Dr. Paul Volberding - A Life in Medicine: People Shaping Healthcare Today

Dr. Paul Volberding, professor of medicine at UCSF, was perhaps the leading clinician in the United States in the early days of the HIV epidemic. As a young oncologist finishing his training in the early 1980's, Volberding recalls seeing a young gay man with a previously rare tumor: Kaposi's sarcoma. Little did he know that the underlying immunodeficiency that led to KS would come to define his career. Volberding went on to become the founding chief of the AIDS division at San Francisco General Hospital, where he established the first inpatient AIDS wards and outpatient AIDS clinic. In this interview with Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine, Volberding recalls the early days, including the impact of activism and the fear that he and other clinicians would contract the illness. He also discusses the remarkable progress in turning HIV into a manageable chronic disease and the possibility of finding a cure for AIDS.  Series: "A Life in Medicine: People Shaping Healthcare Today" [Show ID: 32873]