Associate Professor
University of Manitoba
Centre for Global Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences
R070 Medical Rehabilitation Building
771 McDermot Avenue
Winnipeg,
MB
Canada
R3E 0T6
marissa.becker@umanitoba.ca
Biographical Sketch:
2015-present -- Co-Scientific Director, National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2009-present -- Associate Professor, Centre for Global Public Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2009-present -- Associate Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2009-present -- Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2007-present -- Associate Director, Manitoba HIV Program, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
As a CIHR postdoctoral researcher (2005-2007), I examined the heterogeneity and burden of disease of the HIV/STI epidemic in south India. This work led to the discovery that HIV prevalence was very high among young female sex workers (FSWs) (21% for FSW in sex work <2 yrs). Follow-up work explored the issue of early HIV risk and found that up to 2.6% of FSWs died of AIDS before their second year in practice. As well, a gap in time existed from when a young woman began engaging in high risk sexual activity, including commercial sex, to when she self-identified as a female sex worker. This body of work was the precursor to a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) funded study (“Estimating female sex workers' early HIV risk and the implications for HIV epidemic control: A multi-country observational and mathematical modeling study”) and for which I have received a CIHR New Investigator Award.
Author or co-author of 35 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.
Numerous presentations at scientific meetings.