Lisa J. Messersmith, Ph.D. - U.S. Public Health Researcher

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An American public health researcher helped shape AIDS law in Vietnam: Lisa J. Messersmith, Ph.D.

Messersmith moved to Vietnam in 1998 to serve as the sexuality and reproductive health program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Office for Vietnam and Thailand. Among her first initiatives was a "condom café" in Ho Chi Minh City that provided young people with condoms and sexual health information. 

The movement shaped by Messersmith and her Vietnamese and international colleagues led to the eventual enactment of a national AIDS law, which became effective in 2007, the same year she left a post at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government to join the Center for Global Health & Development. The legislation legalizes needle exchange programs, protects people with HIV/AIDS from being forced to disclose their medical status, and criminalizes the denial of education, employment, and health care. “That law is a real progressive piece of legislation for any country,” Messersmith says. In fact, she says, the United States today could learn a lot from the changes made in Vietnam, where between 2002 and 2006 HIV rates among intravenous drug users dropped from 30 percent to 23.6 percent.