Pioneering Canadian HIV/AIDS researcher Mark Wainberg dies in Florida

published on April 13, 2017 by André Picard, in The Globe and Mail

Mark Wainberg, a Canadian researcher who helped revolutionize the world’s understanding of HIV-AIDS at a scientific, medical and political level, has died unexpectedly.

He is believed to have drowned on Tuesday afternoon while on holiday with his family in Miami.

“Canada and the world have lost a great scientist and a great man,” Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said in an interview.

Dr. Wainberg, 71, was director of the McGill University AIDS Centre and a former president of the International AIDS Society.

A virologist, he became interested in AIDS in the 1980s during the early years of the pandemic.

Dr. Wainberg identified 3TC (Lamivudine) as an antiviral, and it became one of the first effective treatments for people who contracted HIV. Later, he also published some of the earliest research on the effectiveness of antiretroviral cocktails.

However, Dr. Wainberg did not limit himself to laboratory work. He became an outspoken advocate for human rights, from denouncing the criminalization of HIV-AIDS, through to demanding that treatment be more available and affordable, especially in the developing world.

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BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Pioneering Canadian HIV/AIDS researcher Mark Wainberg dies in Florida

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