Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim
An infectious disease epidemiologist and co-founder and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA, Professor Karim’s list of achievements has changed the face of female health and is especially known for her fight against HIV.
This medical and scientific pioneer also boasts a professorship in Clinical Epidemiology from Columbia University in New York and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. With her pioneering work in HIV, she is also the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV and co-chairs the UNAIDS Advisory Group to the Executive Director.
History and Education
Karim was born in Tongaat in South Africa in 1960 where she attended Vishwaroop state-aided school, the Victoria school, and Tongaat high school. She gives credit to her grandmother and parents as some of her mentors who instilled in her a passion for knowledge. In 1981, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Durban-Westville and added a bachelor of science honours degree in Biochemistry to her growing curriculum vitae. For her master’s degree in Parasitology from Columbia University., she moved to the United States, but returned to her roots in 2000, completing her PhD in Medicine from the University of Natal, in South Africa.
Various Medical and Scientific roles
With her 32 years of HIV research, she accumulated prestigious positions and during the Covid-19 epidemic, her outstanding intellect and knowledge led her to being selected as Executive Group Member of the Steering Committees for the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Therapeutics Trial and the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Vaccines Trial. She co-chairs the United Nations 10-Sustainable Development Goal 10 Member Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM); is a member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of Friends in the USA in the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Just when one assumes that she simply does not have any additional time to follow her many passions, she became Deputy-Chair of the WHO Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health; the Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Indlela Behavioural Insights for Better Health and Member of the CAPRISA Board of Control.
Her research over three decades focused mostly on preventing HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women. This includes conducting clinical trials from early phases, through proof of concept and implementation of new discoveries. Her landmark study, the tenofovir gel CAPRISA 004 trial, demonstrated for the first time that anti-retrovirals can prevent HIV infection.
Top 10 Scientific Breakthrough
The study which changed the lives of those with HIV/AIDS was highlighted by the journal Science as one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs in 2010. She has over 200 peer reviewed publications; edited several books, contributed several book chapters including co-editing the 6th and 7th edition of the Oxford Textbook on Global Public Health.
She has played a central role in building the science base in southern Africa through the Columbia University – Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme that has trained over 600 scientists in southern Africa. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA) and Fellow of The World Academy of Science, Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Science. She is a South African National Research Foundation A1 rated scientist.
Women-initiated Technologies
Prof Karim’s scientific contributions, highlighting the vulnerability of young women and the need for women-initiated technologies and integration of HIV prevention efforts into sexual reproductive health services, has been recognised by more than 30 local and international prestigious awards including South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, from the President of South Africa.
More Awards
In 2020 Abdool Karim received three prestigious awards for her scientific work in HIV prevention and women’s health: The John Dirks Canada Gairdner Award for Global Health; the Christophe Mérieux Prize from the French Academies of Sciences and the 500 years of the Straits of Magellan Award from the Chilean government.
She is the 2021 John F.W. Herschel Medal recipient from the Royal Society of South Africa, as well as the African Union’s Kwame Nkrumah Prize for Science and Technology; the TWAS-Lenovo Prize from The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); the ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal; the South African Medical Research Council Gold Medal; the 2016 L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science award for Africa and the Arab States; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Human Virology in the USA and the 2018 HPTN Ward Cates Spirit Award.
She received honorary doctoral degrees (Honoris Causa) from the University of Johannesburg (2017) and the University of Stellenbosch (2020) in South Africa. She is a Living Legend for the City of Durban – an honour bestowed by the city for citizens who have made an exemplary contribution to increase the profile of the city nationally and internationally.
HIV Research
In the 1990’s, South Africa was gripped by an HIV epidemic. During this time, Karim started her socio-behavioural studies in relation to HIV in South Africa. She conducted population-based surveys to understand the spread of the epidemic in women, as well as focusing on additional factors such as gender, age and migration. In 1992, Abdool Karim et al. published a paper, showing that women were more vulnerable to HIV infection. The study also found a correlation between migration and HIV, emphasised among men. Also during the 1990’s, Karim conducted numerous studies and wrote various papers on the infection and highlighting the different groups who were most at risk.[
In 2007, CAPRISA conducted a landmark clinical trial, named CAPRISA 004 with Prof Karim as principal investigator. The underlying aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Tenofovir gel in reducing the risk of HIV contraction. This trial also resulted in a proof of concept for Microbicides. Overall, the study demonstrated protection against the HIV infection with a 39% reduction in infections. At the XVIII International AIDS Conference, 2010, the results of their CAPRISA 004 study led to a standing ovation, an uncommon occurrence at a scientific meeting. In 2017, with other leaders from the project, Karim edited The CAPRISA Clinical Trials: HIV Treatment and Prevention.
Since this project, Abdool Karim has continued to research and publish papers about HIV/AIDS in South Africa such as her book HIV/AIDS in South Africa with her husband and research collaborator Salim Abdool Karim in 2005, with the second edition published in 2010.
In 2015, she co-edited the sixth edition of the Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health and was appointed by the executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) as the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV.
Leadership and working for equality
Outside of her research in HIV and AIDS, Prof Karim has also worked to improve education and training for scientists in South Africa and serves as an advocate for women in science. Through the Columbia University-Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme, Abdool Karim has trained more than 600 scientists in the region since 1998.
She has also spoken and given interviews explaining the difficulties associated with being a woman in research as well as encouraging more young women to pursue the sciences.
Awards and Honours for AIDS Research
Prof Karim has won many awards for her work on AIDS research. This includes the TWAS-Lenovo Science prize, the first female recipient, receiving the $100,000 prize.[15]
- 2010: CAPRISA 004 Trials highlighted by Science as one of the Top 10 scientific breakthroughs of the year
- 2011: Olusegun Obasanjo Prize
- 2013: Order of Mapungubwe(Bronze)
- 2014: TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize
- 2014: SAMRCScientific Merit Award (Gold)
- 2014: ASSAF Science-for-Society Award (Gold)
- 2015: eThekwini Living Legends Award
- 2016: L’Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science
- 2020: Canada Gairdner Global Health Award
- 2020: Christophe Mérieux Prize
- 2020: Straits of Magellan Award
- 2022: VinFuture Prize
In 2017, the BBC named Abdool Karim as one of the seven trailblazing women in science.[25]
Quarraisha Abdool Karim is married to the South African epidemiologist, Salim Abdool Karim, whom she sometimes collaborates with on research. She has three children.
