Science AMA: I’m Jim Curran, Dean of Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. In 1981, I led CDC’s investigation of a pneumonia outbreak among homosexual men in LA, the cause of which we termed “AIDS.” With me is Carlos del Rio, Global Health Dept. Chair and instructor of an online Ebola course. AMA
Hi, I’m Dr. Jim Curran – physician, epidemiologist, and Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. In 1981, while working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I was assigned to investigate a series of Kaposi’s sarcoma and Pneumocystic carinii pneumonia (PCP) cases among homosexual men in Los Angeles and New York City. In the coming months, my team put forth the case definition of this auto-immune disorder we called “AIDS.” I worked in the CDC’s HIV/AIDS Division until 1995, after which I came to the Rollins School of Public Health.
With me is Carlos del Rio – infectious disease physician, professor, and chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health. We co-direct the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Additionally, Carlos will be teaching a free Coursera course about the Ebola virus March 31 – May 11.
As us anything! While our expertise lies within HIV/AIDS epidemiology, we can also answer questions about other infectious diseases, vaccines, public health academia, or other public health topics.
More information on the Ebola Coursera course: https://www.coursera.org/course/ebola
More information about the Center for AIDS Research: http://www.cfar.emory.edu/
More information on Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health: http://www.sph.emory.edu
I will be back at 1 pm EST (6 pm UTC) to answer questions, ask me anything!
EDIT (2:03 PM EST) - This has been great. I'm so happy and pleased there is such interest in these topics. Keep it up. You can see our answers to some of these questions on our Reddit profiles:
Carlos: www.reddit.com/user/Dr_Carlos_del_Rio
Me: www.reddit.com/user/Dr_Jim_Curran