Saving Lives With Dr. Steve Taylor

By Catherine Muxworthy

Catherine Muxworthy talks with the medical director of Saving Lives, a UK-based charity that was created “to fight stigma and raise awareness of HIV in non-clinical settings, where people’s minds can be changed”

Dr Steve Taylor is a consultant physician in sexual health and HIV at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and the medical director of Saving Lives, a UK based charity that was created “to fight stigma and raise awareness of HIV in non-clinical settings, where people’s minds can be changed”.

At university and as a young doctor, Dr Taylor “saw first-hand what HIV could do – to my friends, to my patients, to communities”.

Back in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Dr Taylor worked on Ward 29 of Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. “Back then our wards were full of young men and women who were dying, wasting away to nothing with tubes coming out of their chest. We knew at the time that for some people their immune system was so damaged we could do little except palliate and make them comfortable. Many of them were scared and often had no time to make peace with their misinformed and estranged families before they died. So many sons, brothers, and friends had their lives cut short.”

It was this experience that lead Dr Taylor into researching and specialising in the area of sexual health and HIV. He explains: “It simply seemed like an obvious path for me to follow; where I could make the biggest contribution, the most difference. By researching HIV and helping treat those who contracted the virus, I could do my bit in making things better.”

Saving Lives began in a hospital as a campaign to help non-specialist doctors know when to offer an HIV test to patients. Very often, Steve explained assumptions were made about who needed testing, which meant significant numbers of people who could have been diagnosed earlier were not.

Over the years, Saving Lives’ work has changed alongside the advancement of the research in the field including the introduction of antiretroviral combination therapy in 1997 which “enabled us to tell patients honestly and straight-forwardly that an HIV diagnosis was not a death sentence or a tragedy”.

Dr Taylor also highlights the importance of undetectable equals untransmittable (U=U). “What this means, simply put, is that, if you’re living with HIV and are on medication, as long as your viral load (the level of virus in your blood) is undetectable you cannot pass the infection on to your sexual partners.

“There are people still dying of HIV/AIDS but not because we don’t have effective treatments. They are dying because they haven’t or won’t be tested, they won’t accept that it can happen to their communities, to heterosexuals, or to those who believe that God will protect them. All around the world millions of dead contest to those beliefs.

“The reason people die of HIV-related illnesses today is that they are diagnosed too late. Today’s medication is highly effective and can provide those living with HIV a near-to-normal life expectancy. People living with HIV can now take one pill a day and, as long as they are diagnosed early, can live a long and full life.”

Dr Taylor believes that the reason people don’t get tested is simply because of the stigma, lack of education, and lack of awareness surrounding HIV. Both in his own practice and through Saving Lives, he hopes to campaign for the normalisation of testing, and he also believes that shows like It’s A Sin “can promote a better understanding on every level – and that will save lives”.

When Saving Lives was approached by the Birmingham AIDS & HIV Memorial team for support “we didn’t hesitate. Saving Lives began in Birmingham, is still headquartered here, and still does a lot of its work in the city and region. We love this city and its vibrant communities, we’re part of them, and we wanted to help.

“What’s so great about the Memorial is that it’s going to be big, and it’s going to be central. This means that the history it commemorates – the people it remembers – will be hugely visible to everyone in Birmingham. Given everything I’ve said about how, in its early days, HIV was an invisible illness, this is incredibly fitting – it’s a fantastic tribute to those we’ve lost.

“Crucially, it’s an important reminder to those in Birmingham of the hundreds of people who died before there was effective treatment. We owe it to them to take advantage of the fact that there is now life-saving treatment available to those who are diagnosed early. The best way to honour the past is to get tested today.”

Saving Lives has gone from advocating HIV testing to providing it themselves, through a postal service. “This is a great way to get tests to people who are reluctant to attend a clinic,” Dr Taylor says.

As part of its contribution to World AIDS Day this year, Saving Lives is offering a free bloodborne virus testing kit (worth £79) to those who know they’ve put themselves at risk but have not tested recently. They can visit www. TakeATestUK.com to order a free HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C testing kit using the code SCENE1 throughout the month of December.

Listen to the Saving Lives podcast Sex Unwrapped to hear stories like that of Marcella: one of Dr Taylor’s first heterosexual patients, who recalls being treated like a leper by society in the early days. Marcella is still with us today and has recently felt able to come out as HIV positive. “Her story offers real hope.”

www.savinglivesuk.com

@savinglivesuk