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Editorial: Strange bedfellows
| Last updated: 25.08.04 |
Politics and treating HIV may appear to be strange bedfellows but, whether we like it or not, they have become completely intertwined, and ATU cannot ignore funding issues when writing about HIV treatment in 2004.
I, for one, recall fondly the pre-HAART heyday of ACT UP, when treatment activism was part art, part politics and always totally angry. After the advent of HAART, however, much of the guts disappeared from any activism that was geared towards wealthy nations as we, quite rightly, focused on access to treatment in resource-limited nations. Things are far from perfect there still, but now that the likes of WHO, Clinton, Mandela and Gates are focusing their attention there, perhaps it is time to also take a look in our own back yard: after all, they do say charity begins at home.
As both our interview with Dr. Simon Barton and our lead news story on the proposed UK boycott of Abbott show, the spirit of ACT UP has not disappeared in the UK. These days, however, HIV activism is slicker, smarter and possibly achieves more by working the system from within. This partnership between patients and clinicians is necessary and welcome: these UK activists are still angry, only now they wear suits, negotiate with PCTs and sit on countless funding sub-committees. That’s not to say that patient power is not important: our voices must be heard, too – but it’s good to know that some people in positions of power are on our side.
This month ATU focuses on UK access to New-Fill, the only well-studied treatment for facial lipoatrophy, which is currently only available at eight sites in the UK, all of which are in England. Some people might find it hard to justify a procedure which “only” impacts the psychological well-being of people on HAART when there are millions of people unable to access HAART elsewhere in the world. I think it is unfair to compare the two: the money available to treat facial wasting in the UK does not come from the same budget as the money used to provide HAART overseas, so why can’t we have both?