DeHovitz reflects on decades of fighting HIV:

On Friday, Nov. 11, infectious disease specialist Dr. Jack DeHovitz gave a speech in the Great Room about his experiences in public health.

DeHovitz, who received both his MD and MPH from the University of Texas, has spent much of his ca- reer focused on infectious disease, specifically research- ing and treating the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, DeHovitz noted that he was nearly discouraged to enter the field from the outset.

“There is no future in infectious disease, there’s just no point in it,” DeHovtiz recollected hearing from a mentor early in his career. With technological advancements in both treatment and prevention throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the idea that infectious disease would be wiped out was common. That said, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases certainly still exist in to- day’s world.

DeHovitz launched into an explanation of which diseases are becoming increasingly more prevalent, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), chikungunya, and cholera, among others. Surprisingly, Zika was not prevalent until the outbreak in Brazil in early 2015.

“A wide variety of these viruses have emerged over the last thirty to forty years,” said DeHovitz. “Transportation, more than anything else, has played a big role in why we’re seeing these diseases spread so fast.”

A major misconception of common infectious dis- eases is that they are ‘new;’ in fact, they are anything but new. For example, Ebola and Zika, two outbreaks that recently dominated the news, were first identified in 1976 and 1947, respectively. The West Nile Virus, which did not arrive in the United States until just be- fore the 21st century, was identified in Uganda in 1947. Perhaps the most important aspect to consider when thinking about these reemerging diseases, as DeHovitz noted, is that they often circulate locally for years before spreading, resulting in an epidemic or pandemic.

Although DeHovitz has extensive experience in infectious disease, he has focused almost exclusively on HIV. His career began in 1980 with an internship in Greenwich Village, New York City, where epidemiologists began seeing cases of pneumocystis pneumonia—the disease that helped identify HIV and AIDS. However, doctors did not necessarily have an easy time; both DeHovitz and the younger doctors interested in the disease faced a major difficulty of their own due to a lack of support.

“We were the mentor-less generation because other, older doctors ran the other way,” said DeHovitz. The older doctors wanted to avoid managing and investigating the stigmatized diseases. DeHovitz also remembered hearing confident statements that there would be a vaccine for HIV in just a few years. Yet, the first treatment for HIV was not developed until 1996, and to date, there is no vaccine.

DeHovitz also spent a significant amount of time abroad, working in Haiti and Czechoslovakia. During his two years in Haiti, DeHovitz set up the first inpa- tient HIV clinic, and completed a series of publications that assuaged the fear that “being Haitian was a risk factor for HIV/AIDS.” In Czechoslovakia, DeHovitz worked with SUNY Downstate Medical Center to as- sess public health infrastructure in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

At the end of the talk, DeHovitz reflected on a career of service in public health. He noted that social and political trends play a key role, as do surveillance and preventative measures.

“I know I’ll always have a job,” said DeHovitz with a laugh. “Everyone else should know that you reduce public health funding at your own risk.”

Lastly, when asked what effect the election results might have on public health services in the U.S., DeHovitz gave a well-calculated response.

“I think the investment in public health will be critical to maintain our economy, and it’s really because of visionary people who have shown us that you can invest domestically and internationally to build up public health infrastructure,” said DeHovitz. “To think that the critical work that they do, especially with national security interests, might be diminished by the current or future administration is unfortunate.”

Photo courtesy of Gregory Kantor