The Board and staff of ACON, NSW’s leading HIV prevention, support and LGBTI health organisation, mourn the passing of one of Australia’s pioneering researchers into HIV/AIDS, and passionate LGBTI health advocate, Scientia Professor David Cooper AO.

Credited with diagnosing some of the first cases of HIV in Australia and being one of the architects for Australia’s response to the epidemic – that would later become a world-leading response – Professor Cooper was appointed the inaugural director of the Kirby Institute, or the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research as it was then known, in 1986.

Throughout its history and due in large part to the leadership demonstrated by Professor Cooper, the Kirby Institute spearheaded research into HIV and contributed invaluable information towards a complete transformation of the virus. This shift saw the diagnosis for people living with HIV from that of a near certain death sentence, to a chronic manageable condition which can be treated with one pill a day.

Ever since its establishment in 1985, ACON has had an extremely close relationship with Professor Cooper and all the staff at the Kirby Institute; working in collaboration towards shared goals of zero transmissions and effective support and treatment for people living with HIV in NSW.

Led by Professor Cooper and the Kirby Institute, most recently this relationship has seen overwhelmingly successful implementation of EPIC-NSW, the world’s largest – and world-leading – clinical trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis, a daily pill that prevents the transmission of HIV, which now has over 9,000 people enrolled in NSW.

ACON President Dr Justin Koonin said that the loss of such a giant will indelibly leave its mark on the Australian and international HIV/AIDS landscape.

“David’s contribution to the health and wellbeing of people affected by HIV and LGBTI people has been immeasurable. We have all benefitted from his uncompromising principles and integrity, his passion, his fierce intelligence and intellect, his pioneering spirit and his compassion,” Dr Koonin said.

“From only being able to offer compassionate palliative care to gay men succumbing to AIDS-related illnesses in his ward at St Vincent’s Hospital, to spearheading research showing that HIV treatment leading to an undetectable viral load prevents HIV transmission, David’s lifelong dedication to people living with HIV and broader LGBTI health and wellbeing has improved countless lives of people in Australia and around the world.

“ACON has been privileged to share a close working relationship with David as the head of the Kirby Institute for many decades,” Dr Koonin added. “Our progress and achievements in the fight against HIV/AIDS is the result of collaboration and partnership and, in 2017, ACON was proud to honour David and his Kirby Institute colleagues with the ACON President’s award at the annual Honour Awards.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to David’s family and loved ones, as well as the staff of the Kirby Institute. He will be greatly missed by all of us here at ACON as well as more broadly across the HIV and health sectors in NSW, Australia and internationally,” Dr Koonin said.

ENDS

For more information please contact:

David Alexander, ACON Media and Communications

E: dalexander@acon.org.au   T: +61 (02) 9206 2044   M: +61 (0)428 477 042

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A Tribute to David Cooper

David Cooper was the recipient of the ACON President’s Award at the 2017 Honour Awards. The award was bestowed by ACON President Justin Koonin. An edited extract of Justin’s tribute to David at the Honour Awards is below:

It was about thirty five years ago that our community faced perhaps its greatest challenge. HIV and AIDS landed on our shores, and they had no mercy. We had no defences to the virus which wreaked havoc on the lives of many thousands of our own – men, mostly young, and also women, transgender people, sex workers, injecting drug users.

We were equally vulnerable to the waves of discrimination and stigma which came from the society in which we lived, and which led for calls for us to be quarantined, shunned from public and even from family life.

But there were brave souls who stood up for us, and none more so than Professor David Cooper.

It is David Cooper who is credited with diagnosing the first case of HIV in Australia.

It is David Cooper whose ward at St Vincent’s Hospital filled up with young dying men, men like Bobby Goldsmith, for whom he and his colleagues could offer nothing but palliative care.

It is David Cooper and his young family who were regular marchers in Mardi Gras, sometimes dressed up as pills fighting the HIV virus.

And it is David Cooper who was appointed the inaugural director of the Kirby Institute, or the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research as it was then known, in 1986.

It is for another time to recount the full history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in this country, and the extraordinary progress than has been made along the way. Suffice to say that the transformation of a disease which was a near certain death sentence to a chronic manageable condition which can be treated with one pill a day, and which can be prevented prophylactically, is a modern medical miracle – a miracle which has been spearheaded in this country by David and his colleagues at the Kirby Institute.

David would be the first to acknowledge that the Kirby is far more than the work of one person, and it is entirely appropriate that tonight’s award is extended to all the members of the Kirby Institute – past and present – as a whole.

It is the Kirby Institute who has led the implementation of EPIC-NSW, the world’s largest clinical trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis.

It’s the Kirby’s work showing that HIV treatment leading to an undetectable viral load prevents HIV transmission which headlined the recent International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Paris.

And it is the Kirby’s commitment to addressing the barriers to effective health care and to caring for the most marginalised in our world which has led it to take on a regional leadership role in ensuring access to essential medicines, with particularly strong partnerships in Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

It is a thrill to stand here today and say that the battle to understand, control and eventually eliminate HIV transmission is one we are well on the road to winning.

The latest HIV notification results from NSW Health for the first half of 2017 – a 25% decrease in notifications among gay and bisexual men on the average of the last five years, and a 39% decrease in new infections – are unprecedented internationally, and the lowest numbers since HIV surveillance began in 1985.

We haven’t won yet, and we don’t have any room for complacency, but we can do it, and for the sake of those we have lost, we must do it.

As our community continues to walk this long and often painful journey from out of the shadows into the light of full citizenship, and towards the dignity and respect which are our right and the right of every human being, we might do well to remember two things.

First, that we are strong, and that we are resilient. We have stared death in the face, quite literally, and have won – and that whatever insult or disrespect is thrown our way in the weeks and months ahead, we can overcome.

And second, that on every step of our journey, we have walked hand-in-hand with some of the most extraordinary allies. David Cooper, you and your team at the Kirby deserve your place at the very front of that long and growing list of allies, and it is our great pleasure to honour you here tonight.