Global Virus Network Celebrates the 2024 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award for Quarraisha Abdool Karim and Salim S. Abdool Karim
The Global Virus Network (GVN) proudly congratulates Quarraisha Abdool Karim and Salim S. Abdool Karim on their receipt of the prestigious 2024 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award. As leading members of the GVN, including as hosts of the GVN Annual Scientific Meeting last month in Durban, South Africa, Drs. Abdool Karim have demonstrated unwavering commitments to advancing global health through their groundbreaking work in HIV, tuberculosis, and COVID-19 prevention, research, and advocacy, all while shaping public health policies that have saved countless lives across Africa and beyond. The GVN is honored to recognize their enduring contributions as they continue to trailblaze new paths in the fight against infectious diseases.
"Quarraisha and ‘Slim’ have fused scientific inquiry and social justice throughout their careers,” said Dr. Sten Vermund, GVN President and Professor in the Yale School of Public Health. “Their ability to translate their research into life-saving public health policies has been an important contributor to the radical decline in HIV/TB mortality in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. Since we worked together at Columbia University in the late 1980s, we have been bonded in this same struggle for health equity. The GVN is immensely proud to have Drs. Abdool Karim as part of our activist family.”
Drs. Abdool Karim, co-founders and leaders of CAPRISA (Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa), a GVN Center of Excellence, have spent decades illuminating the complexities of HIV transmission and advancing prevention strategies. Their work has been instrumental in reshaping global HIV public health policy and prevention efforts, including with their contributions to the development of tenofovir-based topical and oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which has become a cornerstone of HIV prevention strategies worldwide. Their recognition with the Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award marks a significant milestone for recognition of African scientists with one of the world’s premier honors. As members of the GVN and as leaders of CAPRISA, Drs. Abdool Karim embody the values of scientific excellence, collaboration, and advocacy, working tirelessly to ensure a healthier future for us all.
Find more about the Abdool Karims’ work and their many contributions to global health at the Lasker Foundation’s page and video that honors their work.
About the Global Virus Network (GVN)
The GVN, headquartered at the University of South Florida, is essential and critical in the preparedness, defense, and first research response to emerging, existing, and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health. Working in close coordination with established national and international institutions, the GVN is a coalition comprised of eminent human and animal virologists from 80+ Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in 40+ countries, working collaboratively to train the next generation, advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, as well as develop drugs, vaccines, and treatments to combat them. No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas other than the GVN, which brings together the finest medical virologists to leverage their individual expertise and coalesce global teams of specialists on the scientific challenges, issues, and problems posed by pandemic viruses. The GVN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit www.gvn.org.
For more information about the GVN network, please contact:
Linman Li at [email protected]