In the early 1980s, Charles Farthing, who has died aged 60 of a heart attack, was studying dermatology at St Stephen's hospital in Chelsea, south-west London (now Chelsea and Westminster hospital), when he saw his first patient with HIV infection. He began to see a pattern of rare skin conditions and soon realised that the underlying cause for all of them was the condition that would soon be known as Aids. He devoted the rest of his life to the care of those with HIV and Aids.
The first few years of the epidemic were very frightening for those of us involved in providing medical treatment and care, as we did not know how the infection spread; and all those infected died. In the Guardian in 1985, Charles wrote of the alarm within the medical profession at that point St Stephen's was treating a dozen Aids patients, but two years later the number stood at 1,000. With a steely, determined, inquiring mind and a pleasing and precise public face, he was in a pivotal position in persuading the Conservative government of the time to recognise the severity of the problem, and the need for public information and money for both research and care of the infected patients.
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