An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
July 18th, 2015
Disrupting the Normal Microbiota Might Make Us Fat, Allergic, Asthmatic, and Lead to Celiac Disease
Over at Open Forum Infectious Diseases, I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Martin Blaser, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at New York University. He’s also the Director of the Human Microbiome Project, and author of the book, Missing Microbes: How the overuse of antibiotics is fueling our modern plagues. Marty has been a long-time champion […]
July 11th, 2015
Citing WHO Guidelines, Squirrels Protest Latest Virus Discovery
An open letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine Saturday, July 11, 2015 Dear Dr. Drazen: On behalf of the International Association of Variegated Squirrels, I am writing to protest the article that appeared in your July 9 2015 issue, entitled “A variegated squirrel bornavirus associated with fatal human encephalitis.” We […]
July 7th, 2015
For HIV in the USA, Not in Care Exceeds the Undiagnosed — Solutions Welcome
In last week’s post, I asked about two of the key components of the HIV care cascade — the “undiagnosed” vs the “diagnosed but not in care,” and which group was larger in the USA. Here are your answers as of now: The people who read this site are a pretty knowledgeable group when it comes […]
July 1st, 2015
Undiagnosed or Not in Care? For HIV, Which Is the Bigger Problem?
These days, it’s hard to have a “closed book” examination. The information is everywhere — on your computer, your phone, your tablet — whatever screen happens to be glowing in front of you. “In the age of the internet, why be wrong?” is something my son used to say as we sat at the dinner table, […]
June 24th, 2015
Epidemic of Republican Presidential Candidates Shows No Signs of Abating
Chilling news from The Borowitz Report: The number of official candidates for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination has risen to thirteen, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control… “It might have been misplaced optimism on our part, but we had started to believe that this thing had been contained,” said the C.D.C. spokesman […]
June 20th, 2015
Alex Rodriguez’ Story Reminds Me of a Case of Scientific Misconduct — Until It Doesn’t
If you’ll forgive me a bit of baseball-related rambling, there’s an incredible story going on this year with the resuscitation of Alex Rodriguez, both as a player and, even more remarkably, as a person in the public eye. Or, to quote the play-by-play announcer Michael Kay, who on Friday got it perfectly when he commented on A-Rod’s 3000th […]
June 11th, 2015
Summer Is Almost Here ID Link-o-Rama
I know, I know. You’re sick of hearing Bostonians complain about the winter we just had. But did you know that the weather here didn’t get reliably warm here until, well, this week? We all have PTSD. Don’t talk to us about anything even vaguely white, flakey, and cold. Yes, we’re afraid of refrigerated coconut. […]
June 4th, 2015
A Slightly Less Painful Way to Learn the Three-Letter Abbreviations for HIV Meds
One of the stupid things about being an HIV/ID specialist is the highly arcane code we use to abbreviate HIV treatments. Why was zidovudine originally AZT, and now ZDV? Why is lamivudine 3TC? And tenofovir TDF? Of course there are legitimate biochemical reasons why these are the right abbreviations, but they are lost to most […]
May 27th, 2015
START is STOPPED: Study Confirms HIV Treatment Is Beneficial for All, Even Those with High CD4 Cell Counts
The Strategic Timing of AntiRetroviral Treatment (START) study began in 2009, enrolling over 4000 asymptomatic people with HIV and CD4 cell counts > 500, and randomizing them to immediate ART or to wait until the count dropped to 350. Now, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases comes this important announcement: Though the study was […]
May 21st, 2015
Which Infectious Diseases Do We Fear Too Much? Which Not Enough?
My friend (and HIV/ID colleague) Mauro Schechter sent me a funny email the other day — from Brazil, where he lives and works: I just read your post and watched the news clip about Powassan. And you still wonder why we think you Americans are paranoid disease freaks? 65 cases in 12 years in a population of […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
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FROM NEJM — Recent Infectious Disease Articles- Probable Japanese Encephalitis Virus Transmission through Organ Transplantation March 26, 2026Infection with Japanese encephalitis virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus, was identified in a patient who received a liver transplant from a donor who resided in California.
- Brief Report: Prime Editing for p47phox-Deficient Chronic Granulomatous Disease March 26, 2026In this study, gene editing with a prime editor was used to treat two persons with chronic granulomatous disease caused by a small deletion in the gene NCF1.
- Communicating about Vaccines in a Politically Contentious Climate March 26, 2026Recent changes in U.S. vaccine policy are sowing confusion and threatening the health of children and the wider population. How should pediatric clinicians communicate with parents to stem the damage?
- Eczema Herpeticum March 26, 2026A 33-year-old pregnant woman with previously controlled atopic dermatitis presented with 3 days of fever and an itchy, painful rash. Erythematous vesiculopapular lesions were noted on the face, neck, chest, and arms.
- Genetic Medicine — Primed and Ready March 26, 2026Immunodeficiency chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare disorder characterized by defects in a multiprotein complex that generates superoxide in phagocytic cells.1 Recurrent infections and formation of granulomas are hallmarks of X-linked and autosomal-recessive CGD, which is caused by variants in genes encoding individual subunits. As a monogenic...
- Probable Japanese Encephalitis Virus Transmission through Organ Transplantation March 26, 2026