Selma K. Dritz (1917-2008), MD, MPH, played a seminal role in the early years of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. As Assistant Director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control and Chief of the Division of Occupational Health of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, she tracked cases of HIV/AIDS and collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to help establish the etiology and epidemiology of the disease. She worked to educate gay and straight people about AIDS recognition and prevention.

Dritz was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1917. She attended the University of Illinois (BS in Medicine, 1939; MD, 1941) and the University of California, Berkeley (MPH, 1967). Dritz began her career in pediatrics but later shifted to public health, joining the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 1967. From 1967-1984 she served as Assistant Director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control and Chief of the Division of Occupational Health of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. She became an expert in sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS and helped lead the department’s efforts in related prevention, policy, and research. She authored numerous publications and was a member of several professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the California Medical Association, and the San Francisco Medical Society. She served on the California State Task Force on AIDS and worked as a consultant to the University of California, San Francisco Medical School. She died in 2008.