A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Mar. 1, 2013 - Sequester kicked in and so spending cuts are in effect. Incredible posturing on part of GOP as well as the POTUS who is stating that the "world will come to an end" and the GOP is to blame since they refuse to raise taxes. This is pitiful government. Also, interesting finding being presented at CROI meeting in Atlanta in a couple of days of an infant who was treated (not prophylaxed) with ARVS within 30 hours of birth since his mother who was infected had no anti-natal care and obviously no ARVs. She presented in an ER in Mississippi at labor. The physicians felt that since the risk was so high for the baby that they treated the infant before the tests for HIV came back. They usually take several days to come back. Right choice. The baby was infected and stayed on ARVs for 18 months. Then lost to follow up and mother D/C'd the ARVs for 10 months and reappeared. Only now the baby is well and no evidence of replicating virus (some probably dead residual DNA by PCR. Also, immune response to HIV disappeared (not surprising in the absence of persistent virus). This may be the first real case of a cure, not the "Berlin Patient" whom I always thought was totally non-feasible for scale up and danger. Of note, I have been saying for years that the best bet for a cure was to treat as early as possible to prevent establishment of a large reservoir and to prevent destruction of immune system by persistent viral replication over months to years. The best scenario for this is to treat a child at birth. Perhaps there are other children on therapy who received ARVs relatively early (not necessarily within hours) who are in fact cured and do not know it. Much study to be done.
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Mar. 4, 2013 - The media interest in the "cured" baby has been as intense or more than anything I have experienced here at NIH. Yesterday I did WUSA 9 nightly news and today I did: CBS Morning News with Charlie Rose and Nora O'Donnell; WTOP Radio; Fax Morning News; CBS Radio LA; Fox Radio News; NBC News and NBC Nightly News; ABC Evening News; BBC World Service Radio; Canadian Broadcast (CBC) TV; CNN International with Christianne Amanpour; CNN Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer; WLS radio; PBS NewsHour with Ray Suarez; BBC Radio; Canada CNN Radio; CNN Anderson Cooper 360; Al Jazeera. Quite a day. I stressed that we must be careful since this is only a single case in very unusual circumstances. All media went very well.
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Mar. 5, 2013 - Media frenzy continues. I have now gone over the data from the Hannah Gay and Persaud presentation at CROI and I have some doubts that the child was ever truly infected in the first place. Tough to really tell whether the virus that was detected and ultimately disappeared on ARVs was the virus from the mother or really infected baby cells making virus. The authors claim that the 2 phase decay of virus on ARVs is characteristic of the response to active virus replication. Cliff Lane pointed out that the decay curve has very few points and is also compatible with a single phase decay. In any event, I have been taking the conservative approach of emphasizing that this is just a single case and it needs to be replicated and validated and importantly, it has little to do with infection in the adult where reservoirs are firmly established prior to the start of ARVs. Nonetheless, the media frenzy continues with interview for Men's health, Huffington Post, NPR- San Francisco (KQED), Boston Globe. riedel of Senate ie for tomorrow
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Mar. 6, 2013 - When it rains, it pours. CDC came out with a "Vital Signs" alert out of MMWR about the growing threat of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea (CRE), which includes Klebsiella pneumonia carbapenem-resistant (KPC) that gave the NIH Clinical Center the outbreak of 18 cases (11 deaths, 7 of which were due to the KPC) in 2011. Another media frenzy starts with me on NBC Nightly News X2.
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2013-03-07 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Mar. 7, 2013 - CRE media with Diane Rehm Show, Briefed Laura Friedel of Senate Minority Staff at Appropriations (Staffer to Ron Moran)
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Mar. 8, 2013 - Guest on Geraldo Rivera Show for "cure" baby; CNN tape for tomorrow on CRE; the Washington Post "The Fold" (online TV) on HIV.
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Mar. 11, 2013 - Flew to Boston for the day to give Keynote Lecture at the dedication of the new building for the Ragon Institute of MGH, Harvard, and MIT. Held at 400 Technology Square in Cambridge, MA. Orchestrated by Bruce Walker who is amazing at raising money for his biomedical research. Terry and Susan Ragon (software billionaires) gave Bruce $10 million per year for 10 years and now an additional $30 million to renovate the building for the Ragon Institute. I spent a few hours interacting with the Ragon scientists, gave my Keynote and then had dinner at the "Catalyst" restaurant in Cambridge. Many Boston scientific and other luminaries at lecture and dinner including Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and his family (wife and son Jonathan). Also at lecture and at dinner and with whom I had great conversations were Drew Faust (President of Harvard), Raphael Reif (President of MIT), Ray Slavin (President of MGH) among others. We discussed the potential effects of the "sequestration" Very nice visit.
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Mar. 13, 2013 - Did nice interview at Biocentury (WUSA - Channel 29) on the Sequestration. That evening went to Research America Gala at Mellon Auditorium on 13th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. I sat at the Duke University Table with Congressman George Holding, Victor Tzau, and others. My friend Diane Rehm (NPR Diane Rehm Show) received one of the awards.
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Mar. 15, 2013 - Have received indications from Judith Shamir (Exec Sec of IOM) the Alan Leschner, Chair of IOM President Search Committee is very interested in my submitting my application for the job. I told her that I was not interested, but I would let her know. I called current President, Harvey Fineberg, and asked his opinion. He said that I would be fantastic for the job. I explained that I was not that interested. The only reason (weak) to take the job is that I could start writing my book in that job, which I cannot really do now since I would have so much more time in that much-less-demanding job compared to NIAID Director.