Advanced HIV care in the Caribbean: Strategies to reduce preventable HIV deaths

Omar Sued is a medical doctor who graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina and specialized in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. He has been working in HIV since 1997 in different countries and settings, including public and private hospitals, health centres, prisons and NGOs. He completed a Master’s and a PhD diploma in acute HIV at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.

From 2009 to 2012, he worked as HIV Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Pan-American Health Organization Headquarters in Washington DC, US. In this position, he supported countries in the development of national HIV guidelines and monitored use and coverage of antiretroviral treatment. He was part of the Treatment 2.0 and the HIV and Syphilis Elimination initiatives.

He has been part of several WHO guidelines expert groups, including: guidelines on post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV and the use of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis for HIV-related infections among adults, adolescents and children; guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention and management of cryptococcal disease in adults, adolescents and children with HIV; and consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV. He has authored more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

From 2012 to 2021, he was the Director of the not-for-profit Research Department of Fundación Huésped, with over 150 staff devoted to combining clinical, social and translational research, advocacy and clinical and public health services on infectious diseases, HIV and sexual and reproductive health. The focus is on innovations in HIV care, ART optimization (dual therapy) and trans health. Since his incorporation, the department was admitted to many research networks, including the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the AIDS Malignancies Consortium and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network.

Omar was the 2019-2021 President of the Infectious Diseases Argentinean Society, where he also held the positions of Secretary (2013-2015) and Treasurer (2015-2019). In 2016 and 2021, he was the Chair of the National Infectious Diseases Congress. He was part of the Presidential Experts Committee for COVID-19 Response until his designation as HIV treatment and care advisor for the Americas at the WHO Regional Office for the Americas (Pan American Health Organization) in June 2021.

Omar is an enthusiastic supporter of the IAS Values advocating for prioritizing evidence-based interventions with a focus on human rights for people living with HIV. He has participated significantly at IAS and AIDS Conferences, with 58 posters presented; this included being Assistant Rapporteur at AIDS 2008, AIDS 2012 and IAS 2015, session Co-Chair at AIDS 2018, and Lead Rapporteur at IAS 2019. He won scholarships for AIDS 2016 and IAS 2017 and for the 2017 Towards an HIV Cure Global Fellows Research Academy. He actively participated in IAS Educational Fund meetings (Rio 2017, Buenos Aires 2017, Mexico 2018, Bogota 2019) to discuss HIV prevention and policy implementation for PrEP and PEP.

Dr. Shanti Singh-Anthony obtained her medical degree in 1992 and post graduate certificate in clinical hematology in 1993 from the Russian People’s Friendship University. She began her career as a Government Medical Officer at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) from 1993 – 1996. She served as a primary care physician from 1996-2002 served in primary health care, and as a medical registrar and programme manager for the national tuberculosis control programme.

She earned a master's in public health (MPH) from St. George's University in Grenada in 2004, shifting her focus to HIV and Public Health. In 2009, she completed a one-year Leadership in Public Health programme with the University of West Indies and the University of North Carolina. She led Guyana's HIV response from 2004- 2016 and then moved to serve the wider Caribbean Region as the as a USAID consultant with Johns Hopkins University , Center for Communications Program as the knowledge management coordinator.

At the regional level, Dr. Singh-Anthony for several years led the coalition of national AIDS programme managers in the Caribbean and represented Guyana on the Executive Board of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS. Internationally, she represented Guyana on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, served on the planning committee of the XIX International AIDS Conference and was nominated to the governing council of the International AIDS Society. Dr. Singh-Anthony is currently a serving member (2023-2025) of the Global Fund Technical Review Panel. She is the chairperson of the Guyana Human Organ and Tissue Transplant Agency.

Ajay Rangaraj is an epidemiologist and Medical Doctor who works in the Department of HIV, Hepatitis and STIs at World Health Organization, Geneva. He is the focal point for advanced HIV disease and also works on the WHO cervical cancer elimination initiative for women living with HIV.

Alessandro C. Pasqualotto is an infectious disease specialist based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Renowned for his work on fungal infections, particularly aspergillosis and histoplasmosis, he has published extensively in the field and is widely cited in medical literature. Pasqualotto is a professor at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA) and head of the Molecular Biology Laboratory and Infectious Diseases Service at Santa Casa de Porto Alegre. He is actively involved in research, clinical practice, and education, making contributions to the understanding and management of invasive fungal diseases, especially in immunocompromised patients.

Dr. Elena Vovc is a Medical Officer in the Global HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STIs Programme infectious diseases programme and leads the TB/HIV, comorbidities and quality of care technical areas as she has recently joint WHO Headquarters in June 2022. She has more than 20 years of experience in international health of which over 14 years she worked with WHO in the WHO Regional Office for Europe, at country levels on HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs and lately has joint WHO Headquarters. Prior to joining WHO she worked with several non-profit organizations such as OSI and AIHA in LMICs. She is a medical doctor, holds a master’s degree in public health and qualifications in clinical management of HIV, coinfections, and comorbidities.

Joe Jarvis is a Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Research Associate at the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, based between Gaborone, Botswana, and London, UK. His main research interests are advanced HIV disease and opportunistic infections. He was the Chief Investigator for the Ambition Study, a multi-centre phase 3 trial investigating novel treatments for HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis in Africa. He has worked with the World Health Organization on their advanced HIV disease activities since early 2023 and led a recent AHD research landscape mapping consultation and report. He also works a consultant physician in infectious diseases and HIV medicine.

Veronique Martin is a mixed-methods researcher with over ten years’ experience in health services research and surveillance working in academic, healthcare and public health organisations, in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. As Principal Scientist in the HIV and AIDS reporting section at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), she currently leads projects to improve outcomes for people living with HIV including stigma, engagement in care, and HIV-related, preventable mortality. She also coordinates the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the HIV Action Plan for England.