An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
October 25th, 2011
Important Reminder: Don’t Eat Raw Garden Slugs
From the pages of the New York Times, courtesy of ProMED, comes this case report: An Australian man has been hospitalized for more than a month in serious condition as a result of eating two garden slugs on a dare…The 21-year-old Sydney man apparently contracted a rat lungworm parasite from the slugs, which pick it […]
October 23rd, 2011
TB, Timing of Antiretroviral Therapy, and Being a Lumper Rather Than a Splitter
Three key papers on timing of ART in patients with TB have just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Fortunately, Carlos Del Rio has done a bang-up job summarizing them in Journal Watch AIDS Clinical Care. And if you’re wondering how we got our title for Carlos’ piece, here’s an e-mail between our Executive Editor […]
October 19th, 2011
Going, Going, Gone … HIV Treatment Failure Is Disappearing in People Who Take Their Meds
World Series time, hence the baseball reference in the title. (Doesn’t take much.) But over in Lancet Infectious Diseases — which has turned out to be a terrific journal, by the way — there’s a study reminding us that advances in HIV treatment in the late 2000s were truly spectacular. The goal of the paper […]
September 17th, 2011
Drinking Coffee Prevents MRSA
I follow the medical literature on coffee very closely. Why? Because I’m completely addicted — and, judging from the lines at the Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc at the airports before early morning flights, I am not alone. (It’s just one cup a day. Any more and say hello to palpitations, jitters, sweats, and long sleepless […]
September 11th, 2011
Must-Read Paper: “Antiscience” and Lyme Disease
As I’ve written before, there are few clinical encounters more challenging for Infectious Diseases specialists than the patient who, despite negative standard diagnostic testing, believes he/she has Lyme disease. Now, in Lancet Infectious Diseases, comes a paper entitled “Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy of Lyme disease.” It meticulously describes the distinctive world of alternative diagnosis, […]
August 31st, 2011
It’s Time for Antibiotic Placebos
As I’m sure you all agree, it’s high time we had a good antibiotic placebo. Just think — we’d be able to prescribe a 100% effective treatment for viral respiratory tract infections, with the assurance of no risk of antibiotic resistance, C diff, allergic reactions, tendon ruptures, photosensitivity, drug-drug interactions, or any of the myriad […]
August 24th, 2011
Hepatitis C and … Baseball?
From the prolific folks at NATAP came this surprising announcement: The Cardinals are stepping up to the plate against Hepatitis C. Starting Monday, August 22, fans will be able to get free Hepatitis C screenings at Busch Stadium. It’s part of a nationwide effort by Major League Baseball to bring attention to the causes and treatment of […]
July 28th, 2011
Really Rapid Review — IAS 2011 Rome
Just back from IAS 2011 (which was followed, I’m thrilled to say, with a visit to perhaps the most beautiful region in the world). Here is a Really Rapid Review™ of the meeting, with apologies ahead of time for lack of organization and (even more likely) leaving out something important. FYI, the abstracts are online […]
July 12th, 2011
A Thank You to Nice Patients
Yesterday I saw one of my favorite long-term patients. She’s just wonderful, and it’s always a joy to see her. Here are some reasons: She’s uniformly nice — not just to me, but to all the nurses and social workers and other support staff in our clinic. She shows up on time for her appointments. […]
July 3rd, 2011
Proof That We Are Not French
In case you were worrying about fading American national identity as we celebrate July 4, did you see this detail on a recent E. coli O104:H4 outbreak from France? More recently, at least 15 people in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, appear to have been infected with the strain found in Germany. Most of them have […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
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