The Department of Pediatrics and Child Health (DPCH) in the Howard University College of Medicine has scored major funding toward their efforts in HIV prevention and treatment.
Gilead Sciences Inc. awarded the health leaders nearly $1 million in grant funding for a new initiative geared toward improving the HIV landscape for Black women and girls.
Patricia Houston, project director at Howard’s HIV/Hematology Research Unit, leads DPCH’s role in the initiative, alongside Dr. Sohail Rana, professor at Howard and Director of Pediatric Hematology.
The university will collaborate with several leading health advocates and organizations including Dr. Maranda C. Ward, an assistant professor at George Washington University, the non-profit organization HealthHIV, and several other entities to promote empowerment through engagement, education and enrichment for women and girls.
“We do stigma and education work related to HIV, but this is so important to us. We are so thrilled to have this grant from Gilead Sciences Inc., which will hopefully train many people to become trainers and leaders in this field of prevention and self-protection, and who will feel empowered to protect themselves and other people, too,” Rana told The Informer.
The collaborative aims to recruit Howard University freshman and sophomore students to provide outreach and educational training across the District with the focus of HIV intervention and destigmatization through fashion, theater, dance, and various art initiatives.
The Howard University Cathy Hughes School of Communications will also be one of several entities that will partner in creating educational content by way of podcasts, educational webinars, and media campaigns to raise awareness of prevention, while spreading awareness of pharmaceutical treatments for people with HIV.
HIV Diagnoses Among Women and Young Girls
March 10 observes National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “Black women are disproportionately affected by HIV compared to women of other races or ethnicities…as the rate of new HIV infections among Black women is 10 times that of white women and four times that of Latina women.”
Similar to the Howard University College of Medicine and Gilead Sciences Inc., HHS is dedicated to partner with the HIV community to spread awareness about HIV health care, prevention, and treatment for women and girls.
“The theme aligns with three National HIV/AIDS Strategy 2022-2025 (NHAS) goals: preventing new HIV infections, improving HIV-related health outcomes of people, preventing new HIV infections, improving HIV-related outcomes of people living with HIV, and reducing HIV-related disparities. Three of the priority populations included in the NHAS are Black women, transgender women, and youth aged 13-24 years,” according to HHS and HIV.gov.
While a large volume of work surrounding HIV awareness targets adult men and women, DPCH has long spearheaded research, treatment, and outreach efforts to educate District residents on the dire concern of HIV transmission among women and girls.
Contrary to what was once a more common occurrence, the diligence of local researchers and physicians have successfully combated the rates of juvenile HIV cases through perinatal HIV transmission in Washington, D.C. But while doctors are saving babies from carrying the critical disease, STD prevention and awareness advocates are working to dismantle the traumatizing cycle of HIV transmission to young girls through a lack of protection and education in their early years.
Dr. Rana has witnessed the disheartening reality of young girls with an unexpecting HIV diagnosis by way of sexual transmission, deeming the issue of HIV among black girls and black women as one of the most ignored sexual health crises.
Rana underscored that the greatest risk often starts as early as middle school for many children, while maintaining a prevalent level of probability through high school and college years due to a lack of supervision and information.
He recalls the misfortune of two young patients he treated earlier in his career, who were diagnosed with HIV at the ages of just 13 and 17 years old, and the devastating impacts on their lives thereafter.
“It still hurts my heart to think of them. The first was only 13, and this young man asked her to go to a concert. She [thought] she was in love first, and that one episode led to her getting HIV. The whole family fell apart. Even two years later, at any mention of love, she would just fall apart,” said Rana. “The second girl was 17 or 18 and had just a single episode as well. She didn’t find out until a year later because she didn’t develop any symptoms or have routine testing. She found out that she had HIV and that was the only person she had [relations] with. [Sometimes] people think it can’t happen with just one time.”
Rana emphasized that while HIV spreads throughout all age groups, the younger demographic of people between ages 15-25 stand at the greatest risk for HIV transmission, making their work so vital in promoting early prevention and working to save people’s life before irreparable events take place.
“HIV has such a stigma with it, where you can feel devalued for a lifetime. Others may devalue you, and if you internalize it then you can [mentally] feel devalued, yourself. The stigma of HIV affects almost every facet of life,” Rana explained. It’s just heartbreaking.”
