Global Epidemiology: State of the Pandemic
Steffanie Strathdee, United States
Dr Steffanie Strathdee, PhD, is the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, Harold Simon Professor and Chief of the Division of Global Public Health in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr Strathdee is an infectious disease epidemiologist who has spent the last two decades focusing on HIV prevention in underserved, marginalised populations in developed and developing countries, including injection drug users, men having sex with men, and sex workers.
Implications of Gender on the Response
Elizabeth Anne Bukusi, Kenya
Dr Elizabeth Bukusi, MBChB, MMed (OBGyn), MPH, PhD, MBE, is the Co-Director of the KEMRI-UCSF Research Training Programme. She is a Chief Research Officer at the Centre for Microbiology Research and Deputy Director at the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and an Honorary Lecturer for the University of Nairobi and Aga Khan University in Pakistan. She is faculty at the University of Washington in the Global Women’s Health Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and holds a volunteer faculty position at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr Bukusi has over twenty years of experience conducting research in HIV prevention, care and treatment, and building capacity for research in Kenya. Her research focuses on development of HIV prevention technologies, HIV care and treatment, and developing systems for improving research regulation and ethics in research.
Maurine Murenga, Kenya
Maurine has openly been living with HIV since the early 2000s. In 2002, she could not access Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services and her son contracted HIV from her at birth. Maurine and her son both began free treatment in 2003 when the Global Fund came to Kenya. In 2008, Maurine founded the Lean On Me Foundation, which provides comprehensive care and support to adolescent girls and young women living with HIV and tuberculosis in Kenya. Maurine was also a Global Fund Advocates Network ‘Here I Am’ Campaign Ambassador from 2012-2013. She currently works as the Global Fund Coordinator for the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW Global) and is a member of the Gender Technical Committee on HIV and AIDS in Kenya, Women4GF and the Communities Delegation to the Global Fund Board. Maurine is a two-time award winner for her work with women and girls – winning the Unsung Hero Award from the US embassy in Kenya and the East Africa Community Service Award from the Ufadhili Trust. Maurine has since had another baby in 2013 who is HIV-free.
Universal Access: What Systems for Health Will Get Us There?
Alex Coutinho, Rwanda
Dr Alex Coutinho recently retired as the Executive Director of Uganda’s Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) and has spent three decades fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is now working with Accordia Global Health Foundation and its implementing partners to increase Ebola preparedness and to advocate for structural changes to prevent such catastrophic outbreaks. Coutinho has held numerous leadership positions in global health. Currently, he chairs the Board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). He has served as Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Technical Review and Chair of the Board of the International Partnership for Microbicides. Jonathan Mann Lecture: Protecting Human Rights and Reducing Stigma
Edwin Cameron, South Africa
Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron discovered he was HIV positive in 1986 and has been described by Nelson Mandela as ‘one of South Africa’s new heroes’. He previously served as a judge on the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa and was the first senior South African official to state publicly that he was living with HIV/AIDS. A prominent human rights lawyer during apartheid, he has worked to safeguard human rights (including the rights of gays and lesbians) in the new constitution of South Africa. Cameron is also an accomplished author and has previously been a keynote speaker at the 13th International AIDS Conference in 2000 in Durban, South Africa.
– By
