Investigator
Servizio Malattie infettive, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Ospedale, Switzerland
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Enos Bernasconi (EB), MD, is head of the Division of Infectious Diseases Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland, Professor of internal medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southern Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland. The major focus of research of EB spanning over the last 25 years has been HIV infection with important achievements in the framework of the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. We demonstrated the possibility to abandon primary Pneumocystis jiroveci (previously P. carini) in persons with advanced HIV disease and CD4+counts increase over 200 cells/uL under a potent antiretroviral treatment (ART) for more than 6 months. We contributed to the understanding of lipoatrophy, probably the most stigmatizing adverse event associated with ART. Moreover, we described other important adverse events of nucleosides and nucleotides reverse transcriptase inhibitors, like hyperlactatemia and more recently weight gain associated with tenofovir alafenamide. A milestone in the field of HIV was the publication of the “Swiss statement” in 2008. In the framework of the SHCS, we contributed to interventional studies aiming at the micro elimination of hepatitis C in men who have sex with men at the demonstration of the efficacy and safety of a dual therapy (dolutegravir/emtricitabine) instead of the classic combination of three drugs. In recent years, we were part of the collaborative effort to understand HIV transmission networks by the mean of molecular biology with the principal aim to guide HIV prevention efforts. Moreover, we contributed to studies on the transmission of HIV resistance, viral genetic determinants of HIV pathogenesis and immune response. A new research focus crystallized after the declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic by the World Health Organisation in 2020. We contributed to several important studies on COVID-19 prevention, treatment and immune response to mRNA based vaccines.