The State of Nevada awarded more than $372,000 in trust fund grant awards to two University of Nevada School of Medicine physicians.

Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue, assistant professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease specialist, received a grant of nearly $100,000 to help the Center for Pediatric Immunodeficiencies.

The grant will provide comprehensive evaluations for children with suspected immunodeficiency, medical care for patients and education for patients and families with immune deficiency diseases.

"Presently there isn't a comprehensive pediatric program in Nevada to address the needs of children and adolescents with primary and acquired immune deficiency diseases," notes Ezeanolue.

While some infectious diseases, such as ear or sinus infections are common and self limiting, immune deficiency diseases are extremely rare including life-threatening reactions from tissue/organ transplantation. Acquired immunodeficiency includes HIV/AIDS, which continues to seriously affect infants in Nevada born to HIV positive mothers.

Ezeanolue will be working with Dr. Sean McKnight, a pediatric immunologist, and Dr. Caroline Barangan on this project.

Dr. Donald Roberts, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, received more than $272,000 to fund the Nevada pregnancy and diabetes education research study.

"This project will enable us to advance our professional knowledge in caring for pregnant women with diabetes," Roberts says.

"University of Nevada School of Medicine clinical physicians deliver more than 5,000 babies annually for a primarily indigent population. Up to thirty percent of these patients have diabetes or may become diabetic during pregnancy," he adds. Roberts will work with doctors Ambika Rao and Ezeanolue on this project.

The study will compare pregnancy and birth outcomes in a random sample of 200 pregnant women with diabetes. These women will receive a structured early intervention program incorporating diabetes management education beginning in the first trimester.

The outcome will be evaluated with a comparable population of pregnant diabetic women receiving standard prenatal care, which currently does not address diabetes until 28 weeks of gestation.

Mark Levine, senior director, health science communications, University of Nevada School of Medicine, can be reached at "mailto:mlevine@unr.edu"