Ann Petru, MD

Ann Petru, MD is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases physician who has been working at Children’s Hospital Oakland since completing her residency there. She was involved in many clinical trials in the 1980s and 1990s, then started to focus more on HIV and AIDS as that epidemic started to affect children. In addition to HIV and AIDS, she has focused on common and challenging problems in the field, including use of antibiotics in children, common “Staph” and “Strep” infections, bacterial and other forms of meningitis, Epstein-Barr virus infection (EBV), and coccidioidomycosis (the fungus that causes Valley Fever). However, her primary focus has been the treatment support of children living with HIV/AIDS and preventing transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies.

Dr. Petru provided care for the first pediatric HIV/AIDS case in the Bay Area in 1983. In 1986, she started the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Program, which has treated more than 1000 HIV-infected and HIV-exposed infants, children and adolescents. Many of her patients were among the first to participate in clinical trials that provided zidovudine (AZT or ZDV) treatment for children, then followed by many other drugs as they were becoming available for adults and where data in children was lacking. These groundbreaking studies allowed her and her staff to evaluate many drug combinations for HIV management, immunizations in children with HIV, and the long-term effects on children receiving drugs for HIV disease. Because drug therapies have been so successful, children are living much longer and their treatment has become far simpler and better tolerated. Aggressive identification of HIV infection before and during pregnancy and improved therapies have dramatically reduced transmission of HIV from mothers to their children over the last 20 years.

Since 2023, she has worked with colleagues at UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to enable women with HIV to consider breastfeeding their infants without substantially increasing the risk of transmission of HIV to those babies. Her clinic continues to follow children with HIV who were born elsewhere but relocated to the Bay area, while a colleague follows adolescents with infection acquired beyond the newborn and early childhood years.
Education
Residency, - Pediatrics, Children's Hospital & Research Center
MD, - , University of California
Honors and Awards
  • Women's Hall of Fame Inductee, Alameda County, 2015
  • Best East Bay Doctors, Oakland Magazine, 2009-2010
  • Bronze Bambino, Children's Hospital Oakland, 2008
  • "Miracle-Maker" Award, Children's Miracle Network, 1994
  • Teacher of the Year, Children's Hospital Oakland, 1985

  1. El-Haj N, HarnEnz Z, Singer ST, Kim S, Cham E, Ling N, Karakas SP, Nguyen VA, Petru AM. From Microcytosis to Macrodiagnosis. Pediatrics 2021. PMID: 34326177


  2. Takayanagi A, Petru A. Twelve-year-old With Chronic Chest and Abdominal Pain. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2017. PMID: 28403062


  3. Rainwater-Lovett K, Ziemniak C, Watson D, Luzuriaga K, Siberry G, Petru A, Chen Y, Uprety P, McManus M, Ho YC, Lamers SL, Persaud D. Paucity of Intact Non-Induced Provirus with Early, Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy of Perinatal HIV Infection. PloS one 2017. PMID: 28178277


  4. Labeaud AD, Wentworth B, Gildengorin G, Tam K, Guardia-Labar L, Petru A. Comparison of moderate and severe hospitalized Pediatric 2009 H1N1 influenza cases. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2013. PMID: 23080289


  5. Islam S, Cooney T, Singh A, Petru AM, LaBeaud AD. Photo quiz. Painful arthritis and extremity rash in an 8-year-old boy. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2012. PMID: 22527963


  6. Patel NC, Hertel PM, Estes MK, de la Morena M, Petru AM, Noroski LM, Revell PA, Hanson IC, Paul ME, Rosenblatt HM, Abramson SL. Vaccine-acquired rotavirus in infants with severe combined immunodeficiency. The New England journal of medicine 2010. PMID: 20107217


  7. Yeh J, Culbertson C, Petru AM. Purulent pericardial effusion in a 14-year-old girl. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2009. PMID: 19953691


  8. Louie JK, Roy-Burman A, Guardia-Labar L, Boston EJ, Kiang D, Padilla T, Yagi S, Messenger S, Petru AM, Glaser CA, Schnurr DP. Rhinovirus associated with severe lower respiratory tract infections in children. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2009. PMID: 19258921


  9. Butensky James E, Harmatz P, Lee M, Kennedy C, Petru A, Wara D, Miaskowski C. Altered iron metabolism in children with human immunodeficiency virus disease. Pediatric hematology and oncology 2009. PMID: 19322737


  10. Louie JK, Kajon AE, Holodniy M, Guardia-LaBar L, Lee B, Petru AM, Hacker JK, Schnurr DP. Severe pneumonia due to adenovirus serotype 14: a new respiratory threat? Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2008. PMID: 18173356


  11. Chang K, Petru AM, Lee BP. A seven-month-old infant with acute onset of neurologic deterioration. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 2007. PMID: 17984823


  12. Cohan D, Feakins C, Wara D, Petru A, McNicholl I, Schillinger D, Lu J, Kuritzkes D, Deeks SG. Perinatal transmission of multidrug-resistant HIV-1 despite viral suppression on an enfuvirtide-based treatment regimen. AIDS (London, England) 2005. PMID: 15905684


