logo Click here for the Department of Medicine Home Page Click here for the UC Irvine Home Page Click here for the School of Medicine Home Page
 
 

A welcome message from the Chief

Dr. Donald N. Forthal, chief of UC Irvine's Division of Infectious Diseases
Kerrin Piché Serna / University Communications
Dr. Donald N. Forthal, chief of UC Irvine's Division of Infectious Diseases

The Division of Infectious Diseases is committed to providing comprehensive care for patients with a broad range of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hospital-acquired infections, infections associated with traumatic injuries, and more exotic infections that may occur in travelers or immigrants.

Our faculty members are nationally and internationally recognized for fostering basic, clinical and translational research in HIV/AIDS, biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. We serve on the faculty of UC Irvine's Center for Virus Research and Institute for Immunology.

Our faculty members also are actively involved in the Pacific Southwest Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. This multicenter collaboration, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, places UC Irvine's Division of Infectious Diseases at the forefront of these critical areas of research. 

The Division of Infectious Diseases is a leader in training physicians to diagnose, prevent, and treat the entire spectrum of viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections. We have a competitive, ACGME-accredited fellowship program that includes extensive clinical training in infectious diseases at UC Irvine Medical Center and the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. These settings offer our fellows, residents and medical students valuable experience in treating a wide variety of patients and conditions.

Our fellows also complete a six-month rotation in research, during which they have the opportunity to personally participate in basic, translational, clinical or epidemiological  research. Fellows can focus on any number of specific research topics, including hospital-associated infections, HIV/AIDS, biodefense and arthropod-borne diseases. Our training program provides an extensive didactic program of core lectures, seminars, and journal clubs.

Fellows also participate in tuberculosis and microbiology rounds, and HIV/AIDS and patient-centered grand rounds at UC Irvine Medical Center and the Long Beach VA. Most important, our faculty is especially committed to investing our time in one-on-one mentoring of our fellows in clinical skill development on inpatient consultations services and in weekly continuity clinics.

The Infectious Diseases division is home to the only Orange County site for the Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center, a program that provides HIV/AIDS training to health care professionals throughout Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties as well as the city of Long Beach.

Through this program, the division organizes "HIV/AIDS on the Front Line," an annual, multidisciplinary conference drawing approximately 300 attendees from the region and beyond. Soon we will also be offering a comprehensive training program in high containment laboratory facilities, including training for researchers, operations and maintenance personnel and first responders.

In addition to providing our patients with the highest quality care, we strive to inspire students, residents and fellows to discover the challenge and excitement of caring for patients with infectious diseases. Upon completion of our program, physicians  are prepared to treat patients with infectious diseases in a wide variety of settings.

It is our mission to train the best scientists and clinicians, to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and to provide the best care for our patients.