Organization: Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile
Country: Chile
Claudia Cortes is a specialist in infectious diseases and internal medicine, dedicated to HIV and AIDS in both patient care and research since 2005. She is Associate Professor at the University of Chile, with academic activities involving undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students.
For more than 16 years, Claudia has worked at Fundación Arriarán, Chile's first and largest HIV treatment centre, where her clinical duties involve the care of people living with HIV. She has mentored undergraduate students, residents, Infectious Disease fellows and Masters and PhD students as part of the research unit.
Claudia has served as a member and Chair of the HIV advisory group of the Chilean Infectious Diseases Society (SOCHINF). She is also the former Vice President of SOCHINF. She is currently consulting for the Chilean Ministry of Health, contributing to the establishment and revision of national clinical guidelines for HIV and AIDS care and participating in several committees focused on HIV prevention, testing and treatment initiatives. She is a member of the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 national guidelines advisory council.
Claudia is principal investigator and co-researcher in studies for the main Latin-American epidemiologic HIV cohort for the Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology (CCASAnet). Her research interests in HIV include women's issues, migrants’ health, hepatitis co-infections and, most recently, the microbiome and chronic inflammatory response.
In 2017, with academics from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, she founded the Center for HIV/AIDS Integral Research (CHAIR), the first interdisciplinary research and extension centre for HIV-related issues in Chile. She is the Director of CHAIR, which brings together molecular virologists, ID clinicians and specialists in public health, and seeks to investigate HIV comprehensively. Members conduct basic, clinical and epidemiological research. Outreach activities include science education with a focus on school students and massive HIV testing drives in remote places with poor access to health providers.
Claudia has authored and co-authored 58 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters on topics related to migration, health and HIV. She is Deputy Editor of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, Editor in charge of the HIV section of the Chilean journal of infectious diseases, Revista Chilena de Infectología (REVINF), and reviewer for multiple journals (including PLOS One, BMJ, BMC, IJTLD and the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology).