The world of AIDS research was in shock on Friday after dozens of leading HIV experts, including veteran researcher Joep Lange of the Netherlands, were feared killed when a Malaysian plane was shot down over Ukraine, fuelling concerns that research on curing the disease could suffer.
There have been unconfirmed reports that up to 100 people on board the Boeing 777 were en route to the Victoria state capital of Melbourne to attend the 20th International AIDS conference, which starts Sunday, Victoria Premier Denis Napthine said, though he hastened to add that reports were conflicting and it was far too premature to give a precise figure.
Leading HIV expert Joep Lange was feared killed when a Malaysian plane, Flight MH17, crashed in Ukraine. He pioneered access to key AIDS medicines in poor countries. (BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS)
Among them was Lange, the former president of the International AIDS Society who researched the condition for more than 30 years and was considered a giant in the field, admired for his tireless advocacy for access to affordable AIDS drugs for HIV positive patients living in poor countries.
"Global health and the AIDS response have lost one of their great leaders," Peter Piot, director of the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a former executive director of UNAIDS, told Reuters in London.
"Joep Lange was one of the most creative AIDS researchers, a humanist, and tireless organiser, dedicated to his patients and to defeating AIDS in the poorest countries."
The United Nations AIDS program, UNAIDS, said it feared "some of the finest academics, health-care workers and activists in the AIDS response may have perished" on the plane.
"Professor Lange was a leading light in the field since the early days of HIV and worked unceasingly to widen access to
antiretroviral medicines around the world," it said.
"The UNAIDS family is in deep shock … "The deaths of so many committed people working against HIV will be a great loss for the AIDS response," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS.
The conference, due to start on Sunday, features former U.S. President Bill Clinton among its keynote speakers. Around 12,000 participants are expected.
The International AIDS Society, which organizes the event, said it was still working with authorities to confirm the number of delegates on the flight and would go ahead with the conference as planned.
Peers paid tribute to Lange, a professor of medicine at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down on Thursday by a surface-to-air missile in an area of eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting government forces.
'Joep was a wonderful person — a great professional'
Lange pioneered access to key AIDS medicines in poor countries, including combination drugs to control HIV and
antiretroviral medicines to prevent transmission of the virus from mothers to their babies.
Nobel laureate Dr. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus and president of the International AIDS Society, paid tribute to Lange in a speech in Canberra.
"Joep was a wonderful person — a great professional ... but more than that, a wonderful human being," she said. "If it is confirmed, it will be a terrible loss for all of us. I have no words, really, to try to express my sadness. I feel totally devastated."
Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, called Lange's death a huge loss for HIV and AIDS research. Montaner and Lange both served as presidents of the International AIDS Society.
"Joep was a dear friend, an esteemed colleague, a mentor, a leader and a hero in the field of Global Health, well beyond HIV and AIDS," Montaner said in a statement. "We collaborated closely for many years in the global fight against HIV and AIDS. His research and his friendship will be deeply missed."
Robin Weiss, a professor of viral oncology at University College London, compared Lange to Jonathan Mann, a key figure in the early fight against HIV/AIDS who was killed along with his wife and fellow AIDS researcher Mary Lou Clements-Mann on a Swissair flight that smashed into the waters off Peggy's Cove, N.S., en route to Geneva in 1998.
"Not since the loss of Jonathan Mann and his wife …has the HIV/AIDS research community suffered such a great loss," he said.
WHO official dead
The World Health Organization (WHO) said media spokesman Glenn Thomas was among those on Flight MH17.
Glenn Thomas, 49, a media officer at the World Health Organization in Geneva, is among those who died in the crash Thursday of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. (World Health Organization/Associated Press)
Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman, said Thomas had been with the organization for more than a decade and "will be remembered for his ready laugh and passion for public health."
"He will be greatly missed by those who had the opportunity to know him and work with him. He leaves behind his partner Claudio and his twin sister Tracey."
Thomas, a British national, was in charge of promoting the WHO's report issued last week that said five key groups
including gay men had stubbornly high rates of HIV.
Flags at government buildings across Victoria will be lowered to half-mast on Friday and remain that way throughout the conference, the state premier said.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
AIDS movement 'lost a giant' on Flight MH17 as researchers, activists believed killed
Dengan url
http://pentingsehat.blogspot.com/2014/07/aids-movement-lost-giant-on-flight-mh17.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
AIDS movement 'lost a giant' on Flight MH17 as researchers, activists believed killed
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
AIDS movement 'lost a giant' on Flight MH17 as researchers, activists believed killed
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar