Collaboration with the Section on Pediatric,
Adolescent and Maternal HIV
The hospital's Pediatric/Adolescent HIV/AIDS Center is the largest center of its kind in the Midwest. In addition to medical care, the social and emotional well being of these children are addressed to help them lead happy, fulfilling and productive lives. Our HIV education and outreach team helps educators create an environment that supports the health needs of children with HIV beyond the walls of the hospital.
We also work to fulfill the needs of adolescents and young adults living with HIV/AIDS and to provide services to high-risk teens. The hospital has also been active in policy efforts establishing state and federal policies to promote prenatal/newborn HIV testing and treatment to prevent mother to newborn HIV transmission as follows:
Newborn HIV prevention
When the Office of Child Advocacy was founded in 1994, HIV represented the 7th leading cause of death to children. The majority of these cases resulted from mother-to-newborn HIV transmission during pregnancy and delivery. With medical, scientific, pharmaceutical and technological advances (i.e. rapid HIV testing kits yielding results in approximately 20 minutes), however, it was shown that mother-to-newborn HIV infection could be reduced dramatically through prenatal HIV detection and treatment. Even without prenatal detection, scientific evidence demonstrated that a 50% reduction in newborns HIV could be achieve if infants were tested and administered protective medication (AZT) within the first 24-48 hours after birth. For more than a decade, the Office of Child Advocacy collaborated with the Section on Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal HIV and the hospital’s Office of Government and Community Relations to advance public policy at federal and state levels to advance legislation to strengthen prenatal care practices to achieve these life-saving measures. As a result of these efforts (in collaboration with multiple federal and state agencies and work groups), more than a 99% reduction in mother-to-newborn HIV transmission has been achieved, with recognition of Illinois by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a national model for preventing mother-to-newborn HIV transmission. Legislative accomplishments have included:
- Amendment of the Illinois Managed Care Act to ensure payment for prenatal and newborn HV testing
- Establishing mandatory newborn HIV testing legislation for all newborns when the HIV status of the mother is unknown at the time of birth
- Strengthening prenatal HIV testing to require routine HIV testing as a routine part of prenatal care, with a woman’s right to “opt-out.”
In addition, the Office of Child Advocacy collaborated with leadership in the Section of Pediatric, Adolescent and Maternal HIV in supporting widespread professional education of prenatal care providers to guide the implementation of these prenatal and newborn care practices.
Adolescent HIV prevention
In contrast to the advances in reduction in newborn HIV infection, behaviorally acquired HIV transmission has escalated to alarming rates. The CDC estimates that 50 adolescents each day acquire HIV through unsafe behaviors. Targeted education to adolescents about protection from acquiring and transmitting HIV; and encouraging HIV testing among adolescents represent the most effective methods available to stem this alarming trend. The Office of Child Advocacy has been a longstanding collaborator in supporting the prevention of HIV among adolescents by:
- Collaborating with churces and other representatives of the faith community on the south side of Chicago to conduct targeted intervention to adolescents in this high prevalence area
- Participating in the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy in Illinios
- Supporting school-based HIV prevention education
- Supporting adolescent peer education on HIV prevention
Learn more here about the pediatric HIV/AIDS program at the hospital
Learn more here about the hospital's public policy position related to HIV testing for preganant women
Related publications
- Yogev, R and Harisiades, JP: Illinois Declared a National Leader on Prevention of HIV Prevention in Children and Youth. Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Summer 2008.
- Yogev, R and Harisiades, JP: Voice of the People: “Reduce Needless HIV in Newborns.” Chicago Tribune, September 28, 2006.
- Yogev, R and Harisiades, JP: Opportunities to Prevent HIV Transmission to Newborns. Pediatrics, 118 (1), July 2006.
- “The Children’s Crusade,” Report on Yogev, R and Harisiades, JP efforts to prevent HIV in newborns. Wall Street Journal, April 15, 1996.