Vera Helen Rees is Professor and Executive Director in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has served as the Chairperson of the Medicines Control Council. In 2004 she received a South African Distinguished Award for outstanding contribution to the improvement of the Quality of Life of Women, a life time work achievement from Aminatare, a Pan-African organisation working for rights of African women and children. She has conducted training on HIV medicine, sexual and reproductive health. Rees has supervised MSc and PhD students on different health topics and has written extensively in internationally accredited journals. Since 1998, she has led a Hillbrow Health Precinct, served as President of the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPSA), a member of the executive for Love Life, the National Adolescent Sexual Health Initiative, and, a founding member of Women’s Health Projects.  

Salim S Abdool Karim is a clinical infectious disease Epidemiologist whose main current research interests are in microbiocides and vaccines to prevent HIV infection and implementing antiretroviral therapy in resource- constrained settings. He is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is also Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Colombia University and Adjunct Professor in Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is Director of CAPRISA – Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. He has published widely on infectious diseases, including AIDS, measles and hepatitis B and co-edited the textbook that is widely used to teach epidemiology in South Africa. Most recently, he co-edited the book, HIV/AIDS in South Africa.