MATERNAL-CHILD IMMUNOLOGY CENTER

The Maternal-child Immunology Clinic (MCIC) is co-directed by Dr. Richard Stiehm, Chair of the Pediatric Immunology Department, and Dr. Yvonne J. Bryson, a Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist and an expert in virology.

The clinic provides comprehensive care, education, and psychosocial support for HIV-infected pregnant women and adolescents, HIV-exposed and infected infants, and HIV-infected children. A multidisciplinary team of HIV specialists including adult and pediatric infectious disease physicians, high-risk obstetricians, adolescent medical experts, nurse practitioners with training in Family and Women's Health, neuropsychologists, a social worker, and a dietician provide primary care for patients and counseling and education for their families. The MCIC team works with UCLA subspecialists trained in child psychiatry, endocrinology, neurodevelopment, pulmonary disease, and cardiology to provide coordinated specialty care for patients.

The MCIC is the coordinating center for the NIH-funded Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) in Los Angeles County (LAPAC). Other members of LAPAC are Harbor UCLA, Miller's Memorial Children's Hospital of Long Beach, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles Pediatric and Adolescent Programs, Cedars-Sinai, and Martin Luther King, Jr. General Hospital. LAPAC's broad-based community collaboration allows pregnant women, and HIV-exposed or infected infants, and HIV-infected children access to ACTG clinical trials closer to their homes. The MCIC's participation in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group gives MCIC patients access to clinical trials, as well as the most current antiretroviral therapy and treatment knowledge.

State-of-the art immunology and virology laboratories located at UCLA support rapid diagnosis of HIV-disease and inform physicians in treatment decisions for LAPAC members and any hospital in need of their services in Los Angeles County.

In addition to providing pediatric and perinatal HIV-consultation to physicians throughout Los Angeles County, MCIC staff often provides telephone counseling to HIV- infected women who are considering initiating or terminating a pregnancy. Transmission rates of HIV have been dramatically lowered, from about 25% to less than 8%, among HIV-infected women who are appropriately treated for their HIV-disease and who give birth in HIV-specialty care settings. Because of the specialized care and knowledge needed to lower perinatal HIV-transmission rates, HIV-care providers and testing centers throughout Los Angeles often refer HIV-infected pregnant women to the MCIC or one of the LAPAC perinatal collaborators. Women who live as far away as Palmdale come to MCIC for treatment during pregnancy and to UCLA to give birth.

Because of its ability to provide expert, comprehensive care to HIV-exposed and infected infants and children, the MCIC is a California Children's Services (CCS) approved care provider. Children who qualify for CCS (which supplements MediCal coverage for children who are HIV-exposed or infected) must receive services from one of a few CCS approved providers. So many families with exposed or infected children travel long-distances to MCIC. Working with the Los Angeles Family AIDS Network and the Los Angeles Pediatric AIDS Foundation, MCIC offers assistance with transportation to the clinic by taxi or bus, and provides meals for patients and their families who often travel long distances and spend several hours at the clinic and pharmacy. A play room dedicated by Magic Johnson and funded by Pepsi Cola Company and hospital-provided Child-Life Staff makes the time HIV-infected children spend at the clinic as pleasant as possible.

If you would like more information about accessing MCIC or LAPAC collaborators' services, joining ACTG clinical trials, or donating your time, services, goods, or funding to MCIC or LAPAC, please call Zane O'Keefe at 310.206.6369 or email her at zokeefe@pediatrics.medsch.ucla.edu.