Anna Wald

Wald attended Wesleyan University for her Bachelor of Arts degree, where she was encouraged by a professor to apply to medical school. Wald agreed and graduated from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with her MD degree in 1985. During her doctoral residency, she worked in inner-city hospitals and AIDS clinics. She moved to Seattle in 1989 and was hired by doctors Ann Collier and Lawrence Corey to work in the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM).{{cite web |last1=Matrajt |first1=Graciela |title=Anna Wald, MD: the Queen of Herpes. |url=http://seattleawis.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/summer-newsletter.pdf |website=seattleawis.org |publisher=Seattle AWIS |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |pages=17–19 |date=Summer 2014}}

Wald joined the faculty in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at UWSOM with a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology in 1995. While serving as the director of the UWSOM's Virology Research Clinic, she conducted studies on the epidemic of genital herpes. One of the studies she led was focused on how health care professionals can assist those with herpes by focusing on how people feel and the stigma surrounding the disease.{{cite web |last1=Neary |first1=Walter|title=Study explores how people react to learning they have genital herpes |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/1999/11/10/study-explores-how-people-react-to-learning-they-have-genital-herpes/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=November 10, 1999}} In 2000, she received the Philip and Helen Fialkow Scholars Award given to junior faculty who made "outstanding achievements in medicine, research, teaching, clinical work, and academic citizenship."{{cite web |title=Philip and Helen Fialkow Scholars Award |url=https://medicine.uw.edu/people/philip-and-helen-fialkow-scholars |website=medicine.uw.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020}} At the turn of the 21st century, Wald continued to lead studies on genital herpes, one of which found that condom use would prevent HSV infection. In order to reach this conclusion, Wald and colleagues studied more than 500 couples who had previously found the Herpes simplex virus vaccine did not work. Together, they found that the people who used condoms more than half the time were less likely to become infected with HSV-2.{{cite web |last1=Neary |first1=Walter |title=Greater condom use could help prevent spread of genital herpes |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/26/greater-condom-use-could-help-prevent-spread-of-genital-herpes/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=June 26, 2001}} In 2003, Wald co-led a study with Corey and Zane Brown which confirmed that Caesarian sections during childbirth prevent transmission of herpes simplex.{{cite web |last1=Sowers |first1=Pam |title=New findings on herpes and childbirth |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2003/01/09/new-findings-on-herpes-and-childbirth/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=January 9, 2003}} She also co-authored a study with an international team of researchers who found that taking a single daily dose of valacyclovir could reduce the transmission of genital herpes to uninfected partners.{{cite web |title=Preventing herpes 2 transmission |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2004/01/15/preventing-herpes-2-transmission/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=January 15, 2004}} Wald began writing for the NEJM Journal Watch Women's Health as an associate editor in 2005.{{cite web |title=Anna Wald, MD, MPH |url=https://www.jwatch.org/editors/AU1015 |website=jwatch.org |accessdate=May 23, 2020}} As a result of her research, Wald received the UWSOM's 2006 Award for Excellence in Mentoring Women and Minorities.{{cite web |title=2007: A year of accomplishment for UW Health Sciences |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2008/01/17/2007-a-year-of-accomplishment-for-uw-health-sciences/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=January 17, 2008}}

Wald was promoted to the ranks of Full Professor by 2007{{cite web |title=New Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division Head |url=https://medicine.uw.edu/news/new-allergy-and-infectious-diseases-division-head |website=medicine.uw.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=October 27, 2017}} and co-published a study titled Genital herpes with Rachna Gupta and Terri Warren in The Lancet.{{cite journal |last1=Gupta |first1=Rachna |last2=Warren |first2=Terri |last3=Wald |first3=Anna |title=Genital Herpes |journal=The Lancet |date=2007 |volume=370 |issue=9605 |pages=2127‐2137 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61908-4 |pmid=18156035 |s2cid=40916450 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18156035/ |accessdate=May 23, 2020}} By 2013, Wald began leading clinical studies of GEN-003, an investigational, protein subunit vaccine that had the possibility to treat genital herpes.{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Leila |title=Initial positive results reported on vaccine to treat genital herpes |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2013/09/12/initial-positive-results-reported-on-vaccine-to-treat-genital-herpes/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=September 12, 2013}} She later concluded that the antiviral pritelivir may be a treatment for patients with genital herpes.{{cite web |last1=McCarthy |first1=Michael |title=Data suggest new class of drug may be potent against genital herpes |url=https://www.washington.edu/news/2014/01/15/data-suggest-new-class-of-drug-may-be-potent-against-genital-herpes/ |website=washington.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=January 15, 2014}} As a result of her research, Wald was the recipient of the 2014 Award for Scientific Advancement given by the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and the 2015 Achievement Award from the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association.{{cite web |title=Marrazzo and Wald receive recognition awards |url=https://medicine.uw.edu/news/marrazzo-and-wald-receive-recognition-awards |website=medicine.uw.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=October 14, 2015 |archive-date=May 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513235018/https://medicine.uw.edu/news/marrazzo-and-wald-receive-recognition-awards |url-status=dead }}

On October 27, 2017, Wald was appointed Head of UWSOM's Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, replacing Wes Van Voorhis. In this role, she co-received an $11 million grant for a study titled Syphilis Vaccine to Protect Against Local and Disseminated Treponema pallidum Infection.{{cite web |title=UW STI CRC Receives $11 Million Multi-Project Syphilis Vaccine Grant |url=https://aid.uw.edu/news/uw-sti-crc-receives-11-million-multi-project-syphilis-vaccine-grant |website=aid.uw.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=July 26, 2019}} She also received the 2019 Saul Horowitz, Jr. Memorial Award from her alma mater, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.{{cite web |title=Alumni Award Recipients |url=http://alumni.icahn.mssm.edu/s/1819/17/interior.aspx?sid=1819&gid=2&pgid=549 |website=alumni.icahn.mssm.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020}} During the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, Wald and Helen Y. Chu co-led international studies of remdesivir on its effects in severely ill patients.{{cite web |title=Remdesivir speeds recovery in cases of severe COVID-19 |url=https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/remdesivir-speeds-recovery-cases-severe-covid-19 |website=newsroom.uw.edu |accessdate=May 23, 2020 |date=May 22, 2020}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:American women epidemiologists

Category:American epidemiologists

Category:Wesleyan University alumni

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Category:University of Washington alumni

Category:University of Washington faculty

Category:21st-century American women scientists

Category:American women academics