AIDS researcher top candidate to lead the CDC

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March 18, 2018 1:18 AM

One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers and an expert in the treatment of heroin addiction is the leading candidate to oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A formal announcement about the candidate, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, could come as early as Tuesday, once the vetting has been finished, said an administration official with knowledge of the appointment.

The review process is likely to be thorough. President Donald Trump’s first CDC director, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, resigned in January after about six months amid reports that she held investments in tobacco and health care companies that posed potential conflicts of interest.

A professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Redfield founded the Institute of Human Virology along with Dr. Robert C. Gallo, who developed the blood test for the human immunodeficiency virus.

Best known for his years as an AIDS researcher, Redfield, 66, oversees an extensive program providing HIV care and treatment to more than 6,000 patients in the Baltimore-Washington area, the university’s website says.

He also has years of experience treating heroin addicts, who account for as many as half of the HIV and AIDS patients the institute treats. He has been a proponent of medical assisted treatment for addiction.

“I think he’s a superb candidate, first rate,” said Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a Democrat and a former lieutenant governor of Maryland. She said Redfield once proposed that every hospital spend at least 10 percent of its budget to treat addiction.

Redfield’s career has not been without controversy. As an early AIDS researcher, he proposed mandatory testing, a prospect that was opposed by many liberals and gay activists.

A graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Redfield did his residency in internal medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He is a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and recently finished terms on advisory boards for the National Institutes of Health.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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