HIV/AIDS researcher ‘revolutionized’ his field
Montrealer who identified antiviral drug in 1989 dies in incident on Miami-area beach
MONTREAL— A pioneering Canadian researcher and activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Dr. Mark Wainberg, has died after an incident at a Florida beach Tuesday.
Police in the municipality of Bal Harbour, near Miami, said they responded to an emergency call at the beach involving Wainberg, the director of the McGill University AIDS Centre, about 2:40 p.m.
“What we learned is that the gentleman was in the water with his son. His son lost sight of his father. He swam over to where he had seen his father, located him and began to swim back to shore,” said Bal Harbour’s acting chief, Capt. Mike De La Rosa.
Several other people at the beach helped get Wainberg, 71, out of the water and first responders began administering first aid. A spokesperson with the Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said Wainberg was unconscious and not breathing when he was transported to hospital.
De La Rosa said there were rough conditions in the ocean on Tuesday and there were red warning flags flown on the beach.
Miami-Dade County’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Emma Lew, said in response to an email that the cause of Wainberg’s death — drowning or medical emergency — has been determined, but she could not provide details because her office was closed for the day.
Wainberg was inducted into Canada’s Medical Hall of Fame in 2016.
“Combining scientific excellence with a social conscience on a global scale, Dr. Wainberg’s research and collaborations are acknowledged as having helped save millions of lives,” his citation read.
The Montreal native was lauded for his involvement in identifying an antiviral drug, lamivudine, in 1989. The drug, also known as 3TC, now plays a central role in the treatment of HIV.
Wainberg served as president of the international AIDS Society from 1998 to 2000 and helped bring attention to the spread of the disease in developing countries where preventative measures and anti-HIV drugs were unavailable or inaccessible.
“Dr. Wainberg, working with his national and international colleagues, has significantly advanced the day when AIDS may be finally eradicated,” reads his citation from the Medical Hall of Fame. “In that hope, shared by the world, he continues his profoundly important work.”
It was with an activist’s hat that he took to the microphones in 2006 when Toronto hosted the 16th annual International AIDS Conference and chastised Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Stephen Harper, for skipping the event.
“Mr. Harper, you have made a mistake that puts you on the wrong side of history,” Wainberg, co-chair of the meeting, said at the time. The condemnation came after Wainberg had reportedly sent more than 20 emails requesting the Conservative party leader’s attendance, only to hear back in a voicemail from a junior official in the Prime Minister’s Office that Harper was declining to attend, according to a profile of Wainberg by McGill University’s alumni magazine.
Dr. Benjamin Young, chief medical officer of the Washington-based International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, wrote on Facebook that he was “heartbroken.” “Mark Wainberg was a groundbreaking HIV scholar (one of the discoverers of drug resistance), former president of the International AIDS Society, close friend, confidant, and mentor. His sudden and untimely passing leaves a huge void. Rest in peace, my friend.”
There were also messages of condolence from the Canadian AIDS Society, from fellow researchers and from activists alike.
Nicolas Chatel-Launay, a master’s student of plant science at McGill University and a member of Rainbow Mac, a group for queer students, said Wainberg’s discoveries were all the more praiseworthy because they came in the face of great social stigma that caused many scientists to focus their efforts elsewhere.
“I’m not sure if the younger LGBT
“Dr. Wainberg’s research and collaborations are acknowledged as having helped save millions of lives.”
MEDICAL HALL OF FAME CITATION
generation is really aware, but maybe gay men in their 40s and 50s now would feel more for him,” he said.
“I don’t have AIDS but I have a few friends who do and it doesn’t have the same meaning that it might have had in an earlier generation where you would have lost friends or gone to the hospital to see friends die.”
One Quebec City-based advocacy group, Alliance Arc-en-ciel de Québec, was among many who paid tribute to Wainberg.
“This great scientist revolutionized the research world by putting aside his personal judgments to attack a serious problem that was eating away at our community. Thank you Monsieur Wainberg.”