An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
October 30th, 2013
HIV Treatment of Serodiscordant Couples: The Home Run, Slam Dunk, and Open Goal in Clinical Research
Just in time for Game 6 of the World Series, my colleague Rochelle Walensky has published a paper in theNew England Journal of Medicine (covered here in NEJM Journal Watch). evaluating the cost-effectiveness of treating HIV-infected individuals in serodiscordant couples. The results: In South Africa, early ART was cost-saving over a 5-year period. In both South Africa and […]
October 25th, 2013
GARDEL Two-Active-Drug Study Not a Game-Changer, but Might Be a Paradigm-Shifter
Don’t look now, but a two-drug lamivudine (3TC) + LPV/r strategy did just as well as a standard three-drug regimen of two NRTIs + LPV/r. Better, actually, since virologic outcomes were the same and the two-drug regimen had fewer side effects. Here are the key details about the GARDEL study, presented just this week by […]
October 18th, 2013
Back to School: Top Questions from “ID in Primary Care”
We hold an annual post-graduate course entitled “Infectious Diseases in Primary Care”. In this 2.5 day course, we ID doctors do our best to address the concerns of clinicians on the front lines — those doing primary care. And each year, we get some great questions. Like these: Question: I work at a university health […]
October 14th, 2013
MODERN Study Stopped: An NRTI-Sparing, Two-Drug Initial Regimen Disappoints Again
In case you didn’t know, “MODERN” is the clever name for the “Maraviroc Once-daily with Darunavir Enhanced by Ritonavir in a New regimen” trial, which compared TDF/FTC to maraviroc, both with boosted darunavir. And once again, the NRTI-sparing two-drug regimen comes up short, this time in a fully powered, double-blind noninferiority study. From a PDF […]
October 7th, 2013
CD4 Cell Count at Presentation: A Figure with a Depressingly Small Upward Slope
You know how to make an ID/HIV specialist angry? Frustrated? Sigh loudly? Tell a clinical anecdote that involves “late” presentation of HIV diagnosis, in particular someone who has been seeking medical care for various ailments for months or even years without getting tested. You know — it goes something like this: “He was seen 3 […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
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