CHC physician to head national HIV agency

MIDDLETOWN — A local health center medical director is the next chairman-elect of the Virginiabased HIV Medicine Association.

Dr. Marwan Haddad, who heads the Community Health Center’s Center for Key Populations, served on the HIVMA Board of Directors from 2017-20 and is filling the vacancy left by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who was appointed by President-elect

Joe Biden, according to a news release.

She is his designee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the news release said.

HIVMA is a national organization of medical professionals who practice HIV medicine which represents the interest of HIV health care providers, researchers, and patients by promoting quality care and serving as advocates for policies, according to the health center.

“Being a familypractice HIV primary care provider at a federally qualified community health center, and receiving this appointment underscores HIVMA’s vision and its recognition that primary care and noninfectious diseases physicians and advanced practice providers have an important role to play in ending the HIV epidemic,” Haddad said in a prepared statement.

“Fighting against stigma relating to HIV, sexual orientation, gender identity and substance use, as well as addressing the social determinants of health and systemic racism fueling health disparities, are central to HIVMA’s and my commitment in striving to end this four decades-long epidemic,” he said.

Haddad