Adverse Events, Comorbidities, and HIV

In this exclusive series of articles, David Alain Wohl, M.D., calls attention to 10 developments that have tremendous short-term implications for our day-to-day efforts to improve HIV prevention, treatment, patient care, and policy in the U.S., and analyzes each development with his trademark wit and clinical savvy.

While we remain uncertain about the precise level of interaction (if any) between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 on a pathophysiological level, the pandemic’s disruption of HIV care is irrefutable.

A new report from the CDC highlights encouraging trends in death rates among people with HIV in the U.S., and is explicit in associating them with strong and concerted public health interventions.

Given the decline in mortality among people living with HIV in the U.S., it’s no surprise that the difference in life expectancy between those with and without the virus is shrinking. But the disparities that remain are striking.

Given the differences we’ve seen among disparate subgroups, it is highly likely that there are genetic influences on the amount of weight people gain on certain HIV therapies, argues David Wohl, M.D.

“Telling them now that ‘the government is saying I need to decrease your opioids. ... Sorry you’re going to suffer,’ was just not satisfying to me as a physician,” says Maile Young Karris, M.D.

Nov. 19, 2020: Metformin's effect on weight and gut microbiota; integrase and cardiometabolics in women with HIV; ongoing link between HIV, smoking, and cancer; how early HIV treatment initiation impacts future cervical cancer outcomes.

A recent expert debate explored the pros and cons of prescribing the antibiotic as a preventive measure for a subset of people at especially high risk for sexually transmitted infections.

We spoke with Amy Killelea at NASTAD, a major national health policy advocacy organization, about the priorities she sees in January 2021 and beyond.

IDWeek 2020 provided a perfect opportunity to better understand the modern-day impact of histoplasmosis among Americans living with HIV—and to bone up on the basics.