Professors Salim Abdool Karim and his wife Quarraisha Abdool Karim, have been recognised for their pioneering work in the medical field and were awarded with the prestigious Lasker- Bloomber Award for their public service.
Married for 36 years, the epidemiologists -- both aged 64 - are internationally respected for their work on stopping deadly infections such as HIV/AIDS, TB and the coronavirus.
In a statement, the Lasker foundation said the award recognises the couple for illuminating key drivers of heterosexual HIV transmission and introducing life-saving approaches to prevent and treat HIV.
“The prize further recognises them for their statesmanship in public health policy and their advocacy. The Abdool Karims have influenced AIDS programs across the globe and they have played pivotal roles in developing South Africa’s scientific capacity. Throughout their careers, they have championed science and its potential to benefit the world’s citizens,” read the statement.
The award comes with a $250,000 (over R4 million) award.
Lasker added that the couple’s ground-breaking work in the fight against HIV includes a major advance against a leading cause of death among HIV patients—co-infections with TB.
“They led a trial which showed that combining antiretroviral treatments with TB treatments greatly improves survival. This has now become a standard of care globally. In Africa, it’s credited with averting more than one hundred thousand deaths a year.”
The Abdool Karim’s also published studies examining how the new Covid virus affected HIV and TB patients and their interest in Covid-19 variants provided the first evidence of the dangers posed by the omicron variant.
They are now working on a long-acting version of PreP and also are leading the development of an HIV monoclonal antibody, they want to determine if it offers another way to provide long-lasting protection while also informing efforts to develop an HIV vaccine.
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