Havana, March 27 (RHC)-- Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot, former UNAIDS Executive Director, will speak on Ebola and HIV in Havana on Thursday.

According to the official website of the Cuban Health Ministry, Infomed, the Belgian microbiologist will give a conference entitled: 'The two defining epidemics of our time: AIDS and Ebola'  at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), which leads Cuban research on tropical diseases.

Born in the Belgian city of Leuven, Piot became one of the world's fighters against HIV. While working as a researcher at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, in 1976 he discovered the ebolavirus, which causes the disease.

In the 1980s, Peter Piot was the first to develop an international HIV prevention, detection and treatment program in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania and Zaire, which laid the groundwork for the study on HIV / AIDS in Africa.

In 1994, he was appointed Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), a post he held until the end of 2008.