The National Institutes of Health awarded $9 million in grant funding to Dr. Judd Shellito of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans. Shellito seeks to develop a vaccine against Pneumocystis, a leading cause of pneumonia in people with HIV. Though it’s considered to be a fungal pneumonia, it doesn’t respond to antifungal treatment.
Pneumocystis has been the AIDS-defining illness for up to two-thirds of patients across the country; it doesn’t cause illness among people with fully functional immune systems. “This project seeks to develop a safe and effective vaccine not just to treat Pneumocystis pneumonia but to prevent it altogether. We believe that such a vaccine will lower the cost of treatment of HIV and improve the quality of life for individuals living with HIV,” said Shellito in an LSU press release.
The Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans Vision Center is now open at its Carrollton Health Center (one of its three locations in the area), offering primary and pediatric eye care, eyeglasses, in-house optical lab services, screenings and other services.
East Jefferson General Hospital hosts a Nutrition Lecture Series, presented by the Wellness Center’s dietician Rebecca Markway Lee RD, LDN, on Nov. 16. This month’s lecture will focus on the importance of fiber and its relation to the functioning of the heart and colon. The lecture begins at 5 p.m. and lasts for one hour.
