An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
December 17th, 2010
Update on Berlin Patient II: Still Cured of HIV
First, who was Berlin Patient I? Second, over in the journal Blood is the latest update on Berlin Patient II, the guy apparently cured of HIV by bone marrow transplantation: We have previously reported the case of an HIV-infected patient in whom viral replication remained absent despite discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy after transplantation with CCR5Δ32/Δ32 […]
December 13th, 2010
My (Second) Favorite Journal Switches Publishers
I absolutely love the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. It’s easily my second-favorite journal. (Can you guess my favorite? Perhaps this new “About this blog” section will give you a hint.) But back to CID — here’s why I love it: Great content. Seems every issue has fascinating studies, usually of great clinical relevance to the […]
December 9th, 2010
Chronic Lyme Tough to Diagnose, Tough to Treat
Over at the Chicago Tribune, there is this superb review of the Chronic Lyme disease issue. Lyme disease is real. The bacterial infection, chiefly transmitted by deer ticks, can cause rashes, swollen joints and inflamed nerves, and usually is curable with a round of antibiotics. But doctors around the country are telling patients with common […]
December 1st, 2010
World AIDS Day: See You in Kuala Lumpur
A few random thoughts on this 2010 World AIDS Day. Now you can mark your calendars for the next three International AIDS Society/World AIDS Meetings: 2011 in Rome, 2012 in Washington, DC — and now, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And what do all 3 of these cities have in common? Extreme summer heat! (For Kuala Lumpur, it’s […]
November 29th, 2010
Once-daily Raltegravir “Not Non-Inferior” to Twice-Daily
In your electronic in-box this AM, this press release from Merck: … although the treatment regimen that included ISENTRESS once daily enabled more than 80 percent of patients to achieve viral suppression, ISENTRESS once daily did not demonstrate non-inferiority to the treatment regimen that included ISENTRESS twice daily. Merck said that based on the initial […]
November 17th, 2010
Ferlater Antibiotics
In this absolutely hysterical, laugh-out-loud comedy routine, Mal Z. Lawrence describes a woman at a Catskill hotel, piling danish into her handbag. She calls them “ferlater danish” — as opposed to the ones she’s eating at breakfast, those are “fernow.” Did you ever have one of your patients request “ferlater” antibiotics? That is, ask that […]
November 7th, 2010
Welcome to the Click-Fest
Let me start by confessing I’m something of a gadget freak. I was an early Palm Pilot adoptor, loved the iPod from the get-go, and need to avoid CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, and David Pogue’s columns for the New York Times when deadlines loom. Not surprisingly, I embraced the shift to electronic medical records (EMRs) enthusiastically. […]
November 4th, 2010
XMRV and CFS: More Yay and Nay
Does XMRV cause Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? Or more accurately, is it even associated with CFS? I’ve been putting off writing about this for a while, as I knew colleagues of mine had a paper in press on the topic, and I wanted the dust to settle a bit more on the controversy. But of course […]
October 29th, 2010
With HIV Medication Adherence, It’s Not a Competition
There has been an irresistable urge for people — doctors, public health officers, politicians, journalists, the usual pundits — to compare adherence to HIV treatment in resource-rich vs. resource-limited setting. I suspect this is because the whole issue got off to a famously bad start in 2001, when then-head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Andrew […]
October 22nd, 2010
How to Figure Out the Length of Antibiotic Therapy
One thing we ID doctors know — that other clinicians simply don’t — is how long to treat a patient with antibiotics. I was reminded of this special power by these recent events: An excellent fellow from the hospital’s Critical Care program rotated through our division recently. When asked about what she wanted learn from the […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
Learn more about HIV and ID Observations.
FROM NEJM — Recent Infectious Disease Articles- Pulmonary Mucormycosis February 12, 2026A 49-year-old man with acute myeloid leukemia was evaluated for prolonged neutropenic fever. On examination, there were crackles at the lung bases. CT of the chest revealed a reversed halo sign.
- Mucormycosis February 12, 2026Mucormycosis is a rapidly progressive, invasive fungal infection that causes severe disease. The latest epidemiologic data, risk factors, diagnostic strategies, and treatment approaches are reviewed.
- A Pediatrician’s Dilemma — Pushing Back against CDC Guidance in the Exam Room February 12, 2026When a mother cites the CDC as her source of dangerous misinformation about vaccines, her child’s pediatrician struggles: how hard can a doctor push back without destroying the trust built over a lifetime?
- Adenoviral Inciting Antigen and Somatic Hypermutation in VITT February 12, 2026VITT is caused by a somatic hypermutation of an anti–adenovirus pVII antibody that generates more avid binding of platelet factor 4 than of adenovirus pVII, its original target, which results in platelet activation.
- Dengue Suppression by Male Wolbachia-Infected Mosquitoes February 11, 2026In this report from Singapore, the release of wolbachia-infected, irradiated male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes resulted in a reduction in the vector population and in the risk of dengue infection.
- Pulmonary Mucormycosis February 12, 2026