Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship

The Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital at Downstate and the SUNY Downstate School of Medicine offers a three-year ACGME accredited fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. We accept two fellows every three years.

The Division has four full-time and one part-time faculty members and is the site for the Chlamydia Research Laboratory at Downstate. Research interests of the faculty in the division include HIV infection, biohazard and disaster planning, immunology, epidemiology and treatment of chlamydial infections (Chlamydia pneumoniae and C. trachomatis), sexually transmitted infections and child sexual abuse and the epidemiology of antibiotic resistance among Enterobacteriaceae and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) in children in our population. Current clinical projects include the role of C. pneumoniae and Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in asthma, prevalence of rectal carriage of resistant Gram negative bacteria in infants, especially extended beta-lactamase (ESBL) positive organisms, cross-sectional study of the prevalence of colonization with CA-MRSA among HIV positive children and adolescents and antibiotic susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in adolescents in Brooklyn with a focus on quinolone resistance. Current laboratory research includes the interaction of cigarette smoke and C. pneumoniae infection in a mouse model. This work is being done in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Medicine, Nelson Institute of the New York University School of Medicine, which offers a unique opportunity to study the effect of smoking and other environmental factors on infection. Other bench projects include the immune response to C. pneumoniae in asthmatics and effect of immune modulators, and in vitro susceptibilities of C. pneumoniae and C. trachomatis to new antimicrobial agents. The Chlamydia Research Laboratory has 1000 square feet and has necessary equipment for tissue culture, immunology studies and molecular methods including real-time PCR.

The fellowship program is composed of one year of intensive clinical training including a one-month rotation on adult infectious diseases. The fellows see patients at University Hospital of Brooklyn and Kings County Hospital Medical Center. The second two years are primarily devoted to research, with 80% protected time for research as well as course training in research methodology, biostatistics and epidemiology and grant writing. The opportunity also exists for obtaining an MPH degree through the SUNY-Downstate School of Public Health. The Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases works closely with the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine with weekly research and clinical conferences and journal club.

Dr. Margaret Hammerschlag
Director