Dr. LaShonda Spencer Leads the Drew C. A. R. E. S. Team in Aggressively Challenging HIV and AIDS( continued)
we understand what our mission is, how we contribute to the University, and we understand how what we do impacts the community that we serve,” she added.
Drew C. A. R. E. S. has expanded its research portfolio with the addition of the new Center for AIDS research grant. Dr. Spencer serves as the Principal Investigator along with Dr. Judith Courier and Dr. Jerome Zack, her colleagues located at UCLA.“ We have expanded our commitment to research in the HIV field here.
Our research faculty is led by Dr. Nina Harawa, and she’ s been really instrumental with research that is inclusive from start to finish with engagement of our community,” she added.
Dr. Spencer was recently recognized by the LA County Commission on HIV for her work in advocacy, research, care, and treatment for HIV in women. Drew C. A. R. E. S. was recognized for its work in HIV treatment at the community level by LA County Public Health Department of HIV / STI Programs.
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Drew C. A. R. E. S. services division is led by Associate Director Leon Maultsby, who also serves on the COM Pediatrics faculty. According to Dr. Spencer,“ He really has increased our presence in the community, and it’ s made us more accessible to our community partners, provide more education and outreach to the community,” she said. The partnerships and so that we’ re not working in silos that we work together with the whole ultimate goal of ending the HIV epidemic which is possible given all the tools that we have.
“ We’ ve increased our international presence in Zambia through the CDU Rise Up program, which focuses on HIV treatment and prevention among adolescent girls and young women from the ages of 15 to 24. This is the age group that is most affected by HIV in Sub Saharan Africa,” she added.
Maultsby amplified Dr. Spencer’ s take on the future.“ Two years ago, when I first came here, we tried to do an event at Nickerson Gardens for National Women and Girls HIV Testing Awareness Day. The residents were resistant because they didn’ t want a domestic violence issue for the women to get tested. They wanted something more general for health care. We didn’ t want to miss the opportunity to connect with the people that live in that area, so we had to pivot a little bit. The biggest issue for the community is to break down some of the stigmatizing language and thoughts around HIV,” he said.
Maultsby discussed one of the Drew C. A. R. E. S. signature programs, PrEP.“ PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. That’ s a medication that people can take either in a pill form or an injection every two months to protect the body if they were ever exposed to HIV to prevent it from infecting themselves. Our navigator is Tiffany Hogan, who was also one of our CDU MPA students. She provides case management services for these patients who are seeking PrEP,” he noted.
Together with PrEP, Drew C. A. R. E. S. also provides the PET post-exposure prophylaxis, which is medication for clients that are exposed within 72 hours to HIV. PET prevents the disease from spreading within their body early on, but it has to be administered within that same short time window.“ We work with patients who sometimes are very fearful because they don’ t know whether they’ ve been exposed to HIV and we’ re working with them to get them in the clinic with the right medication, and we follow up with them to see whether the medication is working,” said Maultsby.
He continued.“ We currently have a lot of patients who know their HIV status and are not taking their medication, which means they have a very high viral load. That refers to the number of copies of the virus that are in their system. With HIV being such an intricate virus, the more copies of HIV, the higher the viral load, the more immunocompromised the patient will be,” he explained.
“ We try to work with these patients who are having a high viral load who are not in their appointments to reengage them back into care, get them back on medication. We try to meet some of the outside needs that are barriers to treatment. Patients are having to choose between taking care of the kids, working, and then receiving medical care. They don’ t always prioritize themselves or maybe their partner might have a substance abuse issue, which they are struggling with as well,” added Maultsby. Collectively, the Drew C. A. R. E. S. team has developed great insight through lessons forged from the lens of its own history.
Danny Pitts, Certified HIV tester
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 25