Gerald H. Friedland, MD, director of the AIDS program at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a professor of medicine, epidemiology and public health at Yale University School of Medicine, will headline the 12th annual Paul J. Galkin lecture, sponsored by The Miriam Hospital and Brown University.
Friedland, working with colleagues in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, was the first to discover that a highly drug resistant strain of tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of death among HIV/TB co-infected patients. His lecture, which will take place on Sept. 22 at 4:00 p.m. at Brown University, is titled “Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, In the Air and on the Ground.”

Friedland has been directly involved in the development of comprehensive HIV care programs since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981. He has developed and directed large-scale clinical and epidemiologic studies focusing on HIV patients as well as those at risk for the disease. His group presented the first convincing evidence that HIV is not transmitted by close personal contact. Friedland and his colleagues defined the predictors of HIV transmission and the natural history of HIV among injection drug users. Friedland is currently the principal investigator of New England ProACT, a regional AIDS clinical trials network.

He also actively participates in HIV/AIDS international research aimed at providing access to antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings. The major focus of his work is the diagnosis, treatment and reduction of transmission of multiple drug resistant and extensively resistant TB in patients with HIV patients. He directs several research projects aimed at addressing these issues in rural and urban South Africa and he is a visiting professor at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

The Paul J. Galkin lectureship series is an annual program sponsored by the Arnold T. Galkin Fund at The Miriam Hospital. The event is presented by The Miriam Hospital and Brown University in association with the Lifespan/Brown/Tufts Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and the Brown University AIDS Center.

As one of only 18 CFARs in the nation, infectious disease physicians at The Miriam Hospital and Brown University are dedicated to continued research initiatives exploring the prevention, detection and treatment of HIV/AIDS locally, as well as strengthening the capacity for research in developing countries.

Friedland’s lecture will take place on Sept. 22 at 4:00 pm in Brown University’s Starr Auditorium, MacMillan Hall 117, and is open to the public.