Ernesto Martínez Buitrago, MD graduated in internal medicine at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Shortly after graduating he focused his interests in infectious diseases when he joined the Special Immunology Fellowship Program at the University of Miami, Miami USA for HIV comprehensive training at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Dr Martínez Buitrago later completed a 2-year clinical fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, thus increasing his interests in the field of HIV at the time when Highly-Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) started to become a promise for many patients, initially in the USA and then rapidly spreading to the rest of the world.
Upon returning to Colombia, Dr Martínez Buitrago rejoined the Universidad del Valle in Cali as a faculty member in the Department of Internal Medicine, and in the Hospital Universitario del Valle, the largest public hospital in Colombia, and at the Infectious Diseases and Infection Control Unit. He has devoted his time there as Professor and Attending Physician in this very resource-limited facility which was the referral site for the southwestern part of Colombia, and one of most important centers for physician education and postgraduate training.
Dr Martínez Buitrago was honored as the President of the Colombian Association of Infectious Diseases (ACIN) Society from 2007–2009. Along with several regional colleagues, Dr Martínez Buitrago founded the first Colombian HIV Cohort, REVIVA, comprising most of the HIV comprehensive care centres of the city area in Cali, along with developing numerous medical education activities and courses for health professionals in the field. Dr Martínez Buitrago is currently the President of the HIV/AIDS Committee for the ACIN and National Co-Chairman of the Comprehensive Guidelines for HIV Management in Adults in Colombia for the Ministry of Health.
Co-founder as well in 2014 of the HIV Latin American Workshop has worked along with participants from 11 countries in gathering and analyzing relevant information and data from Colombia and the region to characterize the epidemics in LATAM. A year ago, Dr. Martínez Buitrago convened a large group of Colombian centers of HIV care to create the VIHCOL Group to work in a national level in research of the HIV Colombian epidemic, with data already presented in important Colombian research meetings with outstanding results.
