Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is a worldwide leader in the global fight against pediatric AIDS. The organization seeks to prevent pediatric HIV infection and eradicate pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs.

Our History

In 1981, Elizabeth Glaser contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during the birth of her daughter, Ariel. Elizabeth unknowingly passed the virus on to Ariel, and then later to her son, Jacob. Following Ariel's death in 1988, Elizabeth joined with close friends Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis to create a foundation to bring hope to all children living with HIV. Elizabeth lost her battle with AIDS in 1994, but because of her work, Jacob and countless other children have been saved.

Driven by the conviction that every child deserves a lifetime, the Foundation that started as three mothers around a kitchen table is now working around the globe to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and give children and their families living with HIV a chance for a healthy future. Here's how the Foundation does it:

Research

By funding innovative and ground-breaking research, the Foundation continues to search for better modes of HIV prevention, including vaccines and pediatric treatments. And we must find new ways to prevent infections and support people living with HIV, making the need for cutting-edge research more urgent than ever. For nearly two decades, the Foundation has funded hundreds of research grants totaling tens of millions of dollars. Foundation-funded research has contributed to a drastic reduction in mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the U.S., where fewer than 200 children were infected with HIV at birth in 2006.

Key Publications:

• PMTCT Program Brief: Guide to HIV Testing and Counseling in Labor and Delivery
  
• PMTCT Program Brief: Offering ARV Prophylaxis at Time of Diagnosis
  
• Provision of Care Following PMTCT Services in Resource-Limited Settings
  

Advocacy

The Foundation works with policymakers, the scientific community, business leaders, and the national media to ensure that children's health issues and domestic and international HIV/AIDS programs are at the top of the political agenda. Through these partnerships, the Foundation has successfully expanded funding for pediatric research, fought to prevent discrimination against people living with HIV, sought increased national and global HIV/AIDS funding, and advocated for the safety, efficacy and availability of drugs used by children.

International Prevention and Treatment Programs

The Foundation's International Family AIDS Initiatives provide a full range of critically needed services - including counseling and testing, PMTCT, and lifelong care and treatment for entire families. The Foundation works at more than 1,750 sites in 17 countries, and supported the provision of PMTCT services to more than 3 million women by the end of 2006. The Foundation has also provided critical HIV care and treatment to hundreds of thousands of individuals, including thousands of children.

To learn more about the Foundation's lifesaving programs, please visit www.pedaids.org or sign up for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation's email updates .