Infectious Diseases Expert is Honored

BALTIMORE -- Physician-scientist John G. Bartlett, MD, an internationally renowned authority on AIDS and other infectious diseases, and professor and chief of the division of infectious diseases at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will receive the prestigious 2005 Maxwell Finland Award for scientific achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases at a ceremony March 31 in Pentagon City, Va. 

Former President Bill Clinton will be honored at the event, receiving the 2005 Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Award for humanitarianism contributions to the health of humankind  from former presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, along with former first ladies Betty Ford and Rosalyn Carter.

This is a tremendous honor for John Bartlett and a fitting tribute to his quarter century of truly groundbreaking work at Hopkins, says Edward D. Miller, MD, dean of the medical faculty at Hopkins and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine. The spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV and Ebola virus, have been effectively challenged by medical leaders of his caliber, and our continued efforts depend upon others following his lead.

Bartlett, who also is the Stanhope Baynes Jones Professor of Medicine at Hopkins, has for 25 years led the School of Medicines worldwide efforts to understand, prevent and treat AIDS.  He was the first to direct clinical trials in Baltimore of new treatments that prevent HIV from replicating, and he pioneered the development of dedicated inpatient and outpatient medical care for HIV-infected patients.  Bartlett co-chaired the national committee that drafted the first and all subsequent treatment guidelines for HIV-infected patients.  He counsels numerous medical societies and health ministries around the world on infectious diseases in general and on AIDS specifically. 

John Bartlett is literally an infectious diseases doctors greatest resource for information, and he is constantly called upon for his expertise, says Thomas Quinn, MD, a professor of medicine and deputy director of the division of infectious diseases at Hopkins. 

Bartletts major research interests have dealt with anaerobic infections, pathogenic mechanisms of Bacteroides fragilis, anaerobic pulmonary infections, and Clostridium difficile-associated colitis.  Since joining Hopkins in 1980, his major interests have been HIV/AIDS, managed care of patients with HIV infection and, most recently, bioterrorism.  Bartlett has authored 470 articles, 282 book chapters and 61 editions of 14 books.

Bartlett received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth University in 1959 and earned his medical degree at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1963.  He then completed his training in internal medicine at the Brigham Hospital in Boston and the University of Alabama.  Bartlett received his fellowship training in infectious diseases at  UCLA, where, in 1970, he joined the faculty.  He later moved to the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, where he served as associate chief of staff for research at the Boston VA Hospital. 

Source: Johns Hopkins