Dr Richard Meech, one of New Zealand's foremost experts on HIV and AIDS, is to retire next month. From the very beginning of the HIV epidemic in New Zealand in the early 1980s Meech, who was a venereology specialist, became a key adviser to the Ministry of Health and a significant force in creating New Zealand's response to the spread of HIV and treatment of those with the debilitating infection. He has been the Hawkes Bay District Health Board's resident specialist for HIV/AIDS, served as a consultant to the World Health Organisation and has for several years chaired the Ministry of Health's AIDS Medical and Technical Advisory Committee.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 13th November 2009 - 8:55pm