Joep Lange, the former president of the International AIDS Society is believed to be one of more than a hundred HIV/AIDS researchers killed in the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in the Ukraine.
Update: Sunday July 20th – initial reports indicated that 108 delegates to the 2014 Melbourne World AIDS conference were on board flight MH17. On Saturday July 19th the International Society of AIDS Researchers announced that 6 delegates were confirmed at that time to be on the flight.
The researchers were amongst 298 passengers on board the flight, the were traveling to the World AIDS Conference which is due to start in Melbourne this weekend.
Professor Lange was President of the International AIDS Society from 2002 to 2004. He had worked in the field of HIV/AIDS research for over 30 years.
In his three decades of research, Lange lead pivotal trials of antiretroviral therapy and published over 350 papers in peer reviewed journals.
Owen Ryan, director of the 2014 AIDS conference, made the following statement after hearing reports of Lange’s death.
“If that is the case, then the international AIDS movement has truly lost a giant,” Ryan said.
David Cooper, director of the Kirby Institute at UNSW Australia, was a long time colleague of Pr. Lange, who reportedly received a call informing him of Lange and his wife having been on flight MH17 at 3am.
He said Pr. Lange had ” “an absolute commitment to HIV treatment and care in Asia and Africa”.
“Joep was absolutely committed to the development of affordable HIV treatments, particularly combination therapies, for use in resource-poor countries,”
“Another outstanding area of [Lange’s] contribution has been his pioneering role in exploring affordable and simple antiretroviral drug regimens for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in resource-poor settings,” Professor Cooper said.
Lange and his wife were parents to five daughters.
