HIV and ID Observations

October 29th, 2017

Cellulitis, Lyme, VZV, MRSA, TB, Tdap: Great Questions from ID in Primary Care

We’ve just finished our annual course Infectious Diseases in Primary Care, and once again our attendees — all busy clinicians — asked some excellent questions. Below, a small sample: What is the drug of choice for cellulitis in outpatients who are allergic to penicillin? Importantly, this is about cellulitis — not abscesses — which means […]

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October 22nd, 2017

Price’s “Quarantine” Comment a Startling Example of Remaining HIV Stigma and Ignorance

In case you missed it, Betty Price, a Georgia state representative, said the following last week: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFTGZyVnzo0] If you head over to the Youtube page with the above video, and read the comments (yes, I know, wading in such waters can give one a dim view of humankind), you’ll see she’s hardly alone in […]

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October 15th, 2017

The Best Antiretroviral Therapy for Pregnant Women? The Controversy Continues

There’s considerable controversy in an area of HIV medicine that one would think should be all but solved by now. It’s what HIV treatment we should give pregnant women. The issue isn’t how to prevent the virus from being transmitted to the newborn — suppress the virus in mom, baby doesn’t get it — it’s […]

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October 9th, 2017

What Should We Do About Persistent Low-level Viremia?

Here’s a most entertaining email about a tricky case (some details changed for the usual reasons), with my annotations in brackets: Subject: Regimen intensification? Hi Paul: Long-time reader, first time caller. [Love that intentional mixed metaphor — should we start a radio talk show?] We have a pt who was on TDF/FTC/EFV for a decade. […]

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October 1st, 2017

With Several Wrong Predictions Behind Me, Here’s One I Got Right

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been wrong on several predictions that ultimately came to pass. Whoppingly wrong. A partial list: Cameras in cellphones are a short-lived gimmick. My kids still tease me about that one. Buying clothing — and especially shoes — on the internet will never catch on. C’mon, you can’t try things on! How […]

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