Led by Mardge Cohen, MD, CORE Center, the Hektoen WIHS was initiated in 1993. WIHS maintains a cohort of approximately 250 HIV-infected and 50 uninfected at-risk women in order to investigate clinical manifestations, disease progression and outcomes of HIV infection in women. It does so by:

• determining the spectrum and course of clinical manifestations of HIV infection in women.
• determining the pattern and rate of decline of CD4+ cells in women and the relationship of CD4+ changes to other immunologic and virologic parameters and to clinical manifestations of HIV infection.
• investigating factors which may delay or accelerate HIV-induced immune dysfunction and specific manifestations of HIV associated with clinical disease.
• studying factors influencing the length of survival and the quality of life of HIV+ women, with specific attention to age, race, IV drug use and non-IV drug use and drug treatment, health care utilization, MH counseling, peer support groups, family support, social service entitlements, onsite daycare, in home care, domestic violence, homelessness, HIV risk group, use and type of antiretroviral therapy, etc.
• determining the rate of incident HIV sero-conversion and identifying the factors which may increase the risk of incident HIV infection among a smaller cohort of high risk women.