Dr. Robert Redfield Appointed as New CDC Director

Well-known AIDS researcher Robert Redfield picked to lead the CDC on March 2018. He is one of the HIV/ AIDS pioneers in the United States. During two decades at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Bethesda, MD, he made pivotal contributions, highlighting the importance of heterosexual HIV transmission, developing the Walter Reed staging system for HIV infection, and demonstrating that active HIV replication takes place during all stages of HIV disease. In 1996, he was one of the cofounders of the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore, MD. Nowadays, he was running a treatment network for HIV and hepatitis C patients. With this background, he would be well prepared to combat one of the DHHS and CDC’s top priorities, the opioid epidemic (Kolodny et al. JAMA 2017;318:1537-8). In an interview, Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology, said “Redfield is a dedicated and compassionate physician who truly cares about his patients and is deeply committed to ensuring patients receive the highest quality of care possible. Dr. Redfield has served his country well, and consistently demonstrates strong public health instincts that are grounded in science and clinical medicine. In my view, despite the loss to our institute, I believe this makes him the ideal candidate to direct the CDC”.