CMO Mary Horgan: ‘People often forget how bad infections were; our memories sometimes are short’

In the 1980s, as news of a dangerous virus now known as HIV was coming to the fore, Mary Horgan was studying medicine in university.

Its emergence sparked the professor’s almost four decade-long career in the field of infectious diseases.

“My career really has paralleled that of HIV,” Prof Horgan says.

The first HIV/Aids cases were discovered in 1981 and the bug that caused it was identified in 1983, she recalls.

“The really gloom and doom days of the next decade were certainly when I was in the [United] States, where it was the commonest cause of death in men between 20-45.”

Prof Horgan says living in a world where treatment is widely available, as is medication to prevent transmission, shows the “complete change” that can occur in a relatively short period.

“That’s amazing. To have had the experience to live through that scientific discovery that makes people have normal, healthy lives,” she says.

Last August, Prof Horgan swapped out her scrubs for more corporate attire when she was appointed interim chief medical officer (CMO) by then minister for health Stephen Donnelly.

In her first interview since her appointment, Prof Horgan says at times she misses the patient contact of her previous roles, but she believes she is still helping people, just in a different way.

“Coming in here really allows me the opportunity to do it at a population level and really impact positively on people’s lives in Ireland,” she says.