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Loading ...HIV/AIDS activist Martin Delaney dies
01.26.2009 2:51pm EST
(San Francisco, California) Martin Delaney, a longtime activist for the HIV/AIDS community, has died at his home in San Rafael, California.
Delaney, the founder and longtime director of the HIV advocacy/education organization Project Inform, was recently presented with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director’s Special Recognition Award for his many contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS.In 1985, Delaney founded Project Inform, a leading national HIV treatment and public policy information and advocacy organization based in San Francisco, and served as its director until 2008.
According to the organization’s online biography, Delaney was a key player in the development of today’s widely used Accelerated Approval regulations and the Parallel Track system for providing experimental drugs to seriously ill people prior to formal approval by the FDA.
When he was presented with the NIAID award Dr. Anthony S. Fauci released a statement saying: “Millions of people are now receiving life-saving antiretroviral medications from a treatment pipeline that Marty Delaney played a key role in opening and expanding. Without his tireless work and vision, many more people would have perished from HIV/AIDS. He is a formidable activist and a dear friend. It is without hyperbole that I call Marty Delaney a public health hero.”
Delaney died of liver cancer.
He was born and raised in Chicago and studied for the seminary before becoming an elementary school teacher in Chicago. After contracting Hepatitis B, he moved to San Francisco in 1978 where he participated in the clinical trial for the use of Interferon to treat the disease.
In the 1980s, as the number of gay men with HIV began dying in large numbers, he became involved in HIV/AIDS issues.
Project Inform began with little money and grew within a decade to a million dollar a year education outreach program with a staff and dozens of volunteers.
“Martin Delaney was one of the pioneers of AIDS activism,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.
“While not HIV-positive himself, Delaney dedicated much of his life to shaping our nation’s public policy on HIV/AIDS legislation and worked on the local level to promote education and a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS issues.” Solmonese said.
“He worked with the drive and hope to one day find a cure for HIV/AIDS, and while it did not happen in his lifetime, we’ll continue the important work of lobbying Congress for additional HIV/AIDS funding to find a cure.”
Remember when he came to San Diego and visited CRG?
Several years ago , I had the privilege of meeting Martin and hearing him speak on the subject of AIDS , in my home city of Vancouver, Canada.he was a remarkable man , and much is owed by many for his tireless efforts in assisting those with AIDS with programs of medication supplies and information.
A number of years ago, Project Inform held two ‘power packed’ seminars on HIV/AIDS. I learned more in the four days involved than from any other source , before or since. ‘Sleep sweetly , friend – great lives like thine have not been lived in vain. But shed an influence divine on lives that here remain.’