Connections FALL 2012
Q U A RT E R LY N E W S L E T T E R
A HEALTH CARE WORKER IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBIC TAKES PATIENT HISTORIES.
DR. ROBERT GOLDENBERG AND COMMUNIT Y REPRESENTATIVES IN PAKISTAN.
Eliminating childhood AIDS in the Dominican Republic
Leader in International OB/GYN Research Joins Columbia’s Faculty
The epicenter of mother-to-child HIV transmission in the US in the late 1980s was central Harlem; as Coordinator of Pediatric AIDS at both Babies Hospital and Harlem Hospital, Stephen Nicholas, MD’s energies were focused right there—he never really thought about international health. “I had imagined that my life’s work would be in Harlem,” he says. But over the next few years treatment for HIV improved. One of the major improvements was an aggressive intervention to prevent pregnant women from passing the virus to their children that includes anti-HIV medication for both mother and child, delivery by cesarean, and bottle- rather than breast-feeding. These improvements in care paid off. Once the leading cause of childhood death in Harlem, childhood AIDS disappeared by 1999. “We were well on our way to eliminating peCONTINUED ON PAGE 21
Almost 3 million women worldwide have stillbirths during their third trimester each year, and 98 percent of these occur in lowand middle-income countries, especially in areas where women lack access to basic obstetric care. Despite the magnitude of the problem, stillbirth has received little attention as a public health issue and few data are reported. Robert Goldenberg, MD, who recently joined Columbia’s OB/GYN faculty, brings decades of experience in global research to the department and to the poorly-understood problem of stillbirth. Dr. Goldenberg’s current research focuses on improving pregnancy outcomes in low-resource countries, evaluating and impleCONTINUED ON PAGE 22
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