In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Kevin Carmichael of the Arizona Department of Health Services about the unique challenges caregivers faced in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dr Carmichael is a family physician who began work in HIV in 1983 while in medical school in Miami, Florida. During his residency at the University of Miami, Dr Carmichael co-authored one of the first written guidance for clinical HIV care “HIV/AIDS: A Primary Care Handbook.” Dr Saag and Dr Carmichael discuss their shared history in caring for people during the early years of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s. They also discuss the challenges in managing families of people with AIDS. Dr Carmichael then reflects upon the transition in the care of HIV in 1995 when protease inhibitors became available, effectively the start of turning HIV into a manageable chronic disease. Finally, Dr Saag and Dr Carmichael provide thoughts for younger practitioners currently involved in HIV management.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr David Freedman of the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide an overview of travel medicine: vaccines, outbreaks, and more. Dr Freedman is a professor of infectious diseases and his research is focused on clinical tropical medicine, including the development of surveillance networks to characterize infectious disease morbidity in travelers and migrants. Dr Saag and Dr Freedman provide an overview of worldwide outbreaks such as: mpox, H5N1, Marburg virus, Ebola, dengue fever, chikungunya, and Zika virus. Dr Freedman discusses the treatments and vaccines available for each of these outbreaks. They also address the clinical challenges of treating individuals with emerging infections of unknown origin. Finally, Dr Saag and Dr Freedman address the acute setting of treating rabies exposures from bats and other wild animals.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Rajesh Gandhi of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital about the new IAS-USA recommendations for HIV treatment and prevention. Dr Gandhi is the Chair of the guidelines panel, which published its recommendations in the Journal of the American Medical Association on December 1, 2024. Dr Gandhi and Dr Saag discuss the process by which the updated guidelines were created and provide an update on what’s new in the current edition. They address other important topics like how to treat patients with opportunistic infections, guidance on when to change therapy, and strategies for preventing HIV acquisition. Finally, Dr Gandhi makes recommendations for those using the guidelines, especially those using them for the first time.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Kenneth Sherman of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School about the possibility of a cure for hepatitis B. The World Health Organization estimates that 254 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B globally in 2022. Dr Saag and Dr Sherman discuss the lifecycle of hepatitis B including the role that covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) plays in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication cycle. Dr Sherman defines functional cure and provides an overview of the most promising cure strategies. They also discuss whether antiretroviral drugs like tenofovir, used in the treatment of HIV, can contribute toward a functional cure of hepatitis B. Dr Sherman discusses other strategies like capsid assembly modulators (CAMs), monoclonal antibodies, and toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists. Finally, they discuss the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccine in prevention and look forward to the future by considering a timeline for a cure based on the status of ongoing clinical trials.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Jason Zucker of Columbia University and the New York City STD Prevention Training Center about mpox and the mpox outbreak. Dr Saag and Dr Zucker discuss the 2 clades of mpox, how it is transmitted, and which clade is associated with the most recent mpox outbreak. They also discuss how to test for mpox and how people with HIV present with mpox based on their HIV viral load. Dr Zucker gives a detailed update on the STOMP (Study of Tecovirimat for Human Mpox Virus) trial that evaluates the efficacy of the antiviral tecovirimat, also known as TPOXX, for the treatment of mpox. They also address the role of vaccination in mpox, its uptake and efficacy. Finally, Dr Zucker offers his perspective on how practitioners and public health officials can address ongoing mpox outbreaks in the US and globally, including a second public health emergency of international concern that was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries in August by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Jennifer Kates of KFF to compare and contrast health care policies from different sides of the aisle. Dr Kates provides an update on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and efforts to repeal the healthcare program in the United States. Dr Saag and Dr Kates also discuss the status of Medicaid expansion in the US and the impact of access to care in states where Medicaid has been expanded. They also discuss the impact of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program on healthcare for people with HIV and the long-term outlook for funding for the program. In addition, there is a detailed overview and outlook of funding for the 340B Drug Pricing Program that allows eligible hospitals and other healthcare organizations to purchase outpatient drugs at a discount from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Finally, Dr Saag and Dr Kates discuss the erosion of trust in science and public health officials in the US and reasons to be optimistic for the future.

