Ann Petru, MD
Professor
Pediatrics
School of Medicine

In addition to HIV and AIDS, she has focused on common and challenging problems in the field, including use of antibiotics in children, common “Staph” and “Strep” infections, bacterial and other forms of meningitis, Epstein-Barr virus infection (EBV), and coccidioidomycosis (the fungus that causes Valley Fever). However, her primary focus has been the treatment support of children living with HIV/AIDS and preventing transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies.

Dr. Petru provided care for the first pediatric HIV/AIDS case in the Bay Area in 1983. In 1986, she started the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program, which has treated more than 800 HIV-infected and HIV-exposed infants, children and adolescents. Many of her patients were among the first to participate in clinical trials that provided AZT treatment for children, then followed by many other drugs as they were becoming available for adults and where data in children was lacking. These groundbreaking studies allowed her and her staff to evaluate many drug combinations for HIV management, immunizations in children with HIV, and the long-term effects on children receiving drugs for HIV disease. Because drug therapies have been so successful, children are living much longer and their treatment has become far simpler and better tolerated. Aggressive identification of HIV infection before and during pregnancy and improved therapies have dramatically reduced transmission of HIV from mothers to their children over the last 20 years. However, many families in the Bay Area and other areas in northern California are adopting children with HIV infection from other countries, so her clinic continues to see a slow but steady influx of new patients.

