Quarraisha Abdool Karim


Quarraisha Abdool Karim is the Associate Scientific Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa and Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University, in the United States. Recognised as one of the leading HIV scientists, Abdool Karim holds an A1 rating from the National Research Foundation in South Africa. She is the Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health at the  University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Abdool Karim is the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV and co-chairs the UNAIDS Strategic Working Group. She serves as a member of the Executive Group of the International Steering Committee for the COVID-19 Solidarity Trial and the South African Health Ministry’s Advisory Committee on COVID-19.
Abdool Karim’s research has focused on HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women and includes the conduct of clinical trials from early phase, through proof of concept and implementation of new discoveries. Her landmark study, the tenofovir gel CAPRISA 004 trial, demonstrated for the first time that anti-retrovirals can prevent HIV infection. The study was highlighted by the journal Science as one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs in 2010.
Abdool Karim has over 200 peer reviewed publications and holds Fellowships at the National Academy of Medicine, The World Academy of Science, Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences.
Through the Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme that has trained over 600 scientists in southern Africa, Abdool Karim has played a central role in building the science base in southern Africa. She received an honorary degree from the University of Johannesburg for her contributions to HIV/AIDS prevention research.
Karim was awarded the Christophe Mérieux Prize in Infectious Diseases by the French Academy of Science and jointly with Salim Abdool Karim the prestigious John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for their work in the prevention and treatment of HIV in women. Her awards include South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe; the African Union’s Kwame Nkrumah Prize for Science and Technology and the TWAS-Lenovo Prize from The World Academy of Sciences ; the ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal; the South African Medical Research Council Gold Medal; the 2016 L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science award for Africa and the Arab States and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Human Virology in the United States.
Abdool Karim is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ; the Icipe Governing Council; the WHO | ARV Guidelines Committee and the Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health. She serves on the Editorial Boards of AIDS and JIAS.

Early life and education

Abdool Karim was born in Tongaat in South Africa in 1960. She attended Vishwaroop state-aided school, Victoria school, and Tongaat high school. She cites her grandmother and parents as some of her mentors, instilling in her a passion for knowledge. In 1981, she graduated with a bachelor of science from the University of Durban-Westville. Abdool Karim then moved on to the University of Witwatersrand, gaining a bachelor of science honours degree in Biochemistry. For her master's degree, Abdool Karim moved to the United States, gaining her master's in Parasitology in 1988, from Columbia University. In 2000, she completed her PhD in Medicine from the University of Natal, in South Africa.

HIV Research

In the 1990s, South Africa was gripped by an HIV epidemic. During this time, Abdool Karim began her socio-behavioural studies in relation to HIV, in South Africa. She conducted population-based surveys, aiming to the understand the spread of the epidemic in women, as well as researching on additional factors such as gender, age, and migration. In 1992, Abdool Karim et al. published a paper, highlighting that women were more vulnerable to the HIV infection. The study also found a correlation between migration and HIV. This correlation was found to be particularly emphasized among men. During the 1990s, Abdool Karim conducted numerous studies and wrote a handful of papers, studying the infection and highlighting the different groups who were more at risk to the disease.

CAPRISA 004

In 2007, CAPRISA conducted a landmark clinical trial, named CAPRISA 004, and Abdool Karim was the principal investigator. The underlying aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Tenefovir gel in reducing the risk of HIV contraction. The CAPRISA 004 Tenofovir gel trial also resulted in a proof of concept for Microbicides. Overall, the study demonstrated protection against the HIV infection, with a 39% reduction in infections. Additionally, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference, 2010, the results of their CAPRISA 004 study led to a standing ovation, an uncommon occurrence at a scientific meeting. In 2017, with other leaders from the project, Abdool Karim edited The CAPRISA Clinical Trials: HIV Treatment and Prevention.
Since this project, Abdool Karim has continued to research and publish writing about HIV/AIDS in South Africa. She published the book HIV/AIDS in South Africa with her husband and research collaborator Salim Abdool Karim in 2005, with the second edition published in 2010. In 2015, she co-edited the sixth edition of the Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health. In 2017 she was appointed by the executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS as the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV.

Leadership and working for equality

Outside of her research in HIV and AIDS, Abdool Karim has also worked to improve education and training for scientists in South Africa and served as an advocate for women in science. Through the Columbia University-Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme, Abdool Karim has worked to train over 600 scientists in the region since 1998.
She has also spoken and given interviews explaining the difficulties associated with being a women in research as well as encouraging more young women to pursue the sciences.

Awards and Honours

Abdool Karim has won many awards for her work on AIDS research. This includes the TWAS-Lenovo Science prize. Here, she became the first women recipient of that award, receiving the $100,000 prize.
In 2017, the BBC named Abdool Karim as one of the seven trailblazing women in science.

Personal life

Quarraisha Abdool Karim is married to the South African epidemiologist, Salim Abdool Karim, whom she sometimes collaborates with on research. She has three children.
Abdool Karim owns a house in Durban and also has an apartment in Manhattan.