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what she calls a year "very well spent," Sophie
Low-Beer has left her job as a research associate at the
Centre to enter the University of British Columbia's School of
Medicine. "Being at the Centre really taught me the
importance of epidemiology," says Low-Beer who as a BSc.
From Queen's University. "When I was first interested in
medicine I was thinking about it on a person-to-person basis.
With epidemiology, you learn to look at how disease works on a
larger scale."
During her 12 months at the
Centre, Low-Beer worked on several different projects and
papers. She was introduced to many researchers at the Centre
by her first St. Paul's Hospital's Work In Progress (WIP)
presentation in September 1998. The 25-year old says her
project which stemmed from work she had done with sex-trade
workers in Cuba was a bit different than the usual WIP
fare. "Generally, the presentations are about nucleosides
and beta blockers, not the sex trade," Low-Beer says.
Other projects at the Centre included: A reality check: the
cost of making post-exposure prophylaxis available to gay and
bisexual men at high sexual risk of contracting HIV, which she
presented at the Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS and was
accepted for publication in AIDS; a few papers on
quality of life issues and HIV, and most recently, a letter
looking at the connection between adherence to antiretroviral
therapy and viral load.
Now, Low-Beer is busy with her
studies as she works towards her MD. In the immediate future,
Low-Beer, who has a potent interest in international health,
is hoping to be chosen to present a paper at the International
AIDS Conference scheduled for South Africa next summer.
"It would be a great opportunity to meet other people in
the field and, more importantly, be inspired," Low-Beer
says. "Those are the moments that get you through
life."
Publication:
This letter was published in
the February 2000 issue of AIDS (14,3: 325-326). Received:
20 May 1999; accepted 20 September 1999.
A reality check: The cost
of making post-exposure prophylaxis available to gay and
bisexual men
Sophie Low-Beer, Amy E. Weber, Kim Bartholomew, Monica
Landolt, Doug Oram, Julio SG Montaner, Michael V.
O'Shaughnessy and Robert S. Hogg.
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University; and
British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St.
Paul's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada.
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