Charles Farthing

Charles Frank Farthing (22 April 1953 – 6 April 2014) was a New Zealand doctor who specialised in the treatment of AIDS. He was the Medical Director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation from 2001 to 2007.^[1] He later worked at Merck Sharp & Dohme as the Director of medical affairs for infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific.^[2]

Early life

Farthing was born on 22 April 1953 in Christchurch, New Zealand.^[2] His father was an accountant and his mother was a music teacher.^[3] He was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, an independent boys school.^[1] As a child he had considered entering the priesthood.^[4] He went on to study medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin.^[1]

Medical career

Farthing began his medical career in New Zealand where he practiced as a dermatologist.^[4] After five years,^[1][2] he moved abroad and worked for a year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.^[3] He then moved to England and joined St Stephen's Hospital in Chelsea, London.^[1][2] Between 1985 and 1987, the numbers of AIDS patients treated at St Stephen's rose from a dozen to over 1000.^[1] From 1985 to 1988, he was involved in clinical trials for the antiretroviral drugs Thymosin, AZT and foscarnet.^[1] In 1987, he helped found the Kobler Center at St Stephen’s Hospital which specialised in the treatment and research of HIV/AIDS.^[5] It was one of the first wards in the United Kingdom to specialise in the area.^[2] He was Chair of the all-party parliamentary committee on AIDS during the late 1980s,^[6] and was instrumental in guiding the governments reaction to the AIDS crisis.^[1]

In 1988, he was awarded a Winston Churchill fellowship which allowed him to move to the United States of America where he studied AIDS at the Bellevue Hospital in New York.^[6] He later became the Director of the hospital's AIDS treatment program.^[2] In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles where he became the principal investigator of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and in 2001, he was promoted to Medical Director.^[1] In 2007, he left the United States for Hong Kong where he joined Merck Sharp & Dohme.^[5] At the time of his death, he was Director of medical affairs for infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific.^[2]

Death

Farthing died on 6 April 2014 of a heart attack while travelling in a taxi in Hong Kong.^[1][2] His funeral was held at Church of St Michael and All Angels, an Anglican church in Christchurch on 22 April 2014. He is buried on Banks Peninsula.^[7]

Personal life

Farthing was gay.^[4] At the time of his death he was in a relationship with Dougie Lui, a hotelier.^[1][2] He had owned a number of cats but did not have any children.^[4]

References