HIV/AIDS pioneer Dr. Charles Farthing, former Medical Director at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has died. His death was announced by a friend on Facebook late Saturday.
AHF President Michael Weinstein released this statement Sunday morning:
It is with profound sadness that I inform you of the death of Charles Farthing, a renown pioneer in HIV medicine, who served for many years as the AHF Chief of Medicine. During Charles tenure AHF’s medical program grew tremendously in size and stature. He helped to build a medical structure that continues to this day and now covers the globe.
Charles presided over the introduction at AHF of the “cocktail” that turned AIDS into a manageable disease. It is difficult to express the shock that is felt across AHF at his untimely death. Our heartfelt sympathies to Doug Louie, his spouse as well as his family. We will never forget the invaluable contribution Charles made to the organization that AHF is today. However, we will most of all remember a man with boundless compassion for his patients and an intense interest in advancing HIV medicine.
TheBody.com named Farthing “Outstanding Physician” for their 2005 HIV Leadership Awards. They noted that Farthing started out as a dermatologist in New Zealand. When he started practicing in England in the 1980s, some of his patients had HIV, which led him to organize one of the first AIDS clinics in that country and eventually become a government advisor on HIV/AIDS. In 1988, he earned a fellowship to study HIV at Bellevue Hospital in New York, subsequently becoming Director of their AIDS Program. He left New York for Los Angeles in 1994 to further his research, joining AHF in 2001.
At times Farthing could be controversial, arguing in 1997 that doctors should volunteer to try an AIDS vaccine as a “necessary risk,” but his request was denied as being too dangerous. He was also outspoken about prevention, including this now terribly ironic statement, given the recent anti-homosexuality laws in Uganda.
“Prevention efforts in this country are pathetic. They have been far more effective in Uganda,” Farthing told TheBody.com in 2005. “No politician in Uganda is allowed to make a speech anywhere without mentioning the need for HIV prevention. Would that were the case here. We need much greater exposure of the population to messages about the need for prevention.”
Farthing was also far-sighted, longing for the day when patients with HIV/AIDS would only have to take one pill a day. TheBody.com also noted: “For relaxation, Dr. Farthing likes to listen to classical music. Perhaps not surprising for a would-be priest turned HIV advocate, his favorite piece is Handel’s “Messiah.”
Here’s an excerpt from that interview:
Who was your all-time favorite patient and why?
You ask in the past tense expecting to talk about someone who has passed. Well, that is probably the case. I was very fond of a man I cared for in the U.K. who was a principal dancer in The Royal Ballet. We really loved each other, but he respected every boundary. On his deathbed, when I was present, he said, “had we met in different circumstances, Charles, we both know that things would have been very different between us.” That was so nice of him.
What is the most important, memorable or useful thing you have learned from your patients?
That saying sorry when you have goofed up in some way works!
How do you maintain a positive outlook and avoid burning out?
By having a balanced life and a good relationship. Burn out is not nearly the threat now that it was to HIV physicians in the 1980s. Then we were way overworked, as so few were in the field (only a few physicians showed interest initially and there was no extra funding at the beginning) — and the emotional toll was worse as so many patients were sick and dying. Now most patients are well or getting better — a doctor shouldn’t burn out now, unless he or she works too hard and we must guard against that.