Bravo: Indian couple bags top US award for breakthrough AIDS Research

Good news! A researcher couple of Indian origin have been recognized and honoured with a prestigious award for their contribution towards AIDS/HIV. Professor Salin Abdool Karim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim were awarded by the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore in US. The researcher couple was given the award at the 19th international meeting of IHV by Robert Gallo (the person who identified HIV as the cause of AIDS).

"To me, both these renowned individuals have made some of the greatest contributions in the history of HIV/Aids in public health and epidemiology relevant to prevention and care of infected people," Gallo said.

"I don't know any person or persons who have done more to advance the proper care of people with HIV infection or the prevention of HIV infection among a population," he added.

The Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA is under the directorship of Salim Abdool Karim with Quarraisha Abdool Karim as the associate scientific director.

The researchers currently are engaged in developing new ways of HIV prevention in women. They are both professors of epidemiology at the Columbia University, New York. Also, they are the honorary academics of University of KwaZulu- Natal in South Africa

The couple was the first to explain how Antiretrovirals could play a role in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV. This was in the year 2010 when they revealed the results of CAPRISA 004 Tenofovir Gel trial. This landmark study was then recognized and given a place in the top 10 scientific breakthroughs of the year.

They also discovered that Tenofovir Gel could play an important role in the prevention of Herpes. The same was the very first drug which proved to be effective against the disease.