Medical and Political Leaders To Speak at HIV/AIDS Symposium at Howard

Office of University Communications

CONTACT:
Ron Harris
Director of Communications
202.683.0182
rjharris@howard.edu

WASHINGTON -- Leading national and international experts in the research and treatment of HIV/AIDS and political leaders will gather at Howard University Thursday, July 17, for an important forum on current trends in HIV/AIDS infection, its impact on minority communities, strategies for prevention and cure and the social implications if the trends continue unabated.

The Essence of Hope HIV/AIDS Symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the Armour J. Blackburn University Center. The event is being sponsored by Spiritual Images Inc., a faith-based organization that focuses on HIV/AIDS and Howard University College of Medicine’s National Minority AIDS Education Training Center.

Renowned virologist Dr. Robert C. Gallo, co-discoverer of the HIV virus that causes AIDS and director of the Institute of Human Virology and Division of Basic Science at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, will deliver the opening address.

He will be joined throughout the day by distinguished speakers such as U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Committee, and noted physician and researcher Dr. Duane Smoot, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine.

Dr. Kenneth Robinson, who recently stepped down after four years as the number one medical officer for the state of Tennessee as the Commissioner of Health, will also speak, as well as Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, coordinator of the HIV/STI project for the Pan American Health Organization, and Willow Pequegnat, Ph.D., associate director of International AIDS Prevention Research at the National Institutes of Health.