New HIV clinic opens in Uptown

UIC opened a new HIV clinic June 2 at 845 W. Wilson Ave. in the Uptown neighborhood. Management of the clinic, which used to be run by the Chicago Department of Public Health, was transferred to UIC in March.

“The city has been transferring much of their clinical care operations to other entities,” said Richard Novak, professor and chief of infectious disease in the College of Medicine. “UIC has a network of community HIV clinics, and we’re happy to undertake the management of the Wilson Avenue clinic.”

The new clinic will allow for expansion of services that were offered at UIC’s Uptown clinic, which operated for 25 years at the corner of Montrose Avenue and Broadway Street until it closed June 1, Novak said. Patients seen at the Montrose and Broadway clinic will now receive care at the Wilson Avenue clinic. Novak said the new clinic will inherit about 300 patients previously cared for by the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The area from Uptown north to the Evanston border has some of the highest rates of HIV in the city, Novak said.

“The space at the Montrose clinic was run down and inadequate for our needs,” Novak said. “Now that we’re moving into a larger office, we have the opportunity to serve more people and for faculty, residents and fellows from UIC to participate in community-based HIV care.”