This Argentinian transplant arrived in B.C. for a post-doctoral fellowship at UBC just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic detonated in the early 1980s. In his three decades in the province, Dr. Julio Montaner has helped remove the disease’s stigma and saved millions of lives.
During clinical trials in 1996, Montaner co-discovered one of the biggest single contributions to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS: A triple-drug therapy that is still the gold standard for treatment today. The highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has taken the automatic death sentence off HIV diagnoses.