February 2003 Public Health Journal Club

The February 2003 presentation was given by social scientist and epidemiologist Professor (Emerita) Zena Stein from Columbia University and was entitled "The History of HIV/AIDS".

Zena Stein, MA, MBBCh, is Professor (Emerita) of Public Health (Epidemiology) and Psychiatry at Columbia University and Co-Director, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute. She received her medical degree in 1950 from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since 1987, she has been co-director of the NIMH-funded HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Here she has major responsibilities for the problems of women and their pregnancies, in the U.S. and internationally.

Her 270 papers and five books range over many social and epidemiological themes. She is often called to consult and lecture nationally and internationally, and has carried out several WHO consultancies. She has served on the Editorial Boards of professional joumals, in the fields of epidemiology, public health, genetic epidemiology and teratology. She is Editor of the International Section, in a volume of Women's Health, Academic Press, 1999.

Professor Stein initiated and has been Principal Investigator of three NIH Training Programs: The Epidemiology of Mental Retardation (NICHD, 15 years), Behavioral Science Research in HIV Infection (NIMH, 10 years) and the International Training Program in Training and Research in the Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS (NIH, Fogarty International Center, seven years), which recently expanded to include training and research in tuberculosis.

Professor Stein has received many prestigious awards including the Wade Hampton Frost award of the APHA in 1992. The University of Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa, awarded her an honorary doctoral degree and the 75th Jubilee Medal in 1997. She has been elected to senior membership of the Institute of Medicine in 1998 and received the John Snow award from APHA in 1999.

In 1999, she served with Mervyn Susser as scientific director of the Africa Centre for Population and Reproductive Research, unique in Africa, funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, and situated in a rural site in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. She has also participated in the South Africa HIVNET research projects.

To download Prof Stein's presentation and accompanying Notes, click on the links in the righthand column.