James Oleske
Alma materUniversity of Detroit, New Jersey Medical School, Columbia University, Emory University School of Medicine
Scientific career
FieldsHIV/AIDS research, pediatrics
InstitutionsRutgers New Jersey Medical School
External videos
video icon “UMDNJ Legacy Dr. James Oleske, September 25, 2013, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

James M. Oleske is an American pediatrician and HIV/AIDs researcher who is the emeritus François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Professor of Pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. He is best known for his pioneering work in identifying HIV/AIDS as a pediatric disease,[1][2][3] and treating and researching it beginning in the 1980s.[4][5] He published one of the first articles identifying HIV/AIDS in children in JAMA in 1983 and was a co-author of one of the articles by Robert Gallo and others identifying the virus in Science in 1984.[6][7][8][9]

Education

Oleske attended Bergen Catholic High School and received his high school diploma in 1963.[10] He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Detroit in 1967. He received his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School in 1971 at what was then the College of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (CMDNJ), now known as Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS), where he later did an internship and residency in the Department of Pediatrics. He received a master's degree in Public Health from Columbia University in 1974 and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology at Emory University Medical School in 1976.[11][12][13]

Career

Oleske was a pediatrician in Newark, New Jersey in the 1970s when little was known about how HIV/AIDS was transmitted. In the late 1970s, Oleske began noticing an unusual increase in the number of pediatric patients at his hospital with suppressed immune systems and life-threatening infections.[14] In 1981, Oleske was asked to draw blood from an adult male patient at Saint Michael’s Medical Center who was a recovering IV drug user and who was suffering from what would later be known as AIDS. The patient immediately recognized Oleske and was surprised that the doctor did not know who he was. The patient told Oleske that he was the father of one of the doctor's pediatric patients. His young daughter had a severe immune disorder and died six months earlier from Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Oleske hadn't recognized the young girl’s father because he had looked robust and healthy only a few months ago and was now severely ill and underweight. This encounter made Oleske realize that the dying man, his daughter, and other immune deficient pediatric patients at the hospital were suffering from the same illness.[1]

Doctors Oleske, Anthony Minnefor and Franklin Desposito were among the authors of an article about pediatric AIDS in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1983.[15][16] The article received criticism from the medical community because at the time the new immune deficiency was known to infect adults only through sexual contact, blood transfusion, and intravenous drug use. Because of the stigma surrounding AIDS, Oleske struggled to convince others that the disease could be transmitted to children and struggled to obtain funding to support pediatric AIDS research and treatment in Newark.[17] Oleske often complained that most of the federal money went to prestigious institutions that didn't have any patients suffering from the disease.[8]

In 1987, Oleske and nurse practitioner Mary Boland co-founded the Children’s Hospital AIDS Program (CHAP) at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey[18]

The Littlest Victims, a docu-drama about Oleske and his work, was broadcast on national television in 1989.[19] The program helped bring much needed awareness to the suffering of children in Newark, and unexpected funding and support. After seeing the television program, Albina du Boisrouvray, a French Countess, contacted Oleske and offered him a $1.25 million donation.[20] [21] Throughout the years, she continued supporting AIDS research in Newark by endowing a professorship at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and providing funding to support UMDNJ’s clinical pediatric AIDS program at the United Hospitals Medical Center of Newark. Funding from Du Boisrouvrary helped establish the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Clinical Care Center, named in honor of her deceased son, at the UMDNJ campus.[22] FXB pioneered perinatal and pediatric AIDS care and clinical research and established the first international training program for medical professionals who treat HIV-infected pregnant women.[23]

Oleske is a co-founder of Circle of Life Children's Center, a palliative care program for children with serious terminal diseases. Circle of Life was formed in 2002, with Lynn Czarniecki.[24] Oleske served as Director of the Center.[25]

Dr. Oleske is known for always carrying a stuffed rabbit in the pocket of his lab coat. He has given thousands of stuffed rabbits to his pediatric patients to help comfort them during their medical procedures and hospital stays. He began this practice to honor the memory of a young HIV patient who gifted Oleske with a beloved purple rabbit named Fred he carried to comfort him through medical tests and procedures. The young boy passed away on the same day he gave the doctor his rabbit.[26][27]

