Indian-origin professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim has been appointed as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV. UNAIDS is a joint United Nations programme for HIV/ AIDS.

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, who was awarded South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, is an infectious diseases epidemiologist whose main research interests are in understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa; factors influencing acquisition of HIV infection in adolescent girls; and sustainable strategies to introduce antiretroviral therapy in resource-constrained settings.

In her new role as a UNAIDS Special Ambassador, she will focus on adolescents and HIV, while also championing the involvement of young women in science.

Professor Abdool Karim, who is working as a Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, US, and an Honorary Professor in Public Health at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has called for making HIV information and services more accessible to young people.

The Indian-origin researcher is a member of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and Scientific Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS.