Quarraisha Abdool Karim: epidemiologist extraordinaire

Abstract

Quarraisha Abdool Karim is globally recognised as one of the leading researchers on HIV and AIDS. Her work on HIV has broadened the understanding of the virus across the medical fraternity. One of her key findings is that women in South Africa and elsewhere are disproportionately affected by the epidemic. Her research has also made inroads into the treatment of tuberculosis, HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Abdool Karim has been recognised nationally and internationally for the contributions she has made to her discipline, and she has overcome the barriers experienced by women in the sciences nationally and internationally. Quarraisha Abdool Karim was born on 28 March 1960 in the town of Tongaat, in what was then the Natal province of South Africa, and undertook her schooling at the local schools. She inherited her unending quest for knowledge from the matriarchs in her family, namely her mother and grandmother. Abdool Karim graduated in 1981 with a BSc from the University of Durban-Westville, which was the only university catering to Indians in South Africa at the time. Her education continued at the University of Witwatersrand, where she graduated with a BSc Honours degree in biochemistry. She moved to the US to pursue a master's in parasitology at Columbia University, which she completed in 1988. Abdool Karim received her PhD in Medicine from the University of Natal in the year 2000.