The 2016 Federal theme is “Leadership. Commitment. Impact.” We would like to thank our infectious diseases faculty and staff for the impact they have had on the field of infectious diseases and their work combating AIDS and their care and treatment of our pediatric patients.
For more information on World AIDS day visit: http://www.aids.gov/
Below, see what out Pediatrics Infectious Diseases faculty have to say about World AIDs Day 2016.
“Here at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center we provide unique patient centered care for HIV. Our clinic cares for a large number of infants born to mothers with HIV, as well as carrying for a large adolescent and young adult population of HIV infected patients. HIV therapy currently allows patients live to a near normal life span, but it continues to be a vexing problem to get adolescents and young adults to consistently take their life saving medication. At Harbor-UCLA our Pediatric HIV division strives to provide specialty care targeting adolescent and young adults who present a unique challenge for providers. We specialize in care for these patients that might otherwise slip through the cracks of our current medical system because of their distinctive psychosocial and developmental challenges. Until there is a cure, Harbor-UCLA Pediatric HIV will strive to change the lives of our patients for the better.”
Dr. Mike Bolaris – Director of Pediatric HIV Harbor UCLA Medical Center
“I have dichotomous feelings about this day. One is amazement in the advances of technology and science where medication allows people with HIV to live a long time in a relatively healthy state. The other feeling is one of sorrow with the recognition that in many parts of this world, women and children are the most affected groups, and the medical advances are not getting to them as quickly or efficiently as we would like. Greater attention to methods of prevention and empowering women to protect themselves continues to be needed, in the context of their local cultural and governance practices.”
Dr. Sylvia Yeh – Attending Pediatric Infectious Diseases Harbor UCLA Medical Center
“We have come a long way in the treatment of HIV/AIDS but we still need to push further for universal and routine testing as 1 in 8 patients living with HIV don’t know they have the infection.”
Dr. Jagmohan Batra – Attending Pediatric Infectious Diseases Harbor UCLA Medical Center
“As a junior physician, all of my practical experience has been in the post-HAART era, when highly effective therapies exist and we know how to use them. For me, World AIDS Day represents an opportunity to be thankful for the cumulative revolutions in HIV medicine over the past 3 decades. At the same time, it is an opportunity to reflect on the patients who we have lost–whether the monogamous widow and grandmother in rural Guatemala with no access to medical care, or the congenitally infected adolescent struggling with mental illness in south Los Angeles. World AIDS Day is an opportunity to re-dedicate ourselves, as practitioners and advocates, to tackling the many persistent structural barriers to effective therapy.”
Dr. Shom Das-Gupta – Fellow Pediatric Infectious Diseases Harbor UCLA Medical Center
“On World AIDS Day we should all remember the tremendous work done by the healthcare and patient-advocate communities to turn this infection from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. We still, however, work with patients stigmatized or otherwise devastated by the virus.”
Dr. Ken Zangwill – Division Chief Pediatric Infectious Diseases Harbor UCLA Medical Center