This weeks CDC MMWR reports an unfortunate case where a patient with kidney failure who received a kidney transplant from a living donor also acquired HIV/AIDS. The case, the first of its kind since 1989, is remarkable not because we don’t know that organ transplantation come with risks but rather it highlights the inadequacies of […]
Official HIVMA stance on PrEP for HIV (iPrEx study)
Last week, I blogged my opinion on the media’s reception and response to the iPrEx study that showed that in a trial of 2499 HIV negative men and transgendered women who were at high risk for HIV acquisition, those that received daily emtricitabine plus tenofovir (a combination drug) had a 44% reduction in HIV incidence […]
HIV in the Elderly Revisited
It is World AIDS Day and everywhere you look there’s an article touching upon some aspect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This summer, I wrote a post on HIV in the older age groups prompted by a study that showed that older men taking erectile dysfunction drugs (eg. Viagra) had twice the rate of sexually transmitted illnesses […]
Hurrah for Pope Benedict XVI – Condoms for all
It’s almost surreal. Did the Pope actually suggest that the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV is the lesser of two evils, even if their use prevents a pregnancy? Wow! I feel like we have entered into a new era. This is a whole paradigm shift. Now that he has said this […]
Irresponsible Journalism – PrEP for HIV
The New England Journal of Medicine today reported the results of a trial in which 2499 HIV-seronegative men or transgender women who were at high risk for HIV acquisition were enrolled to either receive daily emtricitabine plus tenofovir or placebo. The results were that those who received the anti-retroviral medications had a 44% reduction in HIV […]