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In 1981 the world was shaken by a so called “gay plague” that was sweeping through America. This was in fact HIV, the virus that causes AIDS and at the time it not only killed most of those infected with it, but would also isolate and stigmatise them which added greatly to their suffering. It was the most feared infectious disease of the 1980s and 1990s, much like Ebola was more recently. Today HIV/AIDS is treatable thanks to the enormous efforts of scientific researchers and the patient advocates who supported them. I have had the privilege of caring for people with this disease from these awful early days to the present day when people HIV can have a normal life expectancy with treatment. Professor Mary Horgan is President of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland; Director of Graduate Entry Medicine, University College Cork (UCC), and a Consultant Physician/Infectious Diseases in Cork University Hospital. With over 20 years of experience in the field of infectious diseases, Professor Horgan undertook a Fellowship in the specialty in Washington University Medical School, St Louis, USA in 1990 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University in 1995. She returned to Ireland in 1997 to take up the position of Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Cork University Hospital. She graduated from UCD in 1986 and trained in Internal Medicine in the Mater and St. Vincent’s University Hospital. She was conferred with an MD from UCD in 1995. She was awarded her MRCPI and MRCP (Lond) in 1988 and 1989 respectively and FRCPI in 1997 and FRCP (Edin) in 2004. She was inducted as a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2015 This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx