House Calls in Harlem

It's not often that doctors make house calls these days. But immunologist Pernessa Seele did just that in the late 1980s. She knocked on church doors throughout the neighborhood and organized Harlem’s first Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS in 1989.

Earlier this week she was honored at an awards ceremony in the city as one of Time Magazine's list of “The [100] People Who Shape Our World.” Dr. Seele now runs The Balm in Gilead, the largest non-profit AIDS awareness effort focused on educating African Americans about the disease. And, according to Gothamist, because 48% of Americans with AIDS are black, her work is invaluable.