Introduction: Dr. Jean William Pape -- Medical Hall of Fame Award

INTRODUCTION: DR. JEAN WILLIAM PAPE -- MEDICAL MISSION HALL OF FAME AWARD

Thank you, Dan. It is truly a privilege to be here this evening for an event that honors such incredible achievements both for medicine and humanity.

As you mentioned, my wife Fran and I have taken great interest in Haiti and its people. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is a nation plagued by disease and wracked by violence and near constant political turmoil and instability. The poverty is of an unspeakable magnitude. And the environment is an ecological nightmare.

Fran and I have traveled to Haiti at least 15 times. On those trips, we have visited many clinics and hospitals and orphanages and have held dying babies in our arms and played with small children suffering from anything from HIV/AIDs to TB to malnutrition and dysentery.

Each time we visit Haiti, Fran and I are inspired by the people we meet and the good works of so many, including priests and nuns, doctors and nurses, and volunteers from all over the world. One of the most inspiring people I have ever met in any of my travels to Haiti or elsewhere in the world is being honored tonight.

The Medical Mission Hall of Fame Award is given to those individuals who have made significant and substantial contributions to advancing the medical well-being of their brothers and sisters throughout the world. Their humanitarian efforts serve to better society and inspire others to such greatness. Tonight's next award winner truly embodies this definition of serving humanity through medical advances. It gives me great pleasure to introduce the next recipient of the Medical Mission Hall of Fame Award and my personal friend, Dr. William Pape.

Dr. Pape has come to us tonight from Port-au-Prince, where he is the Director and Founder of the GHESKIO Centers, which has been credited for identifying the first AIDS cases in the developing world. Two decades later, it annually provides free care to over 150,000 patients with HIV infection, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis. A native of Haiti, Dr. Pape has worked relentlessly in this fight.

GHESKIO has survived the ongoing political strife in Haiti and the deteriorating economic conditions, while continuing to provide uninterrupted care, training, and translational research. In 2002, the New York Times credited Dr. Pape and his team for serving as "a model for how poor countries with few resources can combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and diarrhea."

The work of GHESKIO and other partners allowed the HIV seroprevalence rate in Haiti to decrease by half from 6.2 percent in 1993 to 3.1 percent in 2003. That is an astounding victory in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

GHESKIO is also world-renowned for its superb research facilities and clinical trials unit. HIV/AIDS therapies and management strategies, tuberculosis, and diarrhea have been validated and implemented under Dr. Pape's direction. Fran and I have visited Dr. Pape's clinics and have visited with his patients. He and his team are truly working miracles.

Dr. Pape received his Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Columbia University and his MD from Cornell University. He specialized in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases in the Cornell hospital system in New York. In 1979, Dr. Pape returned to his native Haiti to work on infantile diarrhea -- the main cause of mortality in children. In the first two years, he miraculously helped to reduce mortality by 44 percent to 1 percent.

In 1982, Dr. Pape began work on the problem of HIV/AIDS, which has allowed him to help so many people to this day. Currently, Dr. Pape serves as a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of International Medicine and Infectious Diseases of Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Pape has received numerous prestigious awards, including France's Grand Chevalier Award presented by President Chirac, and the United Nations Civilian Medical Award presented by Secretary General Kofi Annan. Dr. Pape has also received the Leon Audain award from Haiti, and an award from the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science in the United States.

Dr. Pape and his wife Dominique have four sons: Douglas, Clifford, Alain, and Vincent. I share their pride in their husband and father's amazing accomplishments.

Dr. Pape, congratulations on achieving such a prestigious honor. You are most deserving.

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