This episode of Going anti-Viral features an IAS–USA Dialogue titled “Latest Update on Urgent Viral Outbreaks,” a panel discussion held on October 4, 2024.  Dr Carlos del Rio from Emory University serves as moderator and welcomes 3 distinguished panelists: Dr Yvonne Maldonado from Stanford University, Dr Peter Chin-Hong from the University of California San Francisco, and Dr Paul Sax from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The episode covers various pressing topics, including updates on COVID-19, avian flu, mpox, and other viral diseases. Discussions touch on vaccines, their effectiveness, public health approaches, and current research.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Carolyn Chu and Dr Lealah Pollock from the University of California San Francisco about the National Clinician Consultation Center (NCCC). The NCCC offers guidance to health care practitioners on HIV, hepatitis, and substance use. Dr Chu and Dr Pollock discuss the most common questions asked by clinicians to the NCCC warm line such as: infant feeding by people with HIV, antiretroviral treatment (ART) for pregnant people with HIV, and the use of long-acting antiretroviral drugs. They also discuss how they respond to questions about the latest developments in preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) care, care for people with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and health care practitioner exposures. Finally, they share their thoughts about working for the NCCC and the service they offer to US-based clinicians.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Sandra Springer from the Yale School of Medicine about the substance use disorder epidemic. Dr Springer describes the history of the epidemic and the recent crisis of overdose deaths in the United States. She talks about the increase in overdose deaths since 1999 due to prescription opioids. Dr Saag and Dr Springer review how HIV practitioners can manage patients with substance abuse disorder, including a discussion of how to manage patients undergoing withdrawal. Finally, they address harm reduction strategies available to practitioners and new data showing a reduction in overdose deaths, providing long-term hope for the effectiveness of these strategies. But they note that more research, funding, and outreach is needed to meet the risks that opioid and non-opioid substances pose in the future.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Andrew Pavia from the University of Utah about influenza A, specifically the H5N1 strain. Dr Pavia describes the progression of H5N1 and its recent impacts on poultry and other animal populations, including an overview of a recent outbreak among dairy cattle and whether there is a risk to humans exposed on farms and the milk supply at large. They discuss how influenza vaccines are determined each year and the timing of when best to recommend vaccination. They describe treatment options for influenza and their effectiveness against H5N1. Finally, they address public health measures taken during influenza outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic, offering lessons learned for future influenza outbreaks in humans.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Timothy Wilkin from the University of California San Diego about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and anal cancer with options for screening, prevention, and vaccination.

They provide an overview of HPV and the types of HPV that lead to cancer. They discuss screening and prevention for anal cancer at HIV and PrEP clinics. They also discuss the findings of the ANCHOR study that demonstrated that high-resolution anoscopy screening detects and prevents anal cancer caused by HPV. Finally, they review HPV vaccination, its effectiveness, and the challenges with uptake of the vaccine in the population at large.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Paul Volberding from the University of California San Francisco about long COVID and new long COVID disability guidelines. They discuss the symptoms and causes of long COVID and where to find treatment. Dr Volberding discussed his work with the National Academy of Medicine, which recently released a report on long COVID disability guidelines.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Peter Chin-Hong from the University of California San Francisco to get an update on important emerging infections. They discuss the current outbreak of COVID-19 and trends in the epidemiology of the disease. They also address emerging measles cases and the underlying pathophysiology of the disease. They also discuss the impact of vaccine disinformation on the risk of measles transmissibility. Finally, they address emerging infections such as avian flu, vaccine developments, and address others like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and pertussis.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Raphael Landovitz from the UCLA Medical School about the latest information on HIV prevention via Preexposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP. They discuss the history of PrEP and early efficacy and then move into a discussion of the evolution of PrEP from episodic dosing to longer-acting therapies. The episode also highlights recent research and how that may impact the future of PrEP dosing.

This episode of Going anti-Viral, we are joined by Dr Suman Srinivasa, in discussing the treatment of diabetes and the management of weight gain with novel GLP-1 receptor agonist.

This episode of Going anti-Viral, we re-present a panel discussion as part of the Dialogue series, Latest Update on Urgent Virus Outbreaks, moderated by Dr Paul Volberding, with panelists Drs Yvonne Maldonado, Carlos del Rio, and Peter Chin-Hong, whom are experts in viral diseases, their epidemiology, and treatment.

This episode discusses the evolving landscape of HIV-related metabolic complications and cardiovascular health. Dr Michael Saag and Dr Todd Brown cover insights from CROI 2024, key studies on blood pressure management, the cardiovascular benefits of statins, and the promising role of GLP-1 receptor agonists in treating diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease in people with HIV.