A documentary entitled Don Quixote in Newark about Oleske and his struggle to identify and treat pediatric AIDS was broadcast on PBS in 2022.[28][9]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 Cantor, Carla (April 23, 1989). "A Leader in AIDS Care". New York Times.
  2. ↑ Barrett, Jilleen (June 8, 2022). "The Film "Don Quixote in Newark" Explores the Discovery of HIV/AIDS in Kids [VIDEO]". POZ. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  3. ↑ Span, Paula (June 7, 1983). "The Children of AIDS". Washington Post.
  4. ↑ Bayer, Ronald; Oppenheimer, Gerald M. (November 30, 2006). "Pioneers in AIDS Care — Reflections on the Epidemic's Early Years". New England Journal of Medicine. 355 (22): 2273–2275. doi:10.1056/NEJMp068202. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 17135580.
  5. ↑ Bayer, Ronald (2002). AIDS Doctors: Voices from the epidemic (Oxforde University Press paperback ed.). Oxford. ISBN 978-0195152395.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ Gallo, Robert C.; Salahuddin, Syed Z.; Popovic, Mikulas; Shearer, Gene M.; Kaplan, Mark; Haynes, Barton F.; Palker, Thomas J.; Redfield, Robert; Oleske, James; Safai, Bijan; White, Gilbert; Foster, Paul; Markham, Phillip D. (May 4, 1984). "Frequent Detection and Isolation of Cytopathic Retroviruses (HTLV-III) from Patients with AIDS and at Risk for AIDS". Science. 224 (4648): 500–503. Bibcode:1984Sci...224..500G. doi:10.1126/science.6200936. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 6200936.
  7. ↑ MacPherson, Kitta (April 12, 1992). "AIDS researcher calls for reason, compassion in dealing with disease". The Sunday Star-Ledger. p. 57.
  8. 1 2 Chase, Sabrina (2011). Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City: How Resourceful Latinas Beat the Odds. Rutgers University Press. pp. 61–89. ISBN 9780813553481.
  9. 1 2 "Don Quixote in Newark". Don Quixote in Newark.
  10. ↑ Miranda (August 11, 2023). "Oleske, MD". Bergen Catholic. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  11. ↑ "James M. Oleske, MD, MPH, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Pediatrics". Jon Cohen AIDS Research Collection, University of Michigan. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  12. ↑ United States Congress House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment (1986). AIDS Issues: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, First Session, on Research and Treatment for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, July 22, 1985; Protection of Confidentiality of Records of Research Subjects and Blood Donors, July 29, 1985; Cost of AIDS Care and who is Going to Pay, November 1, 1985. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 65. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  13. ↑ "Department of Pediatrics: James M. Oleske, M.P.H., M.D., M.D." Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. September 14, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Extended Interview: Arlene Bardeguez and James Oleske". PBS Newshour. November 6, 2003.
  15. ↑ Oleske, James; Minnefor, A.; Cooper Jr, R.; Thomas, K.; Dela Cruz, A.; Ahdieh, H.; Guerrero, I.; Joshi, V. V.; Desposito, F. (1983). "Immune Deficiency Syndrome in Children". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 249 (17): 2345–49. doi:10.1001/jama.1983.03330410031024. PMID 6834633.
  16. ↑ Desposito, Minnefor, and Oleske (1983). "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)--A Pediatric Perspective". Pediatrics in Review. 5 (5): 131. doi:10.1542/pir.5-5-131. S2CID 72980662.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ Orr, J. Scott (October 21, 1992). "Newark doctor seeks commitment to address AIDS crisis in children". The Star-Ledger.
  18. ↑ "51 François-Xavier Bagnoud Center, Our Story". Rutgers School of Nursing (PDF). Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 2015. p. 52.
  19. ↑ O'Connor, John (April 21, 1989). "TV WEEKEND; A Doctor Who Tried to Help Children With AIDS". New York Times. p. 30.
  20. ↑ Scott, Gale (May 31, 1996). "Countess bestows a wealth of joy on university and AIDS programs". The Star-Ledger. pp. 1 and 16.
  21. ↑ "French Countess Gives $2.25-Million". The Chronicle. October 10, 1990.
  22. ↑ Scott, Gale (May 31, 1996). "Countess Bestows a Wealth of Hope on University and AIDS programs". Star-Ledger.
  23. ↑ "Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center: History". Rutgers School of Nursing. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  24. ↑ Carter, Barry (September 22, 2015). "Newark doctor cares for children with serious illnesses". NJ.com. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  25. ↑ UMDNJ–ANNUAL INSTITUTIONAL PROFILE, SEPTEMBER 1, 2012 (PDF). Newark, New Jersey: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. 2012. p. 130.
  26. ↑ "Dr. Oleske rabbit". YouTube. 2014.
  27. ↑ Salamon, Maureen (May 21, 1991). "Littlest victims' big hope: Kids with AIDS are doctor's life". Daily Record.
  28. ↑ "Joseph Dorman's Film "Don Quixote of Newark" to Premiere on PBS".
  29. ↑ "A Palliative Caregiver for Young Lives Cut Short". www.newswise.com. November 13, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  30. ↑ Verbanas, Patti (March 20, 2013). "Dr. James Oleske Receives Lifetime Achievement Award for Pediatric HIV/AIDS Work". Newark, NJ Patch. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
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