Michael Stuart Gottlieb (born 1947) is an Americanphysician andimmunologist known for his 1981 identification ofacquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as a new disease, and for hisHIV/AIDS research,HIV/AIDS activism, and philanthropic efforts associated with HIV/AIDS treatment.
A native ofHighland Park, New Jersey, he graduated from theRutgers Preparatory School (1965) andRutgers University (1969).[1] He graduated from theUniversity of Rochester School of Medicine (1973) and trained ininternal medicine atStrong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. Following afellowship inimmunology atStanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1980 Gottlieb accepted an assistant professor of medicine position at theUCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles.[2]
Beginning in January 1981, Gottlieb, then thirty-three, and several colleagues identified an apparent novel immunologic condition inhomosexual men; the condition had common features ofcytomegalovirus infection,pneumocystis pneumonia, mucosalcandidiasis, andKaposi's sarcoma, all conditions found rarely outside ofimmunosuppressed patients.[3] Gottlieb reported an initial five patient series in the June 5, 1981,Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report[4] and published a more detailed report in December, 1981, in theNew England Journal of Medicine.[5] The New England Journal paper included the first description of the CD-4 T cell deficiency which is the immunologic hallmark of HIV infection. The work of Gottlieb and others suggested that these patients had an acquiredimmunodeficiency, characterized by depressedT-lymphocyte numbers and function, allowing for potentially fatalopportunistic infections. Initially, the researchers termed the disease Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID);[6] in 1982 this syndrome became known asAIDS, a consequence of infection byHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
PhysicianJoel Weisman was one of Gottlieb's early collaborators in the identification of AIDS.[2] Weisman's practice treated a large number of gay men, some of whom were among the first identified AIDS patients.[2][3][7]
Gottlieb wasRock Hudson's doctor following the actor's AIDS diagnosis until his death in 1985.[2][3] He was also physician to the lateElizabeth Glaser, co-founder of theElizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). In 1987 he resigned from the full-time UCLA faculty, and established a private practice of internal medicine and clinical immunology. In the period 1981–1987 he published 50+ papers[8] on various aspects of HIV infection and treatment. He was an investigator on the early clinical trials ofAZT that led to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987. Gottlieb was the principal investigator on a $10.3 millionNational Institutes of Health contract for anAIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) awarded to UCLA to test potential therapies for HIV. His work in the early years of the epidemic is chronicled in Randy Shilts' bookAnd the Band Played On.
Gottlieb,Elizabeth Taylor, andMathilde Krim were founding chairs of theAmerican Foundation for AIDS Research.[3] The organization was established with a $250,000 gift from the estate of Rock Hudson. He served on the boards of AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), the Pasadena AIDS Services Center and the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (www.thegaia.org), an NGO working in Malawi, Africa. He is currently Medical Advisor to GAIAand to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
Gottlieb is certified with the American Board of Medical Specialties in Internal Medicine and Allergy & Immunology.[8] He is affiliated with two hospitals, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Olympia Medical Center where he is Committee Chairman of Bioethics. He continues on the faculty of theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA with the rank of Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine.
In 1989 Gottlieb and two other physicians were sent letters of reprimand by theMedical Board of California for "allegedly over-prescribing controlled substances" to actress Elizabeth Taylor.[2] He attempted to dispute the Letter of Reprimand; his attorney's request was rejected by the board.
In 1997, Gottlieb was inducted into the Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni, and in 2007, he was awarded the Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal by the University of Rochester.
In 2019, he joined the APLA Health medical team; he retired in late 2023.
Reprinted fromMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of June 5, 1981
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