Gregg Gonsalves | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | |
Occupation(s) | Health activist (HIV/AIDS, opioid crisis, COVID-19), epidemiologist |
Employer(s) | Yale School of Public Health and Yale Law School |
Known for | ACT UP New York Treatment Action Group, Yale Global Health Justice Partnership |
Awards |
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Gregg Gonsalves (born October 21, 1963) is a global health activist, an epidemiologist, an associate professor at Yale School of Public Health and an associate professor (adjunct) at Yale Law School. [1] [2] As well as being co-director of Yale Law School's Global Health Justice Partnership, [2] Gonsalves is the public health correspondent of the progressive magazine The Nation . [3]
He was born in Mineola, New York, on October 21, 1963, grew up in nearby East Meadow, New York, and attended East Meadow High School. [4] [5] His parents were New York City school teachers, both of whom were born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with his father's family originally from Madeira and his mother's family from Sicily. [6] He attended Tufts University starting in 1981, but dropped out before finishing his BA degree in English and American literature and Russian language and literature. [7] He has two sisters, Carin Gonsalves, a physician in Philadelphia, [8] and Dana Gonsalves, a commercial artist in New York City. [9]
He began working with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1990, going on to co-found the Treatment Action Group (TAG) in 1992, with his colleagues from the Treatment and Data Committee of ACT UP New York, including Peter Staley, Mark Harrington, and Spencer Cox. With TAG, he authored several reports on HIV research, including a critical review of AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health, which led to a reorganization of the NIH's AIDS program by Congress. [10] [11] He found out he was HIV+ in 1995. [12] In 2000, Gonsalves went on to join Gay Men's Health Crisis and its Department of Public Policy. [13] In 2006, Gonsalves moved to Cape Town to work for the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa where he was part of campaigns to expand access to antiretroviral therapy in Southern Africa. [14] In the mid-2000s, he gave well-regarded plenary speeches at two back-to-back International AIDS Conferences in Toronto and Mexico City. [15] [16] He is also a co-founder of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, a collective of AIDS activists from around the world fighting for access to AIDS treatment and other life-saving medicines through education, monitoring and advocacy. [17] In 2008, he received $100,000 as the first recipient of the AIDS Leadership Award from the John M. Lloyd Foundation. [18]
In 2008, he enrolled in Yale College as part of the Eli Whitney Students Program and obtained a BS with distinction in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2011. From 2011 to 2012, he was an Open Society Foundations Fellow comparing social movements on AIDS, tuberculosis and maternal health in South Africa, Brazil and Ukraine. [19] In 2012, he enrolled in a Ph.D. program in the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale School of Public Health and Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences obtaining a PhD in 2017, where he also co-founded the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership, the first collaboration between the public health and law schools at Yale. [20] He writes regularly for the popular press and has contributed op-eds and articles to The New York Times , The Washington Post , Foreign Policy and The Nation . [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] He joined the faculty of Yale School of Public Health in July 2017. His research focuses on using quantitative models to improve the delivery of services and shape policy-making on HIV/AIDS. [27] [28] [29] [30] At Yale, he is affiliated with the Public Health Modeling Unit Archived February 22, 2020, at the Wayback Machine and the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine. In 2019, he received an Avenir award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a grant program devoted "to early-stage investigators who propose highly innovative studies [and] researchers who represent the future of addiction science" for his proposal to examine the syndemic of HIV, hepatitis C and overdose in the context of the US opioid crisis. [31]
In 2008, he won the John M. Lloyd Foundation's inaugural AIDS Leadership Award. [32] Gonsalves and Mark Harrington are the only two AIDS activists to ever receive a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant". [33] The two worked together and were members of ACT UP and TAG. [34] [35]
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, and working to change legislation and public policies.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder. TAC has been credited with forcing the reluctant government of former South African President Thabo Mbeki to begin making antiretroviral drugs available to South Africans.
Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.
This is a timeline of HIV/AIDS, including cases before 1980.
