Joseph Sonnabend, Brilliant Early AIDS Doctor, Would Treat Patients for Free
Feb. 3, 2021
Simon Watney
When it comes to legendary HIV/AIDS doctors, there are the big celebrated names, like Anthony Fauci, M.D., David Ho, M.D., and Mathilde Krim, Ph.D. And then there’s Joseph Sonnabend, M.D., a gay South African who left medical research work in London in the 1970s to treat sexually transmitted diseases in New York City gay men. He ended up becoming one of the city’s most important early treaters of AIDS, someone whose unusual linking of research and primary care led to the prolongation of many lives as well as the start of two important organizations, amfAR and ACRIA.