This episode of Going anti-Viral with Dr Michael Saag hosts Dr Barbara Taylor. They discussed topics covered at CROI 2024, including the 95-95-95 goal, long-acting antiretroviral therapies, mental health challenges in HIV care, and the potential for long-acting treatments in other viral diseases like hepatitis C.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag hosts Dr Ravindra Gupta. Dr Gupta is the infectious diseases expert who led the team that treated Adam Castillejo, also known as ‘The London Patient,’ the second person known to have been cured of HIV. The discussion, recorded on March 3, 2024, at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), focused on the intricate process of finding a suitable stem cell donor, the immunologic and virologic considerations around the transplant process, and the collaborative medical team effort involved.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, host Dr Michael Saag interviews Adam Castillejo, known as the London patient, who is the second person to have been cured of HIV infection. The discussion, recorded on March 3, 2024, at The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), touches on Adam’s initial HIV diagnosis in London during the early 2000s, the societal stigma and personal impact of the diagnosis, and his dual battle with HIV and cancer. Adam shares the complex journey of his treatment, including the failure of initial interventions and the ultimate success of a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a CCR5 delta 32 mutation, leading to his cure of HIV and cancer. The conversation delves into the technical aspects of bone marrow transplant, the emotional and physical challenges Adam faced during recovery, and the continued stigma he experiences even post-cure. The episode reflects on the broader implications of Adam’s story for HIV research and societal perceptions of the disease.

In this episode, Dr Michael Saag and Dr Adia Rana discuss a breakthrough study on using a long-acting injectable HIV treatment with conditional economic incentives for individuals who were unable to take oral therapy. Presented at CROI 2024, the study’s positive outcomes offer an effective option for certain individuals with no other options for continuing oral antiretroviral therapy

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag and Dr Jean-Michel Molina discuss recent developments in STI prevention, focusing on doxycycline as post-exposure prophylaxis (DoxyPEP) and the evaluation of a meningococcal vaccine for gonorrhea prevention in the ANRS Doxyvac trial. Recorded at CROI 2024, Dr Molina shares insights from clinical trials, including challenges with data analysis and implications for future STI prevention and vaccine research.

In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag and Dr Jean-Michel Molina discuss recent developments in STI prevention, focusing on doxycycline as post-exposure prophylaxis (DoxyPEP) and the evaluation of a meningococcal vaccine for gonorrhea prevention in the ANRS Doxyvac trial. Recorded at CROI 2024, Dr Molina shares insights from clinical trials, including challenges with data analysis and implications for future STI prevention and vaccine research.

Episode 11 – Innovations in Vaccine Research: Single Cell Immunity Development With Dr Fabian Otte Recorded Live from CROI 2024.

Episode 10 – Harnessing the Power of Bacteriophages With Dr Robert Schooley.

Episode 9 – Understanding The Implementation of Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (DoxyPEP) and Addressing Sexually Transmitted Infections with Dr Annie Luetkemeyer.

Episode 8 – A Historical Overview of The HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Prevention and Intervention Methods, and Future Strategies with Dr Susan Buchbinder.

Episode 7 – A Conversation With Dr Katelyn K. Jetelina About Her Journey in The Field of Epidemiology, The Initial Handling of The COVID-19 Pandemic, The Spreading of Misinformation, And The Urgent Need to Rebuild Public Trust in Health Infrastructure.

Episode 6 – Dr Michael Saag hosts Dr Anthony Fauci on this episode of the Going anti-Viral podcast, discussing Dr Fauci’s career journey, his involvement in AIDS research, and his contribution towards managing other viral diseases.

Episode 5 – An In-depth discussion on syphilis with Dr Meredith Clement, Associate Professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. This special episode was recorded live from the 2023 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program CLINICAL CONFERENCE in Portland, OR, on December 4, 2023.

Episode 4 – A Deep Dive into Vaccine Development with Dr Richard Koup, Deputy Director Chief, Immunology Laboratory Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH. This special episode was recorded live from the 2023 Ryan White CLINICAL CONFERENCE in Portland, OR, December 2, 2023.

Episode 3 – Latest Update on Emerging and Reemerging Urgent Viral Outbreaks, Including COVID-19, MPOX, and Flu. October 2023 In today’s episode of Going anti-Viral, we present a recent dialogue from October 19th, 2023, with special guest Katelyn K. Jetelina, MPH, PhD.

Episode 2 – Latest Update on Urgent Virus Outbreaks, August 2023 Dialogue on Urgent Viral Diseases This episode of Going anti-Viral features an IAS–USA Dialogue titled “Latest Update on Urgent Virus Outbreaks,” which is a panel discussion held on August 1, 2023.

Episode 1 – 40 Years Later: Looking Back at the Beginning of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic In this episode of Going anti-Viral, we revisit a panel discussion titled “40 Years Later: Looking Back at the Beginning of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” sponsored by the IAS–USA.