Some California Hospitals Lose Federal HIV Grants
UC-San Francisco and Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland this spring lost federal grant funding that helped provide access to experimental HIV treatments to children, the Oakland Tribune reports. The facilities became ineligible for the program because of a low number of patients.
UCSF and Children's Hospital Oakland have received about $750,000 annually through the federal Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Group since the late 1980s. Patients at the facilities will be ineligible for clinical trials for HIV treatments because UCSF and Children's Hospital Oakland no longer are members of the clinical trial group.
NIH approved grant applications for similar programs at UCLA and UC-San Diego, according to Dr. Diane Wara, division chief of Pediatric Immunology and Rheumatology at UCSF.
Dr. Anne Petru, director of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program at Children's Hospital Oakland, is applying for grant funding that would restore patients' access to clinical trials and permit some research to resume (Vesely, Oakland Tribune, 5/20).