The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS had killed approximately 40.4 million people, and approximately 39 million people were infected with HIV globally. Of these 29.8 million people, 75% are receiving antiretroviral treatment. There were about 630,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2022. The 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that the global incidence of HIV infection peaked in 1997 at 3.3 million per year. Global incidence fell rapidly from 1997 to 2005, to about 2.6 million per year. Incidence of HIV has continued to fall, decreasing by 23% from 2010 to 2020, with progress dominated by decreases in Eastern Africa and Southern Africa. As of 2020, there are approximately 1.5 million new infections of HIV per year globally.
amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, known until 2005 as the American Foundation for AIDS Research, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of AIDS-related public policy.
Infection with HIV, a retrovirus, can be managed with treatment but without treatment can lead to a spectrum of conditions including AIDS.
HIV/AIDS was first detected in Canada in 1982. In 2018, there were approximately 62,050 people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada. It was estimated that 8,300 people were living with undiagnosed HIV in 2018. Mortality has decreased due to medical advances against HIV/AIDS, especially highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Mark Harrington is an HIV/AIDS researcher, a staunch activist for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis awareness, and the co-founder and policy director of the Treatment Action Group (TAG). After graduating from Harvard University in 1983, Harrington spent time exploring and did not commit to one specific career. When the AIDS epidemic became personal for Harrington, and close friends were being infected with HIV, he decided to take action and joined the group, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power or ACT UP. As part of the Treatment and Data Committee of ACT UP, Harrington fostered relationships with government officials associated with AIDS research. Eventually differences in opinions on how to best advocate for HIV/AIDS research led to Harrington and other members of ACT UP leaving to start their own group, TAG. With TAG, Harrington was able to create influential and meaningful policy regarding HIV/AIDS research and he worked closely with the NIH, WHO, and other government organizations. Over the years Harrington has distinguished himself as an adept scientist and reputable researcher in his own right. Currently he is published in multiple scientific journals and continues to be an advocate for those with HIV and TB around the world.
Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS or serophobia is the prejudice, fear, rejection, and stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS. Marginalized, at-risk groups such as members of the LGBTQ+ community, intravenous drug users, and sex workers are most vulnerable to facing HIV/AIDS discrimination. The consequences of societal stigma against PLHIV are quite severe, as HIV/AIDS discrimination actively hinders access to HIV/AIDS screening and care around the world. Moreover, these negative stigmas become used against members of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of stereotypes held by physicians.
Aidsmap, also known as NAM aidsmap, is a website which publishes independent, accurate and accessible information and news about HIV and AIDS. The aidsmap website is run by a charity based in the United Kingdom, NAM.
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Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, MMed, MS(Epi), FFPHM, FFPath (Virol), DipData, PhD, DSc(hc), FRS is a South African public health physician, epidemiologist and virologist who has played a leading role in the AIDS and COVID-19 pandemic. His scientific contributions have impacted the landscape of HIV prevention and treatment, saving thousands of lives.
Treatment as prevention (TasP) is a concept in public health that promotes treatment as a way to prevent and reduce the likelihood of HIV illness, death and transmission from an infected individual to others. Expanding access to earlier HIV diagnosis and treatment as a means to address the global epidemic by preventing illness, death and transmission was first proposed in 2000 by Garnett et al. The term is often used to talk about treating people that are currently living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) to prevent illness, death and transmission. Although some experts narrow this to only include preventing infections, treatment prevents illnesses such as tuberculosis and has been shown to prevent death. In relation to HIV, antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a three or more drug combination therapy that is used to decrease the viral load, or the measured amount of virus, in an infected individual. Such medications are used as a preventative for infected individuals to not only spread the HIV virus to their negative partners but also improve their current health to increase their lifespans. When taken correctly, ART is able to diminish the presence of the HIV virus in the bodily fluids of an infected person to a level of undetectability. Consistent adherence to an ARV regimen, monitoring, and testing are essential for continued confirmed viral suppression. Treatment as prevention rose to great prominence in 2011, as part of the HPTN 052 study, which shed light on the benefits of early treatment for HIV positive individuals.
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