Stony Brook Receives Federal Grant to Advance, Expand HIV and AIDS Treatment

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded the SUNY Research Foundation an $800,000 grant for Stony Brook's School of Medicine to advance and expand care for people living with HIV in Suffolk County.

The grant is funded through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which helps facilitate care for patients who lack comprehensive health care or financial resources.

“More individuals living with HIV in our region who have a difficult time affording medical care will receive comprehensive HIV/AIDS care available at Stony Brook’s primary care HIV/AIDS clinics throughout Suffolk County and have access to emerging treatments that are improving the lives of patients with HIV,” Dr. Sharon Nachman, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Pediatrics, said in a statement.

Nachman is the lead researcher on a national study that earlier this year showed the effectiveness of the drug raltegravir in treating children and adolescents with HIV.

The School of Medicine will expand care by offering both day and evening hours at clinics at Stony Brook University Hospital, at satellite clinics in Setauket, Islip, and Riverhead, and at an affiliated HIV clinic in Southampton that is operated jointly by SBUH and Southampton Hospital. These clinics will offer primary care services, behavioral health care, nutritional care, and dental care, and will help people overcome barriers such as lack of transportation and child care that have typically prevented them from being able to seek care.

Stony Brook and other grant recipients – amounting to $68 million in grants to more than 100 university hospitals, health departments, and community organizations across the nation – achieve goals such as reducing new HIV infections and improving health outcomes, as put forth in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which was announced by the White House in July of 2010.