  13. Berk DR, Falkovitz-Halpern MS, Hill DW, Albin C, Arrieta A, Bork JM, Cohan D, Nilson B, Petru A, Ruiz J, Weintrub PS, Wenman W, Maldonado YA, California Pediatric HIV Study Group. Temporal trends in early clinical manifestations of perinatal HIV infection in a population-based cohort. JAMA 2005. PMID: 15886377


  14. Nachman S, Kim S, King J, Abrams EJ, Margolis D, Petru A, Shearer W, Smith E, Moye J, Blanchard S, Hawkins E, Bouquin P, Vink P, Benson M, Estep S, Malinoski F, Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group Study 292 Team. Safety and immunogenicity of a heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in infants with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection. Pediatrics 2003. PMID: 12837869


  15. Lester P, Chesney M, Cooke M, Weiss R, Whalley P, Perez B, Glidden D, Petru A, Dorenbaum A, Wara D. When the time comes to talk about HIV: factors associated with diagnostic disclosure and emotional distress in HIV-infected children. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2002. PMID: 12439206


  16. Frenkel LM, Capparelli EV, Dankner WM, Xu J, Smith IL, Ballow A, Culnane M, Read JS, Thompson M, Mohan KM, Shaver A, Robinson CA, Stempien MJ, Burchett SK, Melvin AJ, Borkowsky W, Petru A, Kovacs A, Yogev R, Goldsmith J, McFarland EJ, Spector SA. Oral ganciclovir in children: pharmacokinetics, safety, tolerance, and antiviral effects. The Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group. The Journal of infectious diseases 2000. PMID: 11069232


  17. Ramos-Gomez FJ, Petru A, Hilton JF, Canchola AJ, Wara D, Greenspan JS. Oral manifestations and dental status in paediatric HIV infection. International journal of paediatric dentistry 2000. PMID: 11310124


  18. Stiehm ER, Fletcher CV, Mofenson LM, Palumbo PE, Kang M, Fenton T, Sapan CV, Meyer WA, Shearer WT, Hawkins E, Fowler MG, Bouquin P, Purdue L, Sloand EM, Nemo GJ, Wara D, Bryson YJ, Starr SE, Petru A, Burchett S. Use of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) human hyperimmune immunoglobulin in HIV type 1-infected children (Pediatric AIDS clinical trials group protocol 273). The Journal of infectious diseases 2000. PMID: 10669338


  19. Chen Y, Winchester R, Korber B, Gagliano J, Bryson Y, Hutto C, Martin N, McSherry G, Petru A, Wara D, Ammann A. Influence of HLA alleles on the rate of progression of vertically transmitted HIV infection in children: association of several HLA-DR13 alleles with long-term survivorship and the potential association of HLA-A*2301 with rapid progression to AIDS. Long-T Human immunology 1997. PMID: 9361967


  20. Nielsen K, McSherry G, Petru A, Frederick T, Wara D, Bryson Y, Martin N, Hutto C, Ammann AJ, Grubman S, Oleske J, Scott GB. A descriptive survey of pediatric human immunodeficiency virus-infected long-term survivors. Pediatrics 1997. PMID: 9099779


  21. Azimi PH, Willert J, Petru A. Severe esophagitis in a newborn infant. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1996. PMID: 8866817


  22. Rabin RL, Roederer M, Maldonado Y, Petru A, Herzenberg LA, Herzenberg LA. Altered representation of naive and memory CD8 T cell subsets in HIV-infected children. The Journal of clinical investigation 1995. PMID: 7738172


  23. Gallo D, Petru A, Yeh ET, Hanson CV. No evidence of perinatal transmission of HTLV-II. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes 1993. PMID: 8410673


  24. Petru A, Dunphy MG, Azimi P, Janner D, Gallo D, Hanson C, Sohmer P, Stanley M. Reliability of polymerase chain reaction in the detection of human immunodeficiency virus infection in children. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1992. PMID: 1549405


  25. Johnson DC, Petru A, Azimi PH. Foreign body pulmonary granulomas in an abuser of nasally inhaled drugs. Pediatrics 1991. PMID: 2057254


  26. Petru A. Multisystem disease in an eight-year-old boy. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1991. PMID: 1876475


  27. Janner D, Petru AM, Belchis D, Azimi PH. Fatal adenovirus infection in a child with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1990. PMID: 2164186


  28. Kulhanjian J, Dunphy MG, Hamstra S, Levernier K, Rankin M, Petru A, Azimi P. Randomized comparative study of ampicillin/sulbactam vs. ceftriaxone for treatment of soft tissue and skeletal infections in children. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1989. PMID: 2677956


  29. Petru AM, Azimi PH, Cummins SK, Sjoerdsma A. African sleeping sickness in the United States. Successful treatment with eflornithine. American journal of diseases of children (1960) 1988. PMID: 3124603


  30. Azimi PH, Levernier K, Lefrak LM, Petru AM, Barrett T, Schenck H, Sandhu AS, Duritz G, Valesco M. Malassezia furfur: a cause of occlusion of percutaneous central venous catheters in infants in the intensive care nursery. The Pediatric infectious disease journal 1988. PMID: 3125516


  31. Azimi PH, Chase PA, Petru AM. Mycoplasmas: their role in pediatric disease. Current problems in pediatrics 1984. PMID: 6386349


  32. Petru A, Azimi PH. Esophagitis associated with Candida infection in a neonate. Clinical pediatrics 1984. PMID: 6697625