Bila M. Kapita is a doctor from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo who aided in initial research efforts investigating HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s.
[1] Kapita received medical training in Brussels, Belgium at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, where he focused on cardiology, publishing several research articles on the subject dating back to 1975.
Following the initial connection between these opportunistic infections in the United States in 1981, African scientists including Kapita recognized the similar clinical presentation.
[9] From 1984 to 1991 Kapita collaborated with Project SIDA at Mama Yemo, producing between 20 and 30 research articles on the transmission, history, and future of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
[7] During the second International AIDS Conference in Paris, France, Kapita informed the community of his retrospective discovery of increased cases of Kaposi's sarcoma and cytomegalovirus, indicators that HIV/AIDS likely existed in Kinshasa as far back as 1975.
[7][11] Prior to public knowledge of HIV prevalence in Zaire at the time, Kapita faced the threat of becoming a political prisoner under Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime for acknowledging the issue on a global stage without permission from the government.
[12][5] In 1990, as the civil war was beginning in Zaire, Kapita worked with Peter Piot in arranging an international AIDS conference in Kinshasa.
The proceeds of the conference were returned to the region through donations to Mama Yemo Hospital and the establishment of a health clinic in Kapita's village.