The Smith Center for Infectious Diseases
When you treat a person with diabetes, you treat that one person. When you treat a person with HIV, you greatly reduce the chances of transmission and treat the whole community. In the past 10 years there have been incredible advances in HIV treatment. The drugs are easier to take and extremely effective.
Inner city HIV+ patients in New Jersey have excellent access to physicians and clinics. The state provides free medications to those without insurance. Yet the number of new HIV cases per year in New Jersey has stayed the same for the past decade.
We at the Smith Center believe that by using novel approaches we can rid New Jersey of HIV. We have designed programs to incentivize patients to continue their medications. We have created a personal atmosphere, where each patient is known by her or his first name.
Since successful treatment of HIV infection requires strong collaboration between healthcare providers and patients, we work with our patients to ensure that we are