Division of Pediatric Retrovirology

The Service of Retrovirology provides comprehensive primary and specialty medical care and social services to infants, children and adolescents living with HIV infection and infants exposed to HIV. Risk reduction, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is provided for adolescents at risk for HIV and social services are provided for women living with HIV.

We also provide Travel Clinic Services and International Adoption Consultation at Texas Children's Hospital Clinical Care Center. Retrovirology participates in the education of U.S. and foreign health professionals and in clinical research in HIV/ AIDS treatment and prevention. Retrovirology operates the Houston HIV center of Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI).

Learn more about our HIV/AIDS care and treatment and health professional training around the world.

Faculty members are active educators on a local, national, and international scale on topics of HIV infection treatment and prevention.

Service chief Mary Paul, M.D., is an elected co-chair for the Working Group on Antiretroviral Therapy and Medical Management of HIV-Infected Children, a working group of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (OARAC) of the NIH (guidelines are published on the Clinicalinfo-HIV-Gov website as a living document).

Faculty member, Susan Gillespie, M.D., Ph.D. is a distinguished educator on the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion and is a recent recipient of the Clark Faculty Service Award from Baylor College of Medicine for her work in this area. 

Research Projects

Research projects focus on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood tuberculosis in the international setting, the elimination of HIV transmission to at-risk youth, best practices of HIV mother-to-child transmission prevention, treatment of HIV infection in infants, children, adolescents, and young adults, and outcomes in perinatally HIV-infected youth. View information about our international research conducted by Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI).

Pediatric Retrovirology operates within the Section of Immunology, Allergy and Retrovirology and conducts clinical studies sponsored by the NIH through three Networks. The Adolescent Trials Network conducts independent and collaborative research that explores promising behavioral, microbicidal, prophylactic, therapeutic, and vaccine modalities in HIV-infected and at-risk adolescents, ages 12 years through 24 years.

The International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group’s research work is in the area of improving health outcomes for infants, children and adolescents, and pregnant/postpartum women who are impacted by or living with HIV by evaluating novel treatments and interventions for HIV and it’s complications and for tuberculosis and other HIV-related conditions. Lastly, the Pediatric HIV/ AIDS cohort is a longitudinal cohort study investigating the long-term effects of HIV and antiretroviral medications in children and young adults who were born with HIV or born exposed to HIV. The study follows newborns, young children, adolescents, and young adults.

Clinical Trials

• AMC 072: Protective effect of quadrivalent vaccine in young HIV positive males who have sex with males.
• ATN 095: Connect to Protect (C2P) implements a community mobilization intervention, which entails developing coalitions to plan for and bring about structural changes for purposes of reducing HIV incidence and prevalence among youth.
• ATN 110: Project PrEPare is an open-label demonstration project and phase II safety study of pre-exposure prophylaxis use among young men who have sex with men.
• ATN 116: Structural enhancements to the strategic multi-site initiative for identification, linkage, and engagement-to-care (SMILE) program.
• IMPAACT P1026S: Pharmacokinetic properties of antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy.
• IMPAACT P1080: Mary E. Paul, M.D. is the vice chair of this study entitled, A Pilot Study of Psychiatric and Antiretroviral Medication Concentrations in HIV-1 Infected and Uninfected Children and Adolescents.
• IMPAACT P1093: Phase I/II, multi-center, open-label, pharmacokinetic, safety, tolerability and antiviral activity of GSK1349572; a novel integrase inhibitor, in combination regimens in HIV-1 infected infants, children and adolescents.