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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

The NYC/Bronx WIHS Consortium represents the highly successful collaboration of clinical and basic scientists at six New York institutions: Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and Beth Israel Medical Centers; Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, The Wadsworth Research Center of the New York State Department of Health, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The NYC/Bronx WIHS Consortium is one of six sites nationally conducting the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), an observational cohort study of 2055 HIV infected and 569 HIV uninfected women, investigating the natural history of HIV infection in women, including clinical, virologic, immunologic, behavioral and health care utilization parameters. The NYC/Bronx consortium has the largest number of retained WIHS subjects in active follow-up, and contributes approximately 24 percent of the core visit data. The NYC/Bronx consortium has made substantial contributions to the development of the WIHS scientific agenda, particularly in the areas of quantitative and molecular virology and in general disease progression, and to the development and support of the national WIHS administrative infrastructure. We seek to continue the core scientific activities of WIHS including delineating the relationship of HIV disease progression and mortality to viral burden, absolute and proportional CD4 cell counts, coinfections and behavioral parameters including compliance with therapy. Continuing investigation will also include determining the gynecologic manifestations of HIV disease, including the expression and sequelae of genital infection with human papillomavirus both at baseline and in the presence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In addition we will continue our substudy of "Complete HIV-1 RNA sequences in women: CVL and plasma" through Dr. Barbara Weiser at the Wadsworth Center, the Research Laboratory of the New York State Department of Health. We also seek to expand both the local (NYC) and national WIHS scientific agenda to include determining the impact of HAART on disease progression, viral burden, HIV related morbidity and survival, as well as additional virologic, immunologic and behavioral investigations.