An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
April 17th, 2008
Required Reading: Bat-Related Human Rabies
A group of researchers in Canada have done infectious diseases experts a big favor — they’ve summarized a staggering amount of useful data on bat-related cases of human rabies in a paper just published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Note to non-ID specialists: infectious diseases doctors spend a lot of time answering questions about rabies in […]
April 10th, 2008
Needed: Something Better than “HAART”
I think we all have pet peeves, and so I’ll confess one of mine: I hate the term “HAART.” (I work with someone, by the way, who hates the term “viral load,” preferring “virus load.” Go figure.) Standing for “highly active antiretroviral therapy,” HAART first surfaced in the mid-1990s in order to distinguish potent anti-HIV treatment from the older, […]
March 20th, 2008
How to Solve at Least One Part of the Healthcare Mess: ADAP for All
The presidential elections have once again made our Byzantine healthcare system a regular feature in the news. A recent film also made quite a splash, and though Michael Moore offered no plausible solutions (Cuba? c’mon!), he certainly made me wonder what I’d do if I had two severed fingers that needed to be reattached and only enough money […]
March 19th, 2008
How long have I got, Doc?
Some aspects of seeing a patient newly-diagnosed with HIV haven’t changed much over the years — for example, the emotions in the room remain a mix of fear, shame (note to world: this is still a highly stigmatized disease), incredulity, and ultimately relief in finding a clinician who is comfortable with the condition. But a […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
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FROM NEJM — Recent Infectious Disease Articles- Interactive Perspective: Measles December 18, 2025This Double Take video reviews evidence-based recommendations on measles prevention and management and explores commonly asked questions about the measles virus and infection.
- Noninferiority of One HPV Vaccine Dose to Two Doses December 18, 2025In this trial, one dose of an HPV vaccine was noninferior to two doses in preventing HPV type 16 or 18 infection.
- From Crisis to Action — Policy Pathways to Reverse the Rise in Congenital Syphilis December 18, 2025In recent years, cases of congenital syphilis have surged. This trend reflects both prenatal care gaps and systemic issues, including failures in testing, treatment, and public health infrastructure.
- Contact Precautions for MRSA and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus December 18, 2025This feature about the use of contact precautions in the hospital for patients with MRSA or VRE offers a case vignette accompanied by two essays, one supporting continuing the use of contact precautions and the other recommending discontinuing them.
- Evidence to Action — Single-Dose HPV Vaccination and Cervical HPV Infection December 18, 2025Kreimer and colleagues now report in the Journal1 the results of the ESCUDDO trial, which showed that the efficacy of a single dose of either a bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine or a nonavalent formulation was similar to that of the standard two-dose schedule. This randomized trial...
- Interactive Perspective: Measles December 18, 2025