NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci on 30 Years of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Talk Examines His Personal Journey
When a report on pneumocystis pneumonia in gay men first came across Anthony Fauci’s desk in 1981, he put aside the work he was doing on inflammatory diseases Dr. Fauci recalled recently during a guest lecture as part of the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative Lecture Series. One year later, he wrote an article on the mysterious and deadly new syndrome striking gay men, noting that "because we do not know the cause of this syndrome, any assumption that the syndrome will remain restricted to a particular segment of society is without scientific basis.”
His mentors accused him of being an alarmist, but he continued research on the virus and co-wrote the first paper on abnormalities of B-cell activation and immunoregulation in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Dr. Fauci believed that the U.S. response to the disease, now known as HIV/ AIDS, was woefully insufficient. He would make this point in testimony to Congress 210 times over the course of the next 30 years.
Since his appointment as NIAID director in 1984, Dr. Fauci has overseen an extensive research portfolio focused on preventing, diagnosing, and treating infectious and immune-mediated diseases. As chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, he has made numerous discoveries related to HIV/AIDS, and is one of the most-cited scientists in the field.
In his presentation to more than 100 people at Columbia University on August 4th, he referenced the tremendous budget increases over the years to study the disease and the enormous gains in controlling it. Today 10% of the NIH budget is focused on AIDS and there are 31 FDA-approved drugs for treating the disease. Modern retroviral therapy is not only effective in treating HIV/AIDS, Dr. Fauci emphasized, it is a key to preventing the spread of the disease--by reducing the reservoir of the virus in populations. Extending treatment to a greater proportion of HIV-infected people in sub-Saharan Africa is a key to slowing the epidemic.
Dr. Fauci also stressed that the U.S. has become complacent to some degree: 20% of those newly infected are unaware of their infection, and the prevalence of the virus among African Americans is eight times higher than among whites and continues to rise.
Dr. Fauci noted that while we have made tremendous scientific advances, there is much work to be done both here in the U.S. and globally, especially in pre-exposure prophylaxis and devising an effective vaccine--a goal that continues to elude scientists even as the epidemic enters its fourth decade.
The summer lecture series on “The History and Future of Pandemic Threats and Global Public Health” is co-hosted by the Center for History and Ethics at the Mailman School of Public Health,The Hertog Global Strategy Initiative, and the Columbia University Global Strategy Seminar.
August 11, 2011
