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"Susan King put Canadian paediatric HIV
research on the map."
Dr Ron Gold
Professor Susan King lectured at the
University of Toronto in the Department of Paediatrics of the
Hospital for Sick Children. Her work centred on a
combination of patient care, research, and teaching in hospital,
university, and community settings. She gained recognition
for her research among children that showed that HIV infection
was possible through blood transfusion. As a result, the
HIV testing of all recipients of blood transfusions was
initiated in Canada.
Susan Margaret King was
born on 5th April, 1954 in Edinburgh, Scotland where her father,
a St. Lucian surgeon, was studying. She recieved her primary and
secondary schooling in several Caribbean islands. At the
age of 16, she was awarded a St. Lucia Island Scholarship and
proceeded to the University of Oxford, England.
After completing
bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry at Oxford, she
earned a medical degree from McGill University in Canada in
1979. Subsequently, she specialised in paediatrics at the
University of Toronto, and became a Fellow of the Royal College
of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1985. She then
joined the Hospital for Sick Children and the Faculty of
Medicine of the University of Toronto, and completed another
master's degree in epidemiology and biostatistics at Mc Master
University in 1989.
She was a founding
member, in 1988, of the ID-2 team of the Infectious Diseases
Division of the hospital, which introduced more sensitive,
holistic care to children with HIV/AIDS. In the era before
effective drugs for treating HIV/AIDS, these children would have
had little relief from their illness.
In 2000, Dr King was
awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and started work at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, where
she researched ways to reduce mother-to-infant transmission of
HIV. Three years later, she was appointed Professor of
Paediatrics at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for
Sick Children.
Professor King was
extensively involved in the community aspects of HIV/AIDS care.
She was a founding member of the Teresa Group, Canada's oldest
community-based charitable organisation serving children
affected by HIV/AIDS and their families.
 She
participated in many workshops teaching healthcare workers about
paediatric HIV and the prevention of its transmission to babies.
Susan King received many awards including the
Claus Wirsig Humanitarian Award from the Hospital for Sick
Children and the Order of St. Lucia Gold Medal of Merit in 2006.
Additionally, the Ontario HIV Treatment Network established a
permanent lecture series in her honour.
Professor King withdrew from clinical
practice after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) in 2002. To her great joy, her colleagues
continued the projects she initiated. She passed away on
15th February 2009.
Susan King advised that, "Many girls are
intimidated and do not pursue careers in the sciences. If
you lik science, whether male or female, you can enjoy a career
in the sciences. There is a great variety of careers, even
within medicine. Some are technical and some require
sociability."
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