notable more for the calls about prophylaxis or suspected cases than the real thing. (Last week, one patient with fever and “suspected swine” — hard for people to shake that name — turned out to have … Lyme […]

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