Great Neck-based doctor receives state health award at AIDS Day ceremony

Matt Grech

A Great Neck-based physician who lives in Roslyn Heights received the New York State Health Commissioner’s Special Recognition Award at the World AIDS Day Ceremony on Dec 1.

David Rosenthal, medical director for the Center for Young Adult, Adolescent and Pediatric HIV at North Shore-LIJ, received the award for his work dedicated to reducing the number of new HIV infections, as well as increasing awareness and education for new treatment options available.

“It was quite an honor, people there were phenomenal,” Rosenthal said.” To be recognized by New York State is an honor.

 “It reflects how exciting and cutting edge the work that we’re doing is, with reaching out to patients and providing resources to patients that really have not had the opportunity to get the health care they need in the past,” he added.

Worlds AIDS Day is an annual event held on Dec. 1 to provide an opportunity “for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died,” according to the organization’s website.Rosenthal joined the center for Pediatric HIV care in 2003, and has been deeply involved in growing the program since.

“Under Dr. Rosenthal’s leadership, our Center for Young Adult, Adolescent and Pediatric HIV continues to demonstrate ways to promote HIV testing and engage young people in care to minimize progression from HIV to AIDS,” said Charles Schleien, chair of pediatrics at North Shore-LIJ’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center. “Dr. Rosenthal has made it his duty to fiercely advocate for these marginalized populations, serving as a leading force in developing Long Island’s first trans-health program.”

When he joined the program, Rosenthal said, the focus was mainly on pediatric care, but wanted to address the population that needed help the most.

“We know that in Nassau County and New York State that the number of cases of HIV in most age groups is declining, but its increasing in the 13 to 24 age group,” he said. “We’ve really taken a pediatric HIV program and turned into adolescent HIV program.”

The center has expanded to focus on spreading awareness to not only patients and those at highest risk for contracting HIV, but also other doctors and physicians that might not be aware of new treatment options.

“Since [the number of adolescents that contract HIV] keeps going up we need something different to address that,” Rosenthal said. “We really needed to reach out to the community and see how we could be healthier.”

Rosenthal said he has collaborated with 50 community-based organizations throughout Nassau County and Queens to educate communities about new treatment programs available to help prevent HIV contraction.

“A lot of people have the image of HIV that they learned in school form the ‘80s and early ‘90s,” he said. “We have new a lot of new resources available, and its important that we get information to everyone in our region, including doctors and provider.”

In 2013, the CDC approved a new form of preventative medication that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV. The medication, a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a daily prevention strategy.

“Patients involved in high-risk relationships can use very effective preventative medication,” Rosenthal said. “About one third of doctors are not even aware of PrEP, which is an important piece to look at to take better care of patients.”

Rosenthal was been working with the hospital’s HIV center since he joined the North Shore LIJ team, and became interested in HIV prevention during his medical training.

“I trained in downtown Newark, and saw a lot of IV using HIV positive patients during my residency,” he said. “I trained in allergy and immunology, and the program was housed in the Pediatric HIV center, so I continued to take interest and make sure we could really do what we needed to do to take of patients.”

Rosenthal said that in the past, when someone contracted HIV they thought there was nothing they could do.

“Fact is, there’s a lot you can do to help prevent HIV from happening to you,” he said.

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