alumni today
Treating
Mothers,
Protecting
Babies
Denise Jean
Jamieson ’ 92 (MPH)
had her first encounter
with the dire impact of
the AIDS crisis in 1996.
“I was studying at
UC-San Francisco and
I did a rotation in
Mzuzu in Malawi,”
Jamieson recalls. “At
that time, 30 percent of
the women were HIV-infected. It was so real
and so devastating that I realized I wanted to
work on this problem.”
After finishing her medical degree, Jamieson
became an officer in the U.S. Public Health
Service and went to work at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, where she
began to untangle the many factors affecting
HIV and pregnancy.
As HIV-AIDS treatments improved, Jamieson
investigated the effect of antiretroviral drugs on
mothers and their newborn babies. On a return
trip to Malawi for the CDC, Jamieson’s team
conducted a large, randomized trial and demonstrated that mothers can safely take the drugs.
“With treatment during pregnancy, the risk
of transmission is around 1 percent,” Jamieson
says. “While breastfeeding, the mother can take
the drugs and it will help protect the baby; or
drugs can be given directly to the baby.”
At University Day in October, UNC pre-
sented Jamieson with a Distinguished Alumna
Award in recognition of her work.
Being at the CDC took Jamieson in some
Researchers
seek to halt
the spread of
HIV and AIDS
by treating
mother and
child
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
Denise Jamieson ’ 92 (MPH), with a study
team in Lilongwe, Malawi, above, received a
Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC for her
work with HIV-infected pregnant women.
she was Chicken Little, but I read and found out
that there was a real threat and it was going to
disproportionately affect pregnant women,”
Jamieson says. The CDC developed guidelines
related to H1N1 influenza, vaccine and preg-
nancy. “Just as first cases of H1N1 began to
appear, we used the guidelines, work we had
done prior to the outbreak, to provide guidance
during the pandemic.”
Jamieson continues to battle misconceptions
about flu vaccination.Vaccination rates are inch-
ing up, but Jamieson says they’re not where they
should be. “People don’t realize we have a lot of
safety data for mothers. The vaccination can
provide protection for babies for up to six
months, until they can be vaccinated.”
unusual directions. “At CDC people know I am
a practicing obstetrician, so they call me when
they see problems,” Jamieson says. “For example,
monkey pox — people adopted prairie dogs who
had this and then it affected pregnant moms.
Someone asked, ‘What do you know about this?’
So I started learning about it and got involved.”
The H1N1 — more commonly called bird
flu — pandemic drew Jamieson to the problem
of influenza protection.
In addition to her CDC research, Jamieson
teaches at Emory University and works as a volunteer physician at Grady Hospital. “I couldn’t
do one without the other. I also do a lot of
work for ACOG [American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists], which has a
huge impact on practicing physicians, setting
the guidelines that are used by clinicians.
“In maybe 2006, Dr. Sonja Rasmussen said
we need to think about this. At first I thought
“And, one more important piece,” she says: “I
have 5-year-old twin boys. I do have my hands
full.”
— Susan Simone
CAROLINA ALUMNI REVIEW
59
