Innovative Plenaries Promise Diversity of Views at XI International Conference on AIDS [International Conference on AIDS (11th: 1996: Vancouver, Canada)]

04/09/96 TUE 19: 24 FAX [phone]

XI INTL CONF ON AIDS

S008

Conference B ag i

Michael L Rekart, MD, DTM&H, FRCPC
Conference C-Chair
A graduate of the Ohio State University College of Medicine,
Dr. Michael Rekart received his MD In 1973 and went on to a
medical residency at the University of Southern California
Medical Centre from 1973 - 1977.A two year fellowship in
Infectious diseases followed, as did his training In Tropical
Medicine and Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine..Since June, 1985.,Dr. Michael Rekart has headed up the
STDIAIDS Control Program of the British Columbia Ministry of
Health. Using the resources of the Program and the Ministry a
province-wide strategy has been Implemented involving
education, contact tracing, screening, prevention and research.
The strategy's initiatives have been Innovative (AIDS street
nurses), practical (the British Columbia network of needle
exchange programs) and far reaching (STD training courses for
public health nurses).
The STD Control Program was the first in Canada to
Implement several key STDIAIDS control measures, Including
makingAIDS a reportable disease, initiating HIV testing and
counseling, developing street outreach services, changing
recommended gonorrhea therapy to ceftriaxone to combat
penicllinase-producing gonorrhea, and recommending routine
HIV screening of all pregnant patients subsequent to the
demonstration of a significant reduction In perinatal HIV
transmission by zldovudine therapy.
Dr. Rekarti-s research interests are aligned with the
Program's mandate to prevent STDs and to he furtherance of
the initiatives developed and implemented within STDAIDS
ControL.These interests include the development and evaluation
of a modified system of contact tracing for HIV
encompassing elements of both formal and simplified contact
tracing; the monitoring of HIV incidence among streetlnvolved
populations; and unique and aggressive initiative to control HIV
incidence in injection drug users and the aboriginal peoples of
Canada.

Michael V. O'Shaughnessy, PhD
Program Co-Chair
As a leading Canadian virologist, Dr. O'Shaughnessy was
Instrumental In developing HIV diagnostic techniques for use in
Canada during the 1980's. Dr. O'Shaughnessy came to the west
coast In 1992 to accept the directorship of the BC Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS, a provincially-funded research
organisation based at St. Paul's Hospital. He Is also a director of
the Canadian HIVTrials Network and a Professor in the
Department of Pathology at the University of British Columba.
Born and raised in New York City Dr. O'Shaughnessy
received his PhD In Microbiology and Immunology from
Dalhousle University In Halifax, Nova Scotia.He was a post.
doctoral fellow at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario and
from 1978 - 1983 served as the Director of the Kingston Public
Health Laboratory, operated by the Ontario Ministry of Health.
In 1985, Dr. O'Shaughnessy was appointed Head,Viral
Surveillance Section of Viral Diagnostic Services, Health and
Welfare Canada. In 1988, with the development of the Federal
Centre for AIDS, Dr. O'Shaughnessy became head of the Human
Retrovirology Laboratory and, In 1991,Acting Director General
of the overall Centre, In this position he was responsible for the
administration of nearly $40 million annually.
In addition to his role as a director with the CTN and the
BC Centre for Excellence in HIViAIDS, he was also recently
Chair of the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (NACAIDS) which advises the Minister of Health. Dr. O'Shaughnessy
also served as Chair of the Steering Committee on Diagnostics
and Research for the World Health Organisation's Global
Programme on AIDS and is Chair of the joint MRCINHRDP
AIDS Grant Review PaneL Additionaly, Dr. O'Shaughnessy
organised and chaired the first four meetings of the HIV
Laboratory Directors from the Americas sponsored by the Pan
American Health Organisation.