No Time to Lose: From Ebola to AIDS: A Lifelong Fight Against Infectious Diseases

The compelling story of 40 years of pioneering work in the fight against deadly infectious diseases. 'There is no future in infectious diseases. They have all been discovered.' Fortunately, Peter Piot ignores the advice of his professor of medicine. It is the beginning of an exceptional international career. As a young doctor and scientist, Peter Piot travels to Central Africa after the laboratory where he works in Antwerp discovers the Ebola virus. A few years later, he is once again in the firing line when a new and mysterious epidemic breaks out: AIDS. He travels the entire African continent to lead the first international projects in the fight against HIV. As founder and director of UNAIDS, he negotiates at the highest level with political, religious and pharmaceutical world leaders to put a stop to AIDS worldwide. No Time to Lose is the candid account of a passionate doctor and scientist. Peter Piot takes you from his pioneering years in the hospitals of Central Africa to the highest echelons of the United Nations. With the common thread: the fight against AIDS, which is perhaps more urgent today than ever. 'This is a story of discovery, of a variety of extraordinary moments, people and developments, seen through a single lens: my own experiences. By turns, I was a detective searching for the cause of an epidemic in the heart of Africa; a scientist investigating antibiotic resistance in bacteria and the genetic diversity of HIV; a desperate doctor caring for AIDS patients in the absence of antiretroviral treatment; a researcher and public health professional designing prevention and treatment programs; a UN official leading a complex multilateral organization in 80 countries and initiating reforms within the UN; a patient diplomat negotiating political solutions and price reductions for antiretroviral drugs; a dogged campaigner reaching out to the powerful and raising AIDS awareness in unexpected places; a frustrated fighter against bureaucrats; an activist from the very beginning... And often I was all of these at once, always in concert with other players. My memoir is a reflection of all these incarnations.'