Papa Salif Sow is a Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Dakar in Senegal. In 2002, Professor Sow was nominated Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the University of Dakar. Since 1998, he has been the Clinical Coordinator of the Senegalese Initiative for Access to ARV and led a multidisciplinary team for scaling up this strategy in all the country. He has also undertaken several consultancies on HIV/AIDS care and treatment for UNAIDS and WHO Geneva. He is also the President of the African Network for AIDS Physicians (ANEPA) and the Coordinator of the Regional Centre for Research and Training at Fann Hospital Dakar, Senegal. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Governing Council of the IAS for Africa.

Professor Sow has worked extensively with patient care, teaching, and research in the field of Infectious Diseases with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS. He has focused his research on the development, diagnosis, and treatment of opportunistic infections and on first line antiretroviral therapies and management strategies in resources limited countries.

He is a member of the WHO Writing Guidelines for Access to Care and Treatment in Resource Limited Settings, member of the STAC (Strategic Advisory Committee for HIV/AIDS) and a member of the TRP (Technical Review Panel) of the GFATM. Dr. Sow has many research collaborations, mainly with the ANRS in France and the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Sow is a member of the WHO HIV/TB Working group. His current research includes second line ARV therapies in resources limited countries and HPV vaccine trial in young girls. In 1990, he was recognized as a World AIDS Foundation International Scholar at the San Francisco General Hospital.

He received his Medical Degree the University of Dakar in 1987. He completed his training and a Master of Sciences at the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp in Belgium in 1991 and in Nagasaki University Japan in 1994.