Hugues Loemba

Dr. Hugues Loemba is a clinician-researcher and virologist. He is a full professor of medicine affiliated with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine. After completing his studies in general medicine combined with training in infectious disease epidemiology, Professor Hugues Loemba graduated in June 1986 as valedictorian of his class from the “O. O. Bogomolets” National Medical University in Kyiv, Ukraine, just two months after the Chernobyl disaster. Dr. Loemba returned to Congo-Brazzaville, in Central Africa, to begin his medical practice, just as the HIV/AIDS pandemic was in its early stages. During this period—the mid-1980s and early 1990s—the region of Central Africa where Dr. Loemba practiced was the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dr. Loemba was responsible for managing cases of HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections, including HIV-tuberculosis co-infections, at the Brazzaville Hospital where he worked. In 1993, Dr. Loemba received