San Francisco Chronicle - October 15, 2006
Sabin Russell, srussell@sfchronicle.com.

He was 49.

In December 1995, before antiviral drug combinations began saving the lives of those infected, he drew international attention for undergoing a bone marrow transplant using cells taken from a baboon, a primate that appears to have natural immunity to HIV.

The experiment conducted at San Francisco General Hospital was a failure -- the baboon bone marrow cells quickly disappeared from Getty's system -- but his health nevertheless improved dramatically, and he survived tenaciously using every antiviral drug conceivable for 11 more years.

"He was one of the best activists in the business," said Dr. Steven Deeks, the UCSF professor who was lead investigator in the baboon bone marrow trial. "That trial reflects the level of desperation at the time. Jeff was just hanging on to his life. He inspired us that a risky and aggressive intervention was worth trying."

Getty was not just a patient in the baboon bone marrow trial. "He was a member of the team," Deeks recalled. Getty worked with the doctors to develop the experimental protocols, and to win approval despite concerns about the controversial operation.

Since the 1980s, when he was diagnosed with AIDS, he stayed one step ahead of the disease by battling for early approval of experimental drugs, taking them himself a and demanding access for others. He was a pioneer who helped make possible the development of HAART, or the "cocktail" of highly active antiretroviral therapy, that routinely prolongs lives today.

"He is emblematic of a whole group of men who survived AIDS in the early 1980s and 1990s, and made it into the HAART era, but had developed so much resistance to the drugs that they never got their virus fully under control," Deeks said.

Getty moved in 2002 to the desert community of Joshua Tree, in San Bernardino County, where he continued his AIDS activism until health problems made it no longer possible. He died of heart failure, following chemotherapy and radiation for cancer, at the High Desert Medical Center. Ken Klueh, his partner for 26 years, was at his bedside.

"He changed my life," said Klueh. "He changed a lot of people's lives."

Klueh said Getty may have been proudest of his work in advocating for liver transplants for people with AIDS -- many of whom suffered from liver failure because of hepatitis or the toxicities of the drugs they had to take. "He did not need a transplant himself," Klueh said.

Because there was an assumption that HIV was a terminal disease, and because of concerns that the immune-suppression drugs needed for organ transplantation would be harmful, transplants were off-limits to people with AIDS.

Getty organized protests at UCSF Medical Center, secured support from State Sen. Carole Migden -- who was an assemblywoman at the time -- and set up an experimental protocol that, with money from the National Institutes of Health, has saved dozens of lives.

"He was the bravest of the brave. He was committed to getting results, even where it was clear that it wouldn't help him," said Migden.

Jeff Sheehy, a UCSF spokesman who also sits on the citizen's advisory board for California's stem cell research program, called Getty the "consummate AIDS-treatment activist" who not only knew how to work the politicians and the media, but would provide advice and counsel to other people living with the disease.

"He was a boot camp therapist who wouldn't let people quit," Sheehy said. "When people were thinking about quitting, he would put the fight back into them."

A UC Berkeley administrative analyst who worked in the admissions office, Getty had a keen intellect that helped him navigate the science and politics of HIV like few others. He could be difficult, demanding and caustic.

"He wasn't easy to work with," said Michael Lauro, an organizer who teamed with Getty in the advocacy groups ACT UP Golden Gate and Survive AIDS. "That's how people with great vision, great hearts and great drive are like. He could get things done."

Getty is survived by his partner, Ken Klueh of Joshua Tree; his father, Edward Getty of North Stonington, Conn.; and his sisters, Carrie Getty of Idaho Falls, Idaho, Kim Getty of Ashland, N.H., and Jennifer Getty of El Cerrito.

A Bay Area memorial service has not yet been scheduled. Donations in Jeff Getty's name may be made to Maitri hospice, 401 Duboce Ave., San Francisco, CA 94117.

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