UNESCO Director-General applauds award of Nobel Prize for Medicine to Luc Montagnier

• Prof. L. Montaigner's office in UNESCO (Paris)

UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today applauded the award of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine to Luc Montagnier, who works closely with UNESCO, notably through the World Foundation for Aids Research and Prevention.

“I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Professor Luc Montagnier, whose remarkable work with fellow laureates Harald zur Hausen and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, has just received the highest of accolades with the Nobel Prize for Medicine. I am also delighted to see this most prestigious prize awarded to a man with whom UNESCO has worked for many years,” Mr Matsuura said. “The World Foundation for Aids Research and Prevention, led by Luc Montagnier, was created in 1993 in cooperation with UNESCO. Since then, the Foundation has made a remarkable contribution to UNESCO’s goals and programmes, especially those involving access to scientific knowledge for the countries most affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”

The cooperation between UNESCO and the Foundation was extended in 2006 with a new, six-year agreement. This agreement opened the way for the implementation of the UNESCO project “Families First Africa” that supports AIDS prevention programmes in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. The work of Luc Montagnier was also the subject of a film produced by UNESCO - Le professeur qui lutte contre le Sida – for broadcast on African television stations and support to local AIDS prevention efforts.

Born in 1932, Luc Montagnier, a virologist, was a professor at the Pasteur Institute (Paris) and director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He led the team that in 1983 discovered the HIV virus that causes AIDS. He continues to participate in numerous AIDS prevention activities, especially in Africa.

Professor Montagnier, accompanied by the Director-General of UNESCO, will meet the press at UNESCO headquarters (Room XI) on Wednesday at 2.30 pm. Journalists wishing to attend require accreditation. Bureau of Public information, Isabelle Le Fournis, tél. + 33 (0)1 45 68 17 48 

Contact/Audiovisual Press: Carole Darmouni

Links:
::  "Le Professeur qui lutte contre le Sida" Film
::  UNESCO's HIV Research (More)

• Source:UNESCOPRESS N°2008-92
• 07-10-2008