• Vaccine-acquired rotavirus in infants with severe combined immunodeficiency.
  The New England journal of medicine 2010 Patel NC, Hertel PM, Estes MK, de la Morena M, Petru AM, Noroski LM, Revell PA, Hanson IC, Paul ME, Rosenblatt HM, Abramson SL
• Purulent pericardial effusion in a 14-year-old girl.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2009 Yeh J, Culbertson C, Petru AM
• Rhinovirus associated with severe lower respiratory tract infections in children.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2009 Louie JK, Roy-Burman A, Guardia-Labar L, Boston EJ, Kiang D, Padilla T, Yagi S, Messenger S, Petru AM, Glaser CA, Schnurr DP
• Altered iron metabolism in children with human immunodeficiency virus disease.
  Pediatric hematology and oncology 2009 Butensky James E, Harmatz P, Lee M, Kennedy C, Petru A, Wara D, Miaskowski C
• Severe pneumonia due to adenovirus serotype 14: a new respiratory threat?
  Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2008 Louie JK, Kajon AE, Holodniy M, Guardia-LaBar L, Lee B, Petru AM, Hacker JK, Schnurr DP
• A seven-month-old infant with acute onset of neurologic deterioration.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2007 Chang K, Petru AM, Lee BP
• Perinatal transmission of multidrug-resistant HIV-1 despite viral suppression on an enfuvirtide-based treatment regimen.
  AIDS (London, England) 2005 Cohan D, Feakins C, Wara D, Petru A, McNicholl I, Schillinger D, Lu J, Kuritzkes D, Deeks SG
• Temporal trends in early clinical manifestations of perinatal HIV infection in a population-based cohort.
  JAMA 2005 Berk DR, Falkovitz-Halpern MS, Hill DW, Albin C, Arrieta A, Bork JM, Cohan D, Nilson B, Petru A, Ruiz J, Weintrub PS, Wenman W, Maldonado YA, California Pediatric HIV Study Group
• Safety and immunogenicity of a heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in infants with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection.
  Pediatrics 2003 Nachman S, Kim S, King J, Abrams EJ, Margolis D, Petru A, Shearer W, Smith E, Moye J, Blanchard S, Hawkins E, Bouquin P, Vink P, Benson M, Estep S, Malinoski F, Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group …
• When the time comes to talk about HIV: factors associated with diagnostic disclosure and emotional distress in HIV-infected children.
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2002 Lester P, Chesney M, Cooke M, Weiss R, Whalley P, Perez B, Glidden D, Petru A, Dorenbaum A, Wara D
• Oral ganciclovir in children: pharmacokinetics, safety, tolerance, and antiviral effects. The Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group.
  The Journal of infectious diseases 2000 Frenkel LM, Capparelli EV, Dankner WM, Xu J, Smith IL, Ballow A, Culnane M, Read JS, Thompson M, Mohan KM, Shaver A, Robinson CA, Stempien MJ, Burchett SK, Melvin AJ, Borkowsky W, Petru A, Kovacs A, …
• Oral manifestations and dental status in paediatric HIV infection.
  International journal of paediatric dentistry 2000 Ramos-Gomez FJ, Petru A, Hilton JF, Canchola AJ, Wara D, Greenspan JS
• Use of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) human hyperimmune immunoglobulin in HIV type 1-infected children (Pediatric AIDS clinical trials group protocol 273).
  The Journal of infectious diseases 2000 Stiehm ER, Fletcher CV, Mofenson LM, Palumbo PE, Kang M, Fenton T, Sapan CV, Meyer WA, Shearer WT, Hawkins E, Fowler MG, Bouquin P, Purdue L, Sloand EM, Nemo GJ, Wara D, Bryson YJ, Starr SE, Petru A, …
• Influence of HLA alleles on the rate of progression of vertically transmitted HIV infection in children: association of several HLA-DR13 alleles with long-term survivorship and the potential association of HLA-A*2301 with rapid progression to AIDS. Long-Term Survivor Study.
  Human immunology 1997 Chen Y, Winchester R, Korber B, Gagliano J, Bryson Y, Hutto C, Martin N, McSherry G, Petru A, Wara D, Ammann A
• A descriptive survey of pediatric human immunodeficiency virus-infected long-term survivors.
  Pediatrics 1997 Nielsen K, McSherry G, Petru A, Frederick T, Wara D, Bryson Y, Martin N, Hutto C, Ammann AJ, Grubman S, Oleske J, Scott GB
• Severe esophagitis in a newborn infant.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1996 Azimi PH, Willert J, Petru A
• Altered representation of naive and memory CD8 T cell subsets in HIV-infected children.
  The Journal of clinical investigation 1995 Rabin RL, Roederer M, Maldonado Y, Petru A, Herzenberg LA, Herzenberg LA
• No evidence of perinatal transmission of HTLV-II.
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes 1993 Gallo D, Petru A, Yeh ET, Hanson CV
• Reliability of polymerase chain reaction in the detection of human immunodeficiency virus infection in children.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1992 Petru A, Dunphy MG, Azimi P, Janner D, Gallo D, Hanson C, Sohmer P, Stanley M
• Foreign body pulmonary granulomas in an abuser of nasally inhaled drugs.
  Pediatrics 1991 Johnson DC, Petru A, Azimi PH
• Multisystem disease in an eight-year-old boy.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1991 Petru A
• Fatal adenovirus infection in a child with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1990 Janner D, Petru AM, Belchis D, Azimi PH
• Randomized comparative study of ampicillin/sulbactam vs. ceftriaxone for treatment of soft tissue and skeletal infections in children.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1989 Kulhanjian J, Dunphy MG, Hamstra S, Levernier K, Rankin M, Petru A, Azimi P
• African sleeping sickness in the United States. Successful treatment with eflornithine.
  American journal of diseases of children (1960) 1988 Petru AM, Azimi PH, Cummins SK, Sjoerdsma A
• Malassezia furfur: a cause of occlusion of percutaneous central venous catheters in infants in the intensive care nursery.
  The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1988 Azimi PH, Levernier K, Lefrak LM, Petru AM, Barrett T, Schenck H, Sandhu AS, Duritz G, Valesco M
• Mycoplasmas: their role in pediatric disease.
  Current problems in pediatrics 1984 Azimi PH, Chase PA, Petru AM
• Esophagitis associated with Candida infection in a neonate.
  Clinical pediatrics 1984 Petru A, Azimi PH