Glenda Gray

In early 2020, an efficacy study for an HIV vaccine lead by Gray was stopped early. The study, involving 5407 HIV-uninfected participants, was started in 2016 and should've continued until 2022. However, preliminary data viewed in January 2020 to evaluate safety and efficacy showed 129 HIV infections in the vaccinated group and 123 in the placebo control group. Many HIV scientists did not believe the study would succeed as a previous efficacy study in Thailand has shown an efficacy of only 31%. Gray believed that owing to the severity of the HIV epidemic in South Africa a new trial was worthwhile pursuing. The independent monitoring board that evaluated the interim results concluded that it was futile to continue with the study.

In 2020 Gray was appointed to the South African government's Medical Advisory Committee owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. On 26 March 2020, the South African government imposed an almost total lockdown on all inhabitants. From 1 May 2020, the lockdown was gradually lifted under a 5-stage plan. On 15 May 2020, Gray made a statement in which she said, "Initially, there was good reason to implement the lockdown to slow down the spread of the virus and buy time to ready the health system, and this was largely achieved" she now felt that "the lockdown should be eradicated completely, and that non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI), such as handwashing, wearing masks, social distancing and prohibitions on gatherings, should be put in place." In addition she noted that:

Subsequent to Mkhize's comments, the acting director general of the Department of Health, Anban Pillay, said that an investigation into Gray's conduct was needed. On 25 May 2020, The South African Medical Research Council apologised for Gray's statements and bared its staff from speaking to the media while more than 250 academics issued statements of support for her.

On the following day, 26 May 2020, Mkhize said that he "considers the Professor Glenda Gray matter closed", mentioned that "there is no basis to suggest any interference with academic freedom".

She was the executive director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), part of the Medical School of the University of the Witwatersrand, based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital prior to her appointment as president of the medical research council in 2014. HIV was generally not recorded as a cause of death during the 1990s and 2000s but its effects could be seen in the infant and child mortality rates.

Glenda Elisabeth Gray MB BCh, FC Paeds, DSc (hc), OMS is a South African physician, scientist and activist specializing in the care of children and in HIV medicine. In 2012 she was awarded South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver). She became the first female president of the South African Medical Research Council in 2014, was recognised as one of the "100 Most Influential People" by TIME in 2017 and was listed amongst "Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women" by Forbes Africa in 2020. Her research expertise involves developing microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV vaccines. Some of her work has been viewed by some as being controversial.

Gray was involved in starting the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), along with Zackie Achmat and others, as an HIV/AIDS activist organisation. Only after Gray received the 2002 Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and the legal battles in 2003 involving the TAC, were nevirapine, a drug more effective than AZT in preventing mother to child transmission of HIV, and other anti-retrovirals officially sanctioned by the government for use in South Africa. By that point in time, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had been replaced as Minister of Health by Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the argument against anti-retrovirals had changed from one of affordability to the endorsement of traditional African medicine over conventional treatment.

In 1996, Gray started the UNAIDS PETRA study, in five urban settings in South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, to determine the effectiveness of a shorter anti-retroviral regimin. In 1999 Gray was awarded an International Fogarty Fellowship to study Clinical Epidemiology.

Gray has not been a stranger to controversy. At her first research presentation in 1996 at an international AIDS conference, she championed the position that HIV positive women in developing countries should feed their babies infant formula rather than breast milk to avoid the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The prevailing opinion at that time was that the risk of infant death by diarrheal diseases, caused by mixing contaminated water with the infant formula, outweighted the chance of contracting HIV. Gray's research in the Soweto communities indicated that infant formula could be safely used but this put her in direct conflict with the activists who had led boycotts against Nestle, because of their infant formula, since the 1970s.

By the time that Gray completed her training as a paediatrician in 1993, HIV was prevalent among many children admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in Africa, situated on the outskirts of South Africa's largest black township, Soweto. In 1993 Gray, along with a colleague James McIntyre, co-founded a perinatal HIV clinic.

In a randomized clinical trial conducted from 1992 to 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya to test the effect of infant formula vs breast milk on the transmission rate of HIV it was found that the "use of breast milk substitutes prevented 44% of infant infections and was associated with significantly improved HIV-1-free survival." However, a subsequent study conducted between 2001 and 2003, which again tested infant formula against breast milk but also in the presence of anti-retrovirals (zidovudine and neviropine) showed "that by the age of 18 months there was no significant difference" in infant mortality. It also showed that "deaths in the breastfed plus zidovudine group were more likely to be in HIV-infected infants and at older ages as compared with the deaths in the formula-fed group." The most common causes of infant death during the study were diarrhoea and pneumonia across the entire study. The morbidity and mortality rates amongst infants who were given infant formula were greater than those reported in the Nairobi, Kenya trial which showed a similar 2-year mortality rate but a significantly lower HIV-free survival rate in the breastfeeding group. This difference may be explained by the access to clean municipal water that the Nairobi women had, but the Botswana women did not have. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for HIV-positive mothers who are taking anti-retrovirals.

Gray entered the University of the Witwatersrand in 1980 where she studied at the medical school for 6 years followed by seven years of specialisation in pediatrics. Her siblings were already at the university and one of her brothers was involved with a radical student union that was opposed to apartheid. Gray joined the Health Workers Association, a group intent on desegregating South Africa's hospitals. In 1983 the first HIV/AIDS cases and deaths were confirmed in South Africa and Gray committed to educating South African communities about how to prevent HIV.

Gray was the fifth of six children born in the gold mining town Boksburg, South Africa in 1962. Her father was a mechanical engineer at the mines and her mother was a bookkeeper. Under the apartheid government of the time, Boksburg was a low income, racially segregated town. Her family were not typical of the residents of the town in that they had black friends.