Ohio State doctors share lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and how they shaped COVID-19 care
Susan Koletar, MD and Michael Para, MD, were working at the frontlines when the first HIV patients were identified in central Ohio in the 1980s.
The irony isn’t lost on Michael Para, MD. After caring for cancer patients during his fellowship in the late 1970s, he didn’t think he could emotionally handle being around dying patients. He decided to switch from oncology to infectious diseases instead. In May of 1981, just before he started at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Para received a call from a friend who worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was a call that would ultimately reveal his destiny.