Jessica's Interests

My name is Jessica Long and I am a third year medical student taking a year to pursue an MPH at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. My clinical and research interests are in HIV/AIDS care and epidemiology. This year I will work with Kelly Gebo, MD, MPH, on a research project examining the rates and risks of malignancies in the HIV-positive patients followed at the Johns Hopkins Moore Clinic. Since the onset of the HIV epidemic epidemiologists and clinicians have noted the increased rates of certain cancers (AIDS-defining cancers such as Kaposi’s sarcoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) and common cancers (lung cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, and others) among the HIV/AIDS population. While rates of the AIDS-defining cancers have decreased since the widespread use of antiretroviral therapies began in the mid-1990s, rates of common cancers continue to be higher in the HIV/AIDS population when compared to the general population. My study will look specifically at rates and risks of cancer within the Hopkins HIV cohort in the current era of antiretroviral therapy.