Dr. Bernard Branson has been involved with HIV testing for more than 30 years. He led the effort to facilitate the introduction of rapid HIV tests into the U.S., was the lead author of CDC’s 2006 revised recommendations for HIV screening in health care settings and, most recently, the CDC’s June 2014 HIV testing recommendations that updated the U.S. laboratory HIV testing algorithm for the first time in 25 years. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed his postgraduate clinical training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Branson joined the CDC in 1990 and served as Associate Director for Laboratory Diagnostics in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention for eleven years prior to his retirement in October 2014. Since then, Dr. Branson has provided expert consultation on HIV diagnostics, developed continuing medical education activities and lectures, and devoted his efforts to promoting the adoption of biomedical interventions such as treatment for HIV viral suppression and PrEP.
