Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town and Chief Operating Officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation harbours a simple dream: to see a continent that meets the health needs of every single African inhabitant.

Armed with an unwavering compassion for humanity Bekker’s 30 year fight, at the coalface of the TB and HIV pandemics, has led her to the governing council of the International AIDS Society (IAS), the world’s largest association of HIV professionals. Currently President-Elect, Prof Bekker is the third woman and the first African woman to hold this position. After two years of soaking up institutional knowledge, to ensure coherence and consitency, Prof Bekker will take up the Presidency when the IAS conference returns to Durban in 2016.

Held biannually, the conferences are critical for refocusing the world on pertinent HIV/AIDS issues. AIDS 2000, the first IAS conference in Africa, was instrumental in shaping future responses to the epidemic on the continent. Under the theme “Breaking the Silence” Durban 2000 spotlighted the gaping chasms in access to antiretrovirals (ARV) between developed and developing countries. After the conference, the world galvanised around the use of generics, the patent pool, 3 by 5 and various campaigns initiated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) -  and ARVs came to the South.

In the 16 years since, South Africa has endured a chequered past shifting from total denialism to having the biggest treatment programme in the world. Despite major strides, Bekker says, the work is not done yet. “I think it will be very important, in my two year office, to bring home the fact that sub-saharan Africa bares the brunt of this epidemic, particularly adolescents, young women and key populations.” Key populations include; female sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people and injecting drug users. Highly at risk of contracting and transmitting HIV, they are also part of the 60% of people living with HIV who remain without antiretroviral therapy and are under-prioritised in the response. Next year’s conference aims to draw attention to those left behind  in the global AIDS response under the banner “Access Equity Rights Now”.

As a great advocate for adolescent health, Prof Bekker is a firm believer in stretching one’s imagination to tackle the TB/HIV problem.  Along with the supportive teams at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre and Foundation, Prof Bekker has spearheaded an initiative aimed at tackling Cape Town’s unprecedented TB infection rates among  youths - the recently introduced funky Tutu Teen Truck offers mobile sexual reproductive health services along with wifi, hair braiding and manicures. Acutely aware that the eradication of HIV/AIDS is no simple task, Prof Bekker remains insatiably curious, tenacious and optimistic:

“Our response[to HIV/AIDS] has to be innovative, creative, to scale, enormous, unrelenting and absolutely non-fatiguing. It is exciting and awe inspiring, particularly because we know it’s tantalisingly in our grasp that certain cities around the world will actually close their epidemics down in the next while. Obviously our needs are so much greater here, the demands and the challenges are so much greater, but I think that for the first time we have so much hope that it can be done.”

Given that the country, and indeed the Faculty of Health Sciences, has a strong contingent of AIDS scientists, research into the epidemic is advancing in relevant ways. The Faculty featured well at the recently concluded IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Vancouver.  Abstracts covered a broad spectrum from how to administer treatment in a differentiated way, through adherence clubs, all the way to basic science and TB findings. Prof Bekker is particularly excited about how many abstracts will be submitted to the Durban conference, seeing it as an opportunity for UCT to flood the system with new data and knowledge.

Professor Bekker does not fight alone but, she is one of many leading the charge. Motivated by a singular dream she is passionate about delivering the best healthcare to every person in South Africa - “without compromising excellence, while taking into consideration that we are limited, that we are going to be rationed and that we are going to have to do a lot with a little,” she says. The dream might be some way off from realising, but Prof Bekker is certainly in the right place and time to contribute towards achieving it.