University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill AIDS expert, Dr. Myron Cohen, has received the GAIA Vaccine Foundation’s 2011 Hope is a Vaccine Award.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill AIDS expert, Dr. Myron Cohen, has received the GAIA Vaccine Foundation’s 2011 Hope is a Vaccine Award.
The award is given to individuals for their commitment to the fight against AIDS and their contributions to improving HIV care in marginal populations.
Cohen received the award on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) for his dedication to providing a scientific foundation for the treatment-as-prevention concept. Cohen is principal investigator of a landmark study, HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052, which showed that treating HIV-infected individuals with antiretrovirals early led to a 96 percent reduction in transmission of the disease to their uninfected partners.
Cohen is J. Herbert Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine, professor of epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.
His primary research focus is on transmission and prevention of transmission of HIV, with emphasis on the role played by STD co-infections. Much of Cohen’s research has been conducted in resource-constrained countries, particularly Malawi, South Africa and China.
GAIA Vaccine Foundation website: http://gaiavaccine.org/
Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719, lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu