November 30, 2009

UCSF to Observe World AIDS Day with Symposium, Film Screening

UCSF will commemorate World AIDS Day on Tuesday, Dec. 1 with a symposium focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention among minority populations, as well as a new film documenting San Francisco’s important role in the early fight against the epidemic.

The free symposium will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus and is open to the entire UCSF community. Those wishing to attend must RSVP to Kathleen Jose, 415/597-4650.

The event will feature a screening of the new documentary film, “Life Before the Lifeboat: San Francisco’s Courageous Response to the AIDS Outbreak.”

The film was spearheaded by Paul Volberding, MD, professor and vice chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine and chair of the medical service at San Francisco’s VA Medical Center, who was among the first doctors to treat patients with AIDS in the city in 1981. He later helped establish dedicated HIV services at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) and other facilities.

“Life Before the Lifeboat” also will be screened hourly from 2 to 5 p.m. on Dec. 1 and Wednesday, Dec. 2 in Carr Auditorium, at SFGH. For more information, call 415/206-4478.

Over the course of the 30-minute film, Volberding shares his own experiences and conducts interviews with others who were on the frontlines at the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Both Volberding and his wife Molly Cooke, MD, a UCSF professor of medicine and director of the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators, describe their fear of confronting an unknown deadly disease as young physicians and parents of three children.

UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, also is interviewed in the film that was produced and directed by Shipra Shukla, who has created several films for UCSF, including the new “UCSF in India” film series that highlights UCSF’s work to prevent and treat women with HIV/AIDS, among other partnerships in India. Read about the series here.

The Dec. 1 symposium will feature keynote speaker Ilan Meyer, PhD, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, who will examine “Minority Stress Theory, Findings, and Implications for HIV/AIDS Prevention with Racial/Ethnic Minority Gay and Bisexual Men.” Meyer is an expert in public health issues related to minority populations, with a particular emphasis on prejudice, social stress and mental health.

In addition, the symposium will include presentations by Diane Havlir, MD, professor of medicine and chief of HIV/AIDS Division at SFGH, who will speak about “The Test-and-Treat Movement: Past and Future” and Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and co-director of the UCSF-GIVI Center for AIDS Research, who will talk about “The UCSF-GIVI Center for AIDS Research Update.”

The symposium also will pay tribute to the 25th anniversary of the AIDS Health Project, a program of UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry and SFGH, and will include several major awards related to HIV/AIDS research, teaching excellence and mentoring.

The event is co-sponsored by the AIDS Health Project; the AIDS Research Institute; the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies; the HIV/AIDS Division at San Francisco General Hospital; and the UCSF-Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) Center for AIDS Research.

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