Newark Star-Ledger Profiles Pediatric HIV/AIDS Physician James Oleske
The Newark Star-Ledger on Tuesday profiled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey professor James Oleske, "who was one of the world's first pediatric AIDS doctors." Oleske, who currently treats 300 HIV-positive people at University Hospital in Newark, N.J., published on May, 6, 1983, in the Journal of the American Medical Association a "groundbreaking" article that "convinced a skeptical medial establishment that children also could contract" HIV, the Star-Ledger reports. "If you talk about the handful of people who early on had the foresight to see that this was indeed an important pediatric problem, Dr. Oleske's name has to be among them," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. Oleske currently trains physicians from other countries to treat pediatric HIV/AIDS in their home countries and works with groups such as the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. According to the Star-Ledger, Oleske said that new pediatric treatments are needed even though the number of new AIDS cases among children is considerably lower than in past years, adding that government agencies and not-for-profit groups have cut or halted pediatric HIV/AIDS programs (Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger, 7/18).
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