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HIV

Contributions cut short

Tribute: flowers were left at the entrance to the International Aids Conference in Australia.

STEVE FORREST / INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETYTribute: flowers were left at the entrance to the International Aids Conference in AustraliaSTEVE FORREST / INTERNATIONAL AIDS SOCIETY

The July crash in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 cut short the contributions by a number of researchers and activists who were en route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. One of the victims was Dutch professor Joep Lange, from the University of Amsterdam. He was a leader in studies of the role played by antiretroviral drugs in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. “Lange’s research covered everything from the HIV virus to the global epidemic,” virologist Charles Boucher, of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, told the journal Nature. Jacqueline van Tongeren, Lange’s wife and an activist in the ArtAids foundation, was also on the flight. Other victims were Pim de Kuijer, a member of the NGO Stop Aids Now; Martine de Schutter, manager of the Aids Fond foundation; Lucie van Mens, a pioneer in the promotion of the use of female condoms; and Glenn Thomas, media coordinator for the World Health Organization.

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