PAVING THE WAY FOR GLOBAL HEALTH RESEARCH: FIRST IN HER CLASS
Anne Goldfeld, MD, Harvard Medical School, Immune Disease Institute
"TB is a worldwide problem and impacts us all. Understanding how pathogens and human immune responses work applies to all of us regardless of where we live."
Anne Goldfeld, MD, has been a first in global health research, treatment, and advocacy since she began her career in medicine nearly 30 years ago. An infectious disease physician and scientist who works to improve the lives of poor and displaced people around the world, Goldfeld discovered the first gene associated with tuberculosis, led the first U.S. campaign to ban landmines, and is leading the first clinical trial on how best to time TB and HIV/AIDS drugs so that people who need them take them at the right time.
Her skill at integrating basic research into community-based care also led her to start the first AIDS-TB care program in rural Cambodia, a program that has just expanded to Ethiopia with the help of actress Angelina Jolie. She is hopeful that the successes from her research will encourage the U.S. and the international community to invest more in global health research. "When you see the amount of suffering caused by TB and its drug resistant strains, the wholly inadequate response speaks to the need for greater awareness among the public and American support for global health research," she says.
How to help the developing world cope with the burgeoning HIV epidemic has been at the core of Goldfeld's work. In 2001, she started large programs for TB and HIV/AIDS in refugee camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and helped write their first Global Fund proposal for TB and HIV/AIDS drugs. She remains committed to helping countries that are racked with people with AIDS but lack funding to buy the drugs they need.
Goldfeld believes that Americans should care about the research of her and her colleagues because the benefits of their discoveries and new understandings are not confined to the poorest corners of the world. Specifically of her TB research, she says, "TB is a worldwide problem and impacts us all. Understanding how pathogens and human immune responses work applies to all of us, regardless of where we live."