HIV and ID Observations

July 30th, 2017

Really Rapid Review — Paris IAS 2017

Last week, the International AIDS Society meeting returned to Paris for the first time since 2003. Yes, you and I are that old. Jeeze. Here’s a Really Rapid Review® of some of the conference highlights, roughly ordered by “cure”, prevention, treatment, and complications. As always, feel free to use the comments section for notable studies I […]

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July 19th, 2017

Mystifying Cochrane Library Review on HCV Therapy Elicits Strong Response from IDSA

Last month, the Cochrane Review published a controversial paper on HCV therapy that left many ID doctors and hepatologists perplexed. After reviewing 138 randomized clinical trials using directly acting, non-interferon based therapies, they came to the following conclusions: The use of sustained virologic response (“SVR”) — or “cure”, if you want to use plain English — […]

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July 9th, 2017

Should You Answer Medical Questions from Clinicians You Don’t Know About Patients You’ve Never Seen?

This email popped into my inbox the other day from a person I’ve never met: Hi Dr. Sax, I do mostly hospital-based ID in Pennsylvania, and was consulted on a newly diagnosed HIV patient with CD4 10, viral load 210,000, and lymphoma. I started him on Truvada and dolutegravir, which is going well so far. Because he […]

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July 2nd, 2017

Delafloxacin, a New Quinolone, Is Approved for Skin Infections — But That’s Not Where It’s Really Needed

The history of the fluoroquinolone antibiotics can be divided into four eras, alternating good news and bad: Ciprofloxacin is approved — it covers everything, and is miraculous. We’re talking some tough customers here. Pseudomonas aeruginosa! Staphylococcus aureus! Neisseria gonorrhoeae! Plus, pretty much every gram negative causing urinary tract infections. There was no intravenous formulation initially, but that hardly mattered since it […]

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