CDC Executive to Lead HIV Vaccine Trials Network
Dr. Judith N. Wasserheit joins leadership team of global vaccine initiative
Seattle - Dr. Judith N. Wasserheit, former director of STD prevention at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and an expert on sexually transmitted diseases, is joining the leadership of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) as the Network’s new director. The HVTN is an international collaboration of HIV vaccine researchers and is headquartered at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Dr. Wasserheit will head the Network with Dr. Larry Corey, an expert on infectious diseases who runs research programs at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.
“The HVTN is an excellent mechanism for accelerating the discovery of an HIV vaccine, which I see as one of the most important health challenges of the decade,” Dr. Wasserheit said. “HIV vaccine development has reached a new level and many of us feel there are opportunities for success now that never existed before.”
The HVTN currently has one product in trials in the Caribbean and South America, two products being tested across the United States and plans for another trial in South Africa later this year. If current testing of these candidates yields the expected results, the Network will conduct large-scale effectiveness trials in the Western Hemisphere in early 2003.
During her 10 years as director of STD prevention at the CDC, Dr. Wasserheit worked to build a national effort to prevent chlamydia, to eliminate syphilis, and to integrate the early treatment of STDs as a routine part of HIV prevention. Prior to joining the CDC, Dr. Wasserheit helped establish and led the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Branch of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. In a distinguished public health career spanning two decades, Dr. Wasserheit has taught at Johns Hopkins University; advised the World Health Organization, the World Bank, UNAIDS and the Population Council on HIV/AIDS and STD prevention; and been widely published.
Dr. Wasserheit earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and has a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
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