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KwaZulu-Natal, Durban | Edendale Hospital
Walker's postdoc at the time, Philip Goulder, now of Oxford University, had the same rationale in shifting his pediatric AIDS research to South Africa in 1998, and he helped convince Walker to start conducting research there as well as in Boston. Walker then turned to philanthropists for help. He first became aware of the potential for significant HIV/AIDS philanthropic funding in the 1990s, when he recognized that some people who had profited from the 1980s financial boom were looking to direct a portion of their substantial resources to the general good. With the help of Massachusetts General Hospital, his group initiated a fundraising program by hosting a simple lunch to let people know of their plans and the opportunities they saw to make a difference. One guest gave $1 million to support the research—the first donation Walker ever received.
"What an incredible way to start!" says Walker. "For the first time, we were able to think really big. There is no single event that has made more difference to me in my career, and nothing that has more transformed the way I think about science. Rather than thinking about research projects based on what could get funded, we were able to focus on the key issues that really needed solutions and to think outside the box. It is exactly the same kind of scientific freedom that we now get from HHMI."
He leans over the bed's paint-chipped railing to listen to the patient, a 17-year-old Zulu, describe his symptoms.
On this stormy Wednesday, Walker—who had flown to South Africa from Boston two days earlier—sticks to a grueling schedule. After rounds and then meetings at McCord, he heads to the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine to deliver a lecture about trends in HIV/AIDS research. That evening, he trades in his windbreaker for a sport coat and delivers welcoming remarks at a posh reception at the Hilton Hotel to open a conference on HIV/AIDS treatment.
"Bruce is capable of speaking at a conference of the world's best HIV/AIDS scientists, heading straight to an event to raise funds for research and treatment, and then walking into a hospital ward and talking with patients," says Krista Dong, a former infectious-disease fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, who now directs an HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis program at Edendale Hospital, an hour west of Durban.
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