Wilson scholars present enlightening findings
Protecting patients with HIV
A Public Health major and Spanish minor, Theiline Gborkorquellie had been researching HIV since her freshman year of high school. The Wilson Scholarship program put her into contact with Kelly Gebo, whose research on HIV and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital interested Gborkorquellie and who ended up becoming her mentor.
Gborkorquellie studied bacteremia, a bacterial infection of the blood, and its occurrence in HIV patients that are already in the hospital.
"HIV patients develop bacteremia because their immune systems are already weak," Gborkorquellie said. The type of bacteremia her project dealt with developed in the hospital and usually from a central venous catheter, which provides fluids and nutrients to the patients. She analyzed data about bacteremia since the introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), a drug cocktail that has become the standard of care of most HIV patients.
Gborkorquellie studied what the most common types of bacteremia were and looked at their rates of occurrence from 2001 to 2005. She found that rates of bacteremia were stable during these years and concluded that the HAART treatment had no positive or negative effect on rates of bacteremia.
"Women, injection drug users or IDUs, blacks, Hispanics and older patients, which are all at the greatest risk because they have the weakest immune systems, should be screened with blood cultures to detect bacteremia," Gborkorquellie said.
In February Gborkorquellie did a presentation at the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Her scholarship allowed her to fly to Los Angeles to attend the most prestigious HIV conference in the world.
"I was the only undergrad student there," Gborkorquellie said. "It was mostly doctors and professionals. I was the youngest one there and I didn't realize how prestigious it was while I was there. Everyone was presenting their cutting-edge research."
A Public Health major and Spanish minor, Theiline Gborkorquellie had been researching HIV since her freshman year of high school. The Wilson Scholarship program put her into contact with Kelly Gebo, whose research on HIV and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital interested Gborkorquellie and who ended up becoming her mentor.
Gborkorquellie studied bacteremia, a bacterial infection of the blood, and its occurrence in HIV patients that are already in the hospital.
"HIV patients develop bacteremia because their immune systems are already weak," Gborkorquellie said. The type of bacteremia her project dealt with developed in the hospital and usually from a central venous catheter, which provides fluids and nutrients to the patients. She analyzed data about bacteremia since the introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), a drug cocktail that has become the standard of care of most HIV patients.
Gborkorquellie studied what the most common types of bacteremia were and looked at their rates of occurrence from 2001 to 2005. She found that rates of bacteremia were stable during these years and concluded that the HAART treatment had no positive or negative effect on rates of bacteremia.
"Women, injection drug users or IDUs, blacks, Hispanics and older patients, which are all at the greatest risk because they have the weakest immune systems, should be screened with blood cultures to detect bacteremia," Gborkorquellie said.
In February Gborkorquellie did a presentation at the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Her scholarship allowed her to fly to Los Angeles to attend the most prestigious HIV conference in the world.
"I was the only undergrad student there," Gborkorquellie said. "It was mostly doctors and professionals. I was the youngest one there and I didn't realize how prestigious it was while I was there. Everyone was presenting their cutting-edge research."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
david avruch
posted 5/10/07 @ 10:52 AM EST
Zwerneman rules! Viva Temo!
Post a Comment