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Podcasts Take Two
Top AIDS researchers perish in Malaysia MH17 flight downed in Ukraine
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Jul 18, 2014
Listen • 4:21
Top AIDS researchers perish in Malaysia MH17 flight downed in Ukraine
About 100 of the passengers on board Malaysia Flight MH17 were bound for an AIDS summit in Melbourne, Australia that starts this Sunday.
People gather during a candle-light vigil for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on July 18, 2014. A Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in rebel-held east Ukraine, as Kiev said the jet was shot down in a 'terrorist' attack.
People gather during a candle-light vigil for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on July 18, 2014. A Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in rebel-held east Ukraine, as Kiev said the jet was shot down in a 'terrorist' attack.
(
NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images
)

About 100 of the passengers on board Malaysia Flight MH17 were bound for an AIDS summit in Melbourne, Australia that starts this Sunday.

Passengers on the downed Malaysia Flight MH17 are still being identified, but organizers of a major AIDS conference have already told attendees the news that about 100 of the people on board were bound for the summit in Melbourne, Australia that starts this Sunday.

Among those was Joep Lange, a top HIV/AIDS researcher and former president of the International AIDS Society, and Glenn Thomas, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. Their deaths have dealt a blow to the AIDS research community.

Thomas Coates, associate director of the Health Services and Policy Program at UCLA's AIDS Institute, joins Take Two to talk about the impact this crash will have on the AIDS research community.