Volume 6, Issue 3

(back to contents)

Q & A: Dr. Max Essex

Max Essex (right) in Mochudi

Dr. Max Essex is the Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at Harvard University. He is Chair of both the Harvard AIDS Initiative (HAI) and the Botswana–Harvard Partnership (BHP). Essex is the Principal Investigator of the Mochudi Project, leading an accomplished team of virologists, behavioral scientists, infectious disease clinicians, epidemiologists, mathematical modelers, and biostatisticians.

Spotlight: Though there has been tremendous progress in treating people with HIV, programs to prevent new infections have been less successful. How is the Mochudi Project different?

Essex: The Mochudi Project uses the best information that we’ve gained from treatment, as well as from prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, for an entirely new approach to prevention in adults. It also incorporates our knowledge of how HIV evolves along with knowledge of the human genome, combined with more established approaches such as male circumcision and behavior modification. All of these are used together to see if we can reduce the rates of new infections in an entire village—Mochudi.

Spotlight: What do you see as the greatest challenge to ensuring that the Mochudi Project successfully prevents new HIV infections?

Essex: One of the biggest challenges is implementation of the testing plan in an entire village of about 40,000 in a relatively short period of time (one year). The other major challenge is to determine the relative importance of each of the individual interventions. For this we have recruited some of the very best mathematical modelers and biostatisticians.

Spotlight: How soon will the Mochudi Project get underway?

Essex: It has already begun in the sense of getting the necessary approvals, designing forms and questionnaires, and working in partnership with village leaders. The work of collecting blood samples, analyzing the samples, and providing interventions will begin in about ten months.