Milestone

At the risk of patting ourselves on the back we are pleased to announce that we put our 1000th patient on ARV's last month. There was some debate, or perhaps arguement, about which exact patient was the thousandth, at least three people were told that it was them. Perhaps it is like being the one billionth person in India or China, it's best just to pick someone at about the right time and go with it. As my personal contribution was small compared to the collective effort I think I can say that it was pretty fantastic to get there. There has never been a waiting list to start so it represents everyone in the area who is tested for HIV, who needs the drugs and most importantly has committed to take them lifelong.

One thing that struck me the other day was the strengh of the link you have with the patient. If as a doctor you spend your life handing out pills for high blood pressure you have to treat quite a few people for quite a long time to prevent one of them having a heart attack. That means that you never actually know which of the patients is still alive as a result. With HIV medication it is different, when I talk to a guy who had 'full blown AIDS' 2 years ago but now leads a normal life I can be as certain as a doctor ever can be that he is alive because of the drugs. Many branches of medicine can say the same of course, any surgeon who removes a malignant cancer at an early stage for example, but it is not something I have experienced that often and it's a good feeling.