Abstract
As Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC), I have had the privilege of working with a group of highly dedicated individuals who comprise the Editorial Advisory Board. I routinely count on their expertise, experience, and wisdom to advance the journal’s mission of publishing papers that review and enhance the clinical management of HIV and its comorbid conditions in a variety of practice settings worldwide.
We tragically lost one of our Editorial Advisory Board members—Joep M. A. Lange, MD, PhD (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)—who, with his partner Jacqueline van Tongeren, was aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Although our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all 298 people who lost their lives aboard flight MH17, my Editorial Advisory Board colleagues and I express our personal condolences to the Lange–Tongeren family, including their 5 daughters, whose parents’ lives were cut short by a senseless act of terrorism that is touching countless people worldwide.
Dr Lange was a leading global researcher who made significant contributions to the state-of-the-science of HIV medicine. In addition, he was a clinician-activist who fought to ensure that the benefits of continuing progress in the field of HIV medicine were made available to all men, women, and children worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Dr Lange’s loss is acutely felt by the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) of which he was an honorary lifetime member. He served on the IAPAC Board of Trustees for 6 years and was actively serving as one of the association’s HIV treatment scale-up advisors.
Beyond his professional affiliations with IAPAC and other like-minded institutions, Dr Lange was a passionate human rights activist who would not accept the status quo of a world in which too few people have access to life-saving HIV medications. He embodied the ethos of medical humanitarianism. And, he was a friend and mentor to many others and me in the global HIV movement. Dr Lange’s example to us, modeled through personal acts of commitment and dedication, influenced our individual and collective thinking and fueled a sense of urgency based on his belief that every life has infinite value and that time is not our friend, given such an unrelenting foe as HIV.