For immediate release: Oct. 30, 2012
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School of Medicine physician earns grants to combat HIV

Grants focus on screening, comprehensive care for women, infants with HIV

LAS VEGAS, Nev.— Echezona Ezeanolue, M.D., a pediatrician with expertise in HIV at the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Las Vegas campus, received two separate grants to help combat the spread of HIV.

The first, a research project grant (RO1) awarded by the National Institute of Health, is in the amount of $893,375 over two years, and will test an innovative approach to increase HIV screening among pregnant women and their male partners in developing countries. Wei Yang, M.D., Ph.D., a professor with the University of Nevada, Reno’s School of Community Health Sciences in Reno, is co-investigator.

The second grant is a three-year Ryan White Part D funding totaling $562,290 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration. It is held in collaboration with co-investigator David Jackson, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, along with University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada Health Department and other community partners. Its purpose is to provide comprehensive care for women, infants, children and adolescents with HIV in Southern Nevada.

The University of Nevada School of Medicine, a research-intensive, community-based, statewide medical school, has served Nevada for more than 40 years as its only public medical school. Our mission is improving the health of Nevada’s diverse population through world-class biomedical research, an innovative curriculum integrating basic and clinical sciences, and highly competitive residency and fellowship programs that complement a statewide network of urban and rural clinical facilities. Through targeted growth and investment in research, clinical services and education, we are a resource for improving health care regionally and across the country.