Dr Diane Havlir

New Chairperson of the TB/HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership

UCSF/M. Abolfazli

The Core Group of the TB/HIV Working Group has elected Dr Diane Havlir as its new chairperson to serve for the next three years. The outgoing Chair, Dr Gijs Elzinga announced his intention in March 2006 to stand down by November 2006 after serving the Working Group as chairperson since its establishment in 2001.

Dr Havlir is Professor of Medicine and chief of the HIV/AIDS Division and Positive Health Program of University of California, USA. She has worked as a researcher and clinician in the HIV epidemic for over twenty years. She began her medical career as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at UCSF after earning her MD at Duke University Medical School in 1984. She spearheaded early studies of opportunistic infection treatment and prophylaxis including tuberculosis, and conducted pivotal studies on nevirapine viral dynamics, antiretroviral therapeutic strategies, and HIV drug resistance. She is currently directing several international antiretroviral treatment and HIV co-infections (tuberculosis and malaria) trials. She was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigations, and is a member of the World Health Organization HIV treatment guidelines committee, a founding member of the WHO International HIV Drug Surveillance Program, and the North American representative to the Executive Committee of the International AIDS Society. Dr. Havlir received the HIV Research Achievement Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and HIV Medicine Association in 2004.