DeKALB – Renowned researcher Max Essex is looking to the end of HIV/AIDS through treatment as prevention strategies.
The auditorium of Northern Illinois University’s Altgeld Hall was full Thursday with people who gathered to hear Essex speak on his work during the 12th annual W. Bruce Lincoln Lecture. Lincoln was a DeKalb-based historian and author who focused on Russia. He died in 2000 and his wife set up an endowment to keep the spirit of his research alive.
“Every year we invite a prominent speaker, often a historian but not always because Bruce’s writing was for a general audience,” said Kenton Clymer, a research professor at NIU’s department of history. “Max was selected because he is a very prominent researcher and HIV/AIDS is obviously a very important social problem in this county and around the world.”
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Essex primarily works in South African villages on what he calls treatment as prevention. Without treatment, fatalities would only get worse and life expectancy would plummet, according to the World Health Organization.
“If you lived in Botswana and there wasn’t AIDS in the region, there was a life projection of 73,” Essex said. “But with AIDS it would go down to 29.”
The drastic drop of projected life expectancy was in part was because in Southern Africa, HIV/AIDS infects a high number of pregnant young women, Essex said.