Biography

Dr. Cortes is a specialist in infectious diseases and internal medicine. Since 2005, have been dedicated to HIV/AIDS in both patient care and research. She has a position as Associate Professor at the University of Chile with academic activities involving undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students.

Dr. Cortes has worked at Fundación Arriarán, Chile's first and largest HIV treatment center, for more than 16 years, where she has clinical duties in the care of PLWH.

She has served on the Chilean Infectious Diseases Society's HIV advisory group as a member and chair (SOCHINF). She is the former vice president of SOCHINF.

She works as an acting consultant for the Chilean Ministry of Health, where she has contributed to the establishment and revision of national clinical guidelines for HIV/AIDS care, as well as participation in several committees focused on HIV prevention, testing, and treatment initiatives. She is currently a member of the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 national guidelines committee and the advisory council for pandemic response.

Since 2020 is an elected member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society representing Latin America.

Dr. Cortes participates as principal investigator and co-researcher in studies for the main Latin-American epidemiologic HIV Cohort: The Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology (CCASAnet). Her research interest in HIV includes women's issues, migration, DDI and most recently, studies on the microbiome and chronic inflammatory response.

In 2017, with a group of academics from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, she created the Center for HIV/AIDS Integral Research (CHAIR), the first interdisciplinary research and extension centre for HIV-related issues in Chile. She is founder and current director of this centre.

Dr. Cortes authored and co-authored 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters on topics related to migration health and HIV. She is deputy editor of JIAS the Journal of the International AIDS Society, and PLoS Global Public Health and editor in charge of the HIV section of the Chilean journal of infectious diseases (REVINF).