Jaffe named director of federal HIV center

Harold Jaffe, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention for the past 13 months, was officially named director of the center on Tuesday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Jaffe's first major task as director will be to organize a December summit of scientific experts and AIDS advocates to discuss the federal agency's strategies to lower HIV infections. Jaffe, a physician, has served on AIDS research advisory boards at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. He has been involved with AIDS research and prevention efforts since the early 1980s. CDC director Julie Gerberding also appointed Ed Thompson, Mississippi's state health officer, as CDC deputy director for public health programs and services, a new position that will serve as a liaison between the CDC and state and local health departments.