HIV Strains Becoming More Aggressive. What Does This Mean?
January 30th 2014(AUDIO) In a brief podcast, the director of the University of North Carolina infectious diseases center ponders the implications of new HIV strains that lead to AIDS symptoms significantly faster than in the past. To him, the response is obvious. What troubles him is that not everyone seems to sense the urgency
HIV/AIDS Advances of 2013: Treatment, Adherence, Policy
January 8th 2014(AUDIO) The past year has been revolutionary for HIV-positive patients, both in medical care and in policy. And more is in store for the coming year, according to Dr. Michael Horberg of Kaiser Permanente. Listen as the immediate past president of the HIV Medicine Association briefly reviews events of 2013 and forecasts 2014.
Talking Points: Best Ways to Convey Results of an HIV Test to a Patient
September 7th 2013(AUDIO) Now that guidelines mandate testing all adults for HIV status, what are the best ways to convey the results of this important but often sensitive test? Listen as the co-director of Emory University's Center for AIDS Research offers insights for effective communication on this topic.
Finding Logjams in the Cascade of HIV/AIDS Care
July 23rd 2013(AUDIO) HIV-positive status is hardly a death sentence today, yet too many patients in the US do not complete the continuum of care from diagnosis to completion of antiretroviral therapy. AIDS specialist Katerina Chrstopoulos MD examines the barriers along the cascade of care, and suggests solutions.
New Recommendations for Qualifications to Treat HIV Infection
May 9th 2013(AUDIO) The HIV Medicine Association has released a document that identifies the key characteristics of a medical provider qualified to manage the long-term care of patients infected with HIV. Here the chair of the organization describes the qualifications and tells why they are important.
How Suspicion, Conspiracy Theory Hinder HIV Testing in Older Patients
March 15th 2013(AUDIO) For older as well as young patients, clinicians should be sure to test regularly for HIV as the CDC advises, says a researcher who tells in this interview how suspicions about the origin of AIDS and the involvement of government may discourage older people from being tested.
Helping Freedom Be as Good as Prison for Ex-Inmates With HIV
February 8th 2013(AUDIO) Correctional institutions offer an excellent opportunity to discover and treat HIV infection, which is usually contracted before incarceration. How can physicians assure that care is just as good after these patients are released into the community?
HIV Advances Prompt Reanalysis of USPSTF Screening Policies
December 8th 2012(AUDIO) US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations for HIV screening may come into line with CDC guidelines thanks to a reanalysis of recent outcomes data. Here clinical epidemiologist Roger Chou MD, who conducted the analysis, describes the new evidence and the implications.
Disparities Disappearing in Success of HIV/AIDS Treatment
November 20th 2012Data from an inner-city AIDS treatment clinic in Baltimore suggest that inequities in HIV/AIDS treatment may be undergoing a necessary correction. In this podcast, an author of the study explains what this may mean for people in treatment elsewhere.
How the Affordable Care Act Will Impact Patients With HIV
October 20th 2012At an "exciting" time in HIV treatment, the Affordable Care Act offers the prospect of immediate treatment for newly diagnosed HIV. In this podcast, the author of a new report on the topic discusses how the Act will affect your patients' care.
Parotid Gland Deformities in HIV Seropositive Patients: The Best Choice for Cosmetic Control
April 10th 2012More than half of people with HIV infection in the United States develop head and neck lesions. Common among these is enlargement of the parotid gland, which causes disfigurement and therefore distress. This review discusses the evidence for radiation treatment as the best option, as well as the dangers of choosing the wrong treatment for this benign comorbidity of HIV-positive status.
Compete with Colleagues to Predict HIV Severity
June 10th 2010How likely is it that an HIV patient's infection will become less severe? A bioinformatics researcher at Drexel University has developed a competition on Kaggle that asks participants to find the markers in an HIV sequence that could predict a change in severity of infection.
Routine HIV Screening Program in an Urban Outpatient Setting
February 3rd 2010In 2006, the CDC recommended “opt-out” routine HIV testing in all health care encounters for persons 13 to 64 years of age. While this recommendation has garnered some support, concerns about the feasibility of such routine testing in a busy office without disrupting patient care has persisted. We report the results of a pilot study to determine the feasibility of routine testing in a busy urban clinic.
Editorial Comment: Mixing Tenofovir With Other Nephrotoxins-How Safe Is This?
May 29th 2009Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate is extensively used for treatment of HIV infection. In addition, tenofovir has recently obtained FDA approval for treatment of hepatitis B, and it can therefore be assumed that this drug will be increasingly used in non–HIV-infected persons as well. Although the risk for nephrotoxicity with this agent is low, its widespread use will no doubt lead to more episodes of renal impairment in patients worldwide. It is important to identify those patients for whom tenofovir should not be used or, at the least, identify those patients, both HIV-infected and non–HIV-infected, for whom renal function should be more closely monitored during tenofovir use.
Editorial Comment: Screening for Anal Dysplasia-Are We All on the Same Page?
May 1st 2009Anal cancer has become one of the most common non–AIDS-defining tumors in HIV-infected persons.1,2 The incidence of anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) is also markedly increased in HIV-positive men,3 particularly those who have sex with men (MSM), despite the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy.4