Fauci to receive Ryan White award from IU, do online chat Monday

Indiana University will honor Dr. Anthony Fauci Monday for his work in HIV/AIDS prevention as well as being a leading expert during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will receive the Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award from the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, IU announced in July.

As part of the celebration, professor William Yarber, senior director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, will host Fauci for a virtual "fireside chat" at 5:15 p.m. Monday. To register for the ceremony and the chat, visit go.iu.edu/3Wff.

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"As we have stared down this demon of a pandemic, no figure has more prominently represented this commitment to science and truth than Dr. Fauci," said School of Public Health Dean David B. Allison.

The award recognizes those who are "exemplary bearers of the standard of excellence and commitment needed to combat HIV/AIDS" and was created in 2009 by the school's rural center for AIDS/STD prevention.

The center was created in 1994 to promote prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in rural America. It is largely supported through a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to IU.

White, who died of AIDS at age 18 in 1990, would have turned 50 on Monday. As a 13-year-old Kokomo youth, he was diagnosed with HIV in 1984, when little was known about acquired immune deficiency syndrome or the human immunodeficiency virus which causes it. A hemophiliac, White contracted HIV through a blood transfusion. He had planned to attend Indiana University but died before he could start classes.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Dr. Anthony Fauci to receive IU Ryan White award, chat online Monday