An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
June 4th, 2014
Anti-Vaccine Movement Slammed By Daily Show; ID Doctors, Pediatricians Happy
The anti-vaccine crowd gets a pretty good drubbing here from Samantha Bee on The Daily Show. I’d feel a tiny bit bad for them — gosh their opinions are pathetic — but since I’m an ID specialist married to a pediatrician, I can only rejoice in the brilliance of this piece. And yes, stupidity crosses political party lines. Enjoy! The […]
May 15th, 2014
CDC Recommends Broader Use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis — Can We Make It Happen?
Making a much stronger and more comprehensive statement than their earlier “Guidance,” the CDC is now recommending tenofovir/FTC (Truvada) for all Americans at high risk for HIV. More specifically, they recommend it for a broad range of people who have certain risk factors (click to see full size image): One certainly gets why this was done — as summarized nicely […]
May 3rd, 2014
The Top Items from the Revised DHHS HIV Treatment Guidelines
A sparkling, shiny new revision of the DHHS HIV Treatment Guidelines was released this week (thanks Alice Pau!), and provides plenty to read and think about — 285 pages, if you’re counting. A few ways to navigate this gargantuan effort more efficiently — the What’s New section, the recommendations summarized here, and the tables here. But if you want […]
April 27th, 2014
Why ID/HIV Specialists Rank Last in MD Salaries
Here’s a figure from Medscape listing 2013 physician compensation: Now a median of $174,000/year is hardly chump change, so I don’t expect much in the way of sympathy on these data. On the other hand, someone has to to be last, and note that our income hasn’t increased a bit since the last time I […]
April 24th, 2014
Pioneering Measles Vaccine Researcher Has Anecdotes, Insight, Perspective, and Generosity to Spare
In the new IDSA/Oxford University Press journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID), we plan to interview a series of great figures in ID about their experiences, posting them as podcasts with accompanying scripts. Our first interview is with Dr. Samuel Katz, a key figure in development of the measles vaccine, and it can be heard […]
April 12th, 2014
Unwittingly, HCV “News” Brackets Our Current Treatment Era on Successive Days
I’ve already told you what a fan I am of Physician’s First Watch, the daily email summary of hot medical news provided by my colleagues here at the Massachusetts Medical Society. If you haven’t signed up, you must do so — let’s play a short tune (always a favorite) for background music while you head […]
November 27th, 2013
Gynecologists May Treat Men After All
Good news here for gynecologists who screen men for anal cancer: A professional group that certifies obstetrician-gynecologists reversed an earlier directive and said on Tuesday that its members were permitted to treat male patients for sexually transmitted infections and to screen men for anal cancer… It’s always impressive when a group swiftly reverses what is […]
October 30th, 2013
HIV Treatment of Serodiscordant Couples: The Home Run, Slam Dunk, and Open Goal in Clinical Research
Just in time for Game 6 of the World Series, my colleague Rochelle Walensky has published a paper in theNew England Journal of Medicine (covered here in NEJM Journal Watch). evaluating the cost-effectiveness of treating HIV-infected individuals in serodiscordant couples. The results: In South Africa, early ART was cost-saving over a 5-year period. In both South Africa and […]
September 27th, 2013
Yes! An Economic Justification for ID Specialists
We’re currently in the middle of fellowship interview season, and I overheard the following conversation between two of my colleagues as they contemplated their upcoming interviewees: ID Doctor #1: He seems like a great candidate — wants to study hospital and community epidemiology of highly drug-resistant bacterial infections, and has already made major contributions to […]
August 28th, 2013
Poll: At $14,105/year, Is Dolutegravir Fairly Priced?
The recently approved once-daily integrase inhibitor dolutegravir is now in pharmacies and, like every new HIV drug, the price — around $14k/year — has generated some controversy. For the record, here are the per-year wholesale acquisition costs of the three FDA-approved integrase inhibitors. Raltegravir: $12,976 Elvitegravir: $13,428 (once disentangled from the price of TDF/FTC) Dolutegravir: […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Associate Editor
NEJM Clinician
Biography | Disclosures & Summaries
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