Posted on April 10, 2001 at 12:30 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has received a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead a nationwide initiative in designing HIV intervention programs for adolescents. Such programs are needed to slow the rate of HIV infection among adolescents and to help identify and treat teens already infected.
The HIV epidemic among adolescents in the United States is a growing problem, with an estimated 50 percent of all new infections occurring in people under age 25. Among this age group, the epidemic is increasingly affecting females and minorities.
“This a novel program for NIH (National Institutes of Health),” says Dr. Craig Wilson, associate professor of pediatrics at UAB. “A leadership group will work with other NIH-supported groups across the country to develop, prioritize and implement intervention programs for adolescents.”
Wilson will direct the Adolescent Medicine Leadership Group, comprised of researchers nationwide with expertise in adolescent intervention, therapeutic and vaccine programs. This group will serve as the governing body of the broader Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions, which will develop targeted intervention programs for adolescents, specifically those at highest risk.
Programs will focus on HIV prevention and therapies. “Most programs designed for other age groups are aimed at either prevention or therapies,” says Wilson. “But teens are very different from other groups, and we must look at both issues simultaneously -- how to prevent HIV among adolescents not infected and how to improve the quality of life for those already infected.”
This program builds on the Reaching for Excellence in Adolescent Care and Health (REACH) program, a multi-center national study to gather information about adolescents with HIV. “Before REACH, not many studies had been done looking at HIV among teens,” says Wilson, who served as clinical research director and vice chair of the project. “We collected a tremendous amount of data, and we now have the information we need to begin developing intervention programs.”
UAB will serve as the hub of the Adolescent Medicine Leadership Group. In addition to UAB, collaborating researchers will represent the following universities: University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Einstein University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Francisco, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, University of Florida, and University Medical College of New Jersey.
The Data and Operations Center, responsible for collecting and analyzing data, will be located at Westat, Inc., in Rockville, Md. Collaborating clinical centers will represent 15 universities and medical centers in the following cities: New Orleans; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Tampa; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Miami; Bronx, N.Y.; New York; Chicago; San Francisco; Baltimore; Fort Lauderdale; Boston; Philadelphia; and San Diego.