Interview with
Dr. Diana “Di” Gibb
Diana Gibb, MBBS, MSc
Dr. Diana “Di” Gibb is a pediatric HIV physician and research scientist. She is also a professor of epidemiology at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit at University College London. She is a founding member of PENTA, the Paediatric European Network for Treatment of AIDS. Di has set up and undertaken a wide network of late-phase trials and cohorts across Europe, Africa, The Americas, and Asia, initially focused on pediatric HIV infection and expanded to include TB, malaria, and hepatitis.
Dr. Di speaks to issues around children, HIV, and COVID and brings us back and forth between today and yesterday with HIV. She weaves a good story.
MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL (MRC CTU at UCL)
Website: www.ctu.mrc.ac.uk
About Us: The Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit (MRC CTU) at UCL is at the forefront of resolving internationally important questions in infectious diseases and cancer, and delivering swifter and more effective translation of scientific research into patient benefits. It does this by carrying out challenging and innovative studies and developing and implementing methodological advances in study design, conduct, and analysis.
Dr James Hakim and Research Team
Di worked with Dr. Hakim for many years. She confesses, he was amazing. When disaster struck during the big changes in Zimbabwe, James stepped up to the plate. He and his team of researchers housed so many people who were left homeless when houses were bulldozed and during so many other challenges.
Highlights
beginning of an epidemic
In the beginning of the HIV epidemic, people were confused and scared. At the peak, in Africa people were dying in the millions.
Di talks about how James Hakim and Peter Mugyenyi were there with her on the front lines of the efforts to bring antiretrovirals (ART) to treat AIDS patients in Africa.
Christina Blanchard-Horan, PhD
Interviewer
Christina founded the HIV COVID Talks with help from a team of dedicated scientists. HIV COVID Talks was inspired by her work with HIV clinical trials around the world with the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. As Senior International Specialist, working with investigators, community members, study coordinators, pharmacists, and laboratorians, she provided Dr. James Hakim with support for the clinical trials he conducted in Zimbabwe. When she heard of his death in January, she chose to dedicate the HIV COVID Talks series to him.
Everyone was saying you can’t give ART to people in Africa, “because they can’t tell time.” She said that she met them at a meeting to discuss the DART study. This study would look at how anti-retroviral treatment could be rolled out in Africa and other resource-limited settings. This was innovative and they drew the attention. As researchers, they also showed that it was possible to conduct clinical trials in resource-limited settings.
Dr. Diana Gibb
Pediatrician and professor of epidemiology at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit at University College London. She has set up and undertaken a wide network of late-phase trials and cohorts across Europe, Africa, The Americas, and Asia. Initially, her focus was on pediatric HIV infection but expanding to tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, and bacterial infections.
Where possible trials have included both adults and children; they seek to answer multiple questions using innovative trial designs, and incorporated basic science, pharmacokinetics, health economics, and social science. Results have contributed evidence to licensing drugs for children, WHO guidelines, and implementation of treatment strategies in low and middle-income settings.
Publications (FOR FULL CV)
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Hakim, J. G., Musiime, V., Szubert, A., Mallewa, J., Siika, A., Agutu, C., . . . Gibb, D. M. (2017). Enhanced Prophylaxis plus Antiretroviral Therapy for Advanced HIV Infection in Africa. New England Journal of Medicine. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1615822 -
Mulenga, V., Musiime, V., Kekitiinwa, A., Cook, A. D., Abongomera, G., Kenny, J., . . . Gibb, D. M. (2016). Abacavir, zidovudine, or stavudine as paediatric tablets for African HIV-infected children (CHAPAS-3): an open-label, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES, 16 (2), 169-179. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00319-9
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Butler, K., Turkova, A., Inshaw, J., Compagnucci, A., Kenny, J., Saidi, Y., . . . Gibb, D. M. (2016). Weekends-off efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected children, adolescents, and young adults (BREATHER): a randomised, open-label, non-inferiority, phase 2/3 trial. LANCET HIV, 3 (9), E421-E430. doi:10.1016/S2352-3018(16)30054-6
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Payne, H., Mkhize, N., Otwombe, K., Lewis, J., Panchia, R., Callard, R., . . . Gibb, D. M. (2015). Reactivity of routine HIV antibody tests in children who initiated antiretroviral therapy in early infancy as part of the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) trial: a retrospective analysis. LANCET INFECTIOUS DISEASES, 15 (7), 803-809. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00087-0
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Dangarembizi, B., Kendall, M., Bakeera-Kitaka, L., Nahirya-Ntege, S., Keishanyu, P., Nathoo, K., . . . Prendergast, A. (2014). A Randomized Trial of Prolonged Cotrimoxazole in HIV-Infected Children in Africa. New England Journal of Medicine.
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“James and Peter were there at the beginning of the epidemic.”
– Dr Di Gibb
Contact Me
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Pediatrician and Professor of epidemiology at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.
Has set up and undertaken a wide network of late-phase trials and cohorts across Europe, Africa, The Americas, and Asia. Initially, her focus was on pediatric HIV infection but expanding to tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, and bacterial infections.
Worked with Dr. James Hakim for three decades.