World AIDS Day
Today marks World AIDS Day — a commemoration that the World Health Organization began 27 years ago to raise awareness of a rising epidemic of HIV/AIDS. USC experts in several disciplines have studied and treated the disease, and provided support to communities to help lower the infection rate. At last count, an estimated 36.9 million people worldwide had HIV/AIDS, according to the WHO. With 60,000 infections, the Los Angeles County area has one of the highest infected populations in the nation.
Contact: Emily Gersema at (213) 740-0252 or gersema@usc.edu, or Zen Vuong at (213) 300-1381 or zvuong@usc.edu
The disease’s shifting infection patterns, impact
“In the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS was first noted in gay communities in New York and California. Increasingly over the past 20 years, HIV/AIDS has affected communities and families on a global level. While we continue to see new infections in the United States among all major groups (gay men and women, African Americans, Latinos, homeless youth, sex workers, IV drug users, polysubstance users, etc.), HIV/AIDS has increasingly become a disease of the poor living with multiple primary medical conditions.
“Globally, HIV/AIDS has struck developing countries the hardest in Africa, India, and parts of Asia, where children and the aged are often caregivers for the infected. Among industrialized nations where health care is most accessible, HIV has become more and more a chronic disease to be managed on a long-term basis for those who can afford treatment.”
Helen Land is an associate professor at the USC School of Social Work who is executive editor of the Journal of HIV/AIDS and Social Services. Her research focuses on ways in which culture and gender factors, stress, coping and spirituality affect physical and mental well-being in vulnerable populations, particularly those struggling with immigration, poverty, violence, HIV/AIDS and family caregiving.
Contact: (213) 740-0299 or land@usc.edu
Reduced mother-child transmissions; the ‘second wave’
“When we started out in the late 80s and early 90s, we were seeing that about 30 percent of babies born to mothers were infected. We used antiretrovirals pretty aggressively at our clinic and so most of these babies are still alive and are now adolescents or young adults in our clinic having children of their own. By 1995, we were part of a large clinical trial, and we decreased mother-to-child transmission by two thirds. Since then we have been able to prevent almost all transmissions. As time went on, though, we started seeing a second wave had begun among adolescents.”
“HIV is a chronic disease now but people are still dying. Early treatment is critical. Many of those that are getting infected are very poor and don’t access health care. An estimated 60,000 people in the Los Angeles County area are infected, and 10,000 of these don’t even know they are infected.”
Andrea Kovacs is director of the Maternal Child and Adolescent/Adult Center for Infectious Diseases and Virology at the LAC+USC Medical Center, which treats families living with HIV/AIDS which also conducts clinical research on disease treatment. She also is a professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the head of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics at LAC+USC Medical Center.
Contact: (626) 457-5820 or akovacs@usc.edu
Research and development to curb infections
“We are investigating new biomedical interventions that have the potential to significantly curb new infections. We also have new technologies to help improve adherence to treatment for those who have been infected. Our ‘Healthy Young Men’s Study’ provides a unique opportunity to leverage advances in science and medicine to help end the HIV epidemic in the United States.”
Michele Kipke is a professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is also the vice chair of research in the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and director of the Community, Health Outcomes & Intervention Research Program of The Saban Research Institute at CHLA.
Contact: 323-361-8424 or mkipke@chla.usc.edu
Genomic research guiding drug therapy
“Scientists have made immense progress in developing antiviral drugs that have been effective in significantly reducing the virus load and decreasing the incidence of AIDS in HIV-infected individuals. However, chronically-infected patients continue to be presented with non-AIDS diseases such as cardiovascular, neuromuscular, cancer and other disorders at higher frequencies compared to their uninfected counterparts in the general population groups.
“Our laboratory has identified several microRNA-like sequences embedded in various protein-coding regions of HIV genomes. These viruses have evolved specific mechanisms to evade innate immune responses and disrupt normal cellular processes. Perhaps the new-generation drugs may be helpful in disabling HIV-sequences associated with human genomes.”
Suraiya Rasheed is a professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is also the director of Laboratory of Viral Oncology and AIDS Research.
Contact: (323) 224-7415 or srasheed@usc.edu
Reducing deaths from HIV/AIDS
“My research shows that early HIV treatment and testing can significantly reduce HIV-related mortality. With continued success, we will soon celebrate World AIDS-Free Day.”
Neeraj Sood is an association professor at the School of Pharmacy. He is also the director of research at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and the vice dean for research at the Price School of Public Policy. The Schaeffer Center has published research and issue briefs concerning access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients.
Contact: (323) 442-1371 or nsood@usc.edu
