Indian-origin Quarraisha Abdool Karim appointed as UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV

Acclaimed South African Indian-origin Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim was on 21 November 2017 appointed as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV.

Professor Abdool Karim is one of the world's leading AIDS researchers. She has made pioneering contributions in understanding the HIV epidemic among young people, especially among young women.

As a UNAIDS Special Ambassador, Abdool Karim will focus on adolescents and HIV while focussing on involving young women in science.

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS- related deaths.

About Quarraisha Abdool Karim
• Professor Abdool Karim is Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States of America.
• She is also an Honorary Professor in Public Health at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• She is a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and Scientific Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS.
• In 2013, Professor Abdool Karim was awarded with the South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, for her contribution to the response to HIV.
• In October 2017, Abdool Karim and her husband Professor Salim Abdool Karim received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Human Virology (IHV) in Baltimore, US.