Dr. Merle A. Sande, one of the country’s foremost authority on infectious disease and AIDS, received a Washington State University Alumni Achievement Award Sept. 11 at a private reception prior to the WSU-Colorado football game in Seattle’s Qwest Stadium.
He spent 16 years as professor and vice chair of internal medicine at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine and chief of medical services at
In 2002, he stepped down to follow his passion. He and Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co. CEO Dr. Hank McKinnell conceived and funded the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in
With Sande as president, a foundation was established to ensure the sustainability of the program, now the Infectious Disease Institution, a part of
Sande began working in infection diseases in 1969 and has treated AIDS longer than any doctor in the
The
Sande has written 250 articles and edited 20 books. His textbook, “The Medical Management of AIDS,” is considered the definitive treatment guide for the disease.