Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an infectious disease specialist and director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs at Columbia University as been named a recipient and 2008 fellow of the McArthur Foundation. The $500,000 fellowships were announced Tuesday by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. El-Sadr has developed a multi-pronged approach to treating some of the most pressing pandemics of our time – HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis – diseases that disproportionately afflict people with the least access to quality health care. El-Sadr regularly applies her clinical and public health expertise to studies of pharmacologic treatment protocols to identify alternative medications for patients who are unable to tolerate a preferred therapy.
She also has led investigations of preventive measures, such as early trials of anti-microbial gels that may inhibit HIV transmission, as well as behavioral factors related to treatment, such as when and how impoverished patients seek help. El-Sadr develops treatment strategies by considering such factors as access to health care, education, social status, and economic stressors.
El-Sadr is also recognized internationally for her leadership in preventing maternal-child HIV transmission. Though perinatal retroviral drugs reduce infant risk of contracting AIDS, she has shown that aggressive drug therapy throughout pregnancy and beyond is vital to preserving the integrity of the family, thereby maximizing the long-term health prospects of the child.
Through her work developing effective treatment programs in impoverished and immigrant communities in Harlem, as well as in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, El-Sadr sets ever-improved standards for health care delivery for patients facing devastating disease under severe economic hardship. Information courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation.
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