By Ginger Hall Carnes
\nA new assistant professor of infectious disease in the Department of Medicine grew up traveling the world as the daughter of a United Nations diplomat.<\/p>\n
As Waridibo \u201cWari\u201d Allison, M.D., Ph.D., witnessed first-hand what people endured, especially in resource-limited countries, she identified her career passion\u2014public health.<\/p>\n
Born in Nigeria, Dr. Allison earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in Scotland, received her M.D. in London, and earned her Ph.D. in Australia.<\/p>\n
Dr. Allison moved to the United States in 2010 to study in New York City, where she remains affiliated with New York University\u2019s Department of Population Health as an adjunct assistant professor.<\/p>\n
Her research reflects her world view. Because her father talked about the refugees he helped and took her to refugee camps, she became very aware of the distinction between those who have and those who do not. \u201cI personally believe health care is a basic human right. It\u2019s no surprise that I\u2019ve been drawn to an area of research that focuses on screening, diagnosis and access to care for disadvantaged population groups, whether that disadvantage is geographic, racial, cultural or economical,\u201d Dr. Allison said.<\/p>\n
Specifically she is studying HIV, Hepatitis C and Human Papillomavirus (HPV). People need to be screened and diagnosed so they can be linked to treatment and the protective vaccines that are available for viral hepatitis and HPV, but those without access to health care may not get that intervention, she said.<\/p>\n
In a few short months in San Antonio, Dr. Allison has been named medical director of the San Antonio AIDS Foundation Care Clinic. \u201cI love having one foot in the community and one foot at the university,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
HIV, which was so devastating decades ago, now is considered a chronic disease like diabetes or hypertension, observed Dr. Allison. \u201cI tell my newly diagnosed patients: \u2018If you take your medication, your life expectancy is almost the same as someone who hasn\u2019t got HIV.\u2019 But we still have work to do because there are population groups who still have high rates of new HIV infections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Allison spent nearly a year researching where to continue her career. She chose UT Health San Antonio\u2019s Department of Medicine because of \u201cthe culturally and economically diverse population we serve, the supportive collegial environment, and access to great resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although seasoned researchers compete for grant funding, UT Health is funding Dr. Allison. \u201cInstitutional financial support is critically important for early career researchers like myself,\u201d Dr. Allison emphasized. \u201cThe Department of Medicine is to be commended for its commitment of financial support of early career researchers until we get established funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Infectious disease physician-researcher studying HIV, Hepatitis C and HPV to improve rates of screening, diagnosis and treatment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"magazine":[22],"issue-year":[20],"featured-story":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","magazine-future","issue-year-20"],"yoast_head":"\n