"WAITING IS A FACT OF LIFE": A reader's response to the delays in getting 3TC

"WAITING IS A FACT OF LIFE": A reader's response to the delays in getting 3TC

AIDS TREATMENT UPDATE, September 1995
Stephen Holmes

Unfortunately, waiting for things is a fact of life. Waiting in a supermarket queue, at the post-office, cinema. Why not at a clinic? Of course, the urgency of need is a factor, but we are talking about a trial drug whose efficacy has only just been documented. Personally, I have just had to wait for eight weeks for my 3TC; having failed the entry criteria for a trial I was disappointed and angry (Not taking failure very well has been a life-long problem for me). However, I also want to know it's going to be of some bloody use and not simply taking it for the sake of it. It is therefore not a "last chance" option for me, but an alternative; a hope for the future which can look bleak on occasions, but mostly gives me a feeling of achievement.

Life, let's face it, is a series of choices and chances. So long as you are well informed, 'you pays your money, you takes your chance'. I do not like the idea of being molly-coddled by the state or anyone else come to that. You know the risks and if you don't, you should find out.

In last month's AIDS Treatment Update, Tony Whitehead wrote about the frustration of waiting months to obtain 3TC. I am sorry Mr Whitehead is waiting; he does seem desperate. But I would point out to him a word of caution. This is not a cure at all; at best it will boost your CD4 count and perhaps lower your viral load, it will not cure your existing conditions, which I am sorry you have. I do believe you don't think it a panacea, but your article could be interpreted by some to mean that all hope rests on the ready availability of this new drug. Sadly, it does not.

I do not see it as such. I just want to postpone the inevitable for a while. 'Straw grabbing' is all we are doing and everyone knows it, but are just too tactful to tell us.

There is no cure in sight, as yet. Now that is something none of us would want to wait for, but probably would have to and indeed have for over ten years - that's something worth getting angry about!

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