Joseph Makhema – Harvard AIDS Initiative

January 12, 2017April 4, 2017

The Botswana Harvard Partnership Turns 20: Q&A with Dr. Joseph Makhema

The Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP) was established 20 years ago to help combat HIV/AIDS at the epicenter of the epidemic. At the time, about 37% of pregnant women in Botswana were infected with HIV. Dr. Joseph Makhema was a young physician working what seemed like unending hours at the public hospital in Gaborone, where effective treatment was not yet available. Today, Dr. Makhema is the CEO of the Institute he…

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March 11, 2016June 30, 2018

Max Essex: The Persistent Investigator

By Martha Henry It’s unlikely that you’ll ever meet anyone more focused than Max Essex. A 1986 New York Times profile described him as “mild mannered” with “a thatch of thick hair” and “among those in the forefront of the worldwide effort to find a cure for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.” Today, though his hair is white, that description still fits. Essex, now in his 70s, still arrives at the…

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July 6, 2007March 4, 2019

How the BHP Came to Be

Max Essex, Deeda Blair and Maurice Tempelsman

By Martha Henry Maybe it all started with Deeda Blair, an early (and constant) supporter of the Harvard AIDS Institute. She introduced Max Essex, Chair of HAI, to Maurice Tempelsman in the 1980s.