An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
June 27th, 2013
Testing Out the New Website with an ID Link-o-Rama
Hey, new website is live! Interested to hear what you think about our new-ish look. In celebration, here are some quick ID/HIV tidbits that have recently crossed my path, or have been sitting in my inbox for a while, dying to get out: Doxycycline shortage. Hardly anything more frightening to a New England ID doc than […]
June 22nd, 2013
NEJM Group, Blog Freeze, and Puppy Brothers
It’s official — the various medical products of the Massachusetts Medical Society are now lumped under NEJM Group — including the flagship New England Journal of Medicine itself, the Journal Watches, even this site. No surprise, therefore, that there will be a new web platform, with the launch slated for next week. I’ve been told this means a […]
June 20th, 2013
Let’s Move the HIV Testing Algorithm Into the 21st Century
As I’ve written before, the most widely used testing algorithm for HIV — enzyme immunoassay followed, if positive, by Western blot confirmation — is long overdue for an update. A brief review why this is the case, and also why sticking with it is so problematic: Immunoassays have become progressively more sensitive, especially when paired […]
June 19th, 2013
FDA, IND, FMT: Nine Letters, Some Common Sense, and a Real Video Link
Good news here — the FDA has reconsidered their requirement for an IND for fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for C diff: Some health care providers have stated that applying IND requirements will make FMT unavailable and have suggested that an alternative regulatory approach is needed to ensure the widespread availability of FMT for individuals with […]
June 17th, 2013
Gallant is Answering Your HIV Questions and Zuger Writes About the Tough Practice of “Doing Nothing”
Two highly recommended products from a couple of my friends in the HIV/ID world: First, the inimitable Joel Gallant — long time of Johns Hopkins, soon to be of Santa Fe — has resuscitated his terrific Patient Q & A Forum here. He used to answer patients’ questions regularly on www.hopkins-aids.edu, but that whole site […]
June 13th, 2013
PrEP Works in Injection Drug Users, CDC Offers “Guidance”
From The Lancet comes this important study of tenofovir pre-exposure prophylaxis for injection drug users (IDUs): In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we enrolled volunteers from 17 drug-treatment clinics in Bangkok, Thailand … We randomly assigned [2413] participants to either tenofovir or placebo … 50 became infected during follow-up: 17 in the tenofovir group and […]
June 11th, 2013
Both Simeprevir and Sofosbuvir Likely Approved by 2014 — Clinical/Ethical/Pharmacoeconomic Dilemmas Loom
As expected, simeprevir, and now also sofosbuvir, are being given “priority review” by the FDA. With the 6-month rule under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act — usually just said as “pah-DOOF-ah” — that means there’s a good chance we’ll have both of these anti-HCV drugs some time in late 2013. Which also means HCV treaters […]
June 6th, 2013
ID Learning Unit — Aminoglycosides
You young whippersnappers out there may not believe it, but we once used aminoglycosides all the time — literally every day on inpatient medical and surgical services, especially in the ICUs. They were an inevitable part of “triples” (e.g., amp/gent/clinda), a broad-spectrum combination given to almost every critically ill patient way back when — think right […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
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