#EAPM: Who wants to live forever? How things have changed since Freddie died of #AIDS

Freddie Mercury, one-time singer of the rock band Queen and arguably the best frontman to grace this planet, would have been 70 today (5 September), writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

Mercury left us in late 1991 at just 45 years old, due to complications (bronchopneumonia in this case) arising from the HIV virus, which he finally told the world he had contracted just one day before he died. He’d become aware that he had the virus more than four years earlier.

The hugely gifted and flirtatiously flamboyant glam-rocker once answered a question by saying: “What will I be doing in twenty years' time? I'll be dead, darling! Are you crazy?”

He wasn’t far wrong, timing-wise, and his final statement ran as follows: “Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.”

Nice last line. It will ‘continue’ forever, now.

Freddie was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, and grew up there and in India before moving to Middlesex, England, at the age of 17. The word ‘Middlesex’ is appropriate given that his sexuality was all over the place. Eventually he came out as homosexual, although he had also had a girlfriend, Mary Austin, who was a large part of his life for decades and even up until his death in November 1991. Despite being in a long-term partnership with hairdresser Jim Hutton, Mercury left Austin his London mansion in his will. They had remained that close.

Rock fans everywhere will be honouring the 25th anniversary of Freddie’s death on 24 November. Tears will flow openly, spangly leotards will be pulled from the closet and songs such as We Will Rock You, We are the Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody will be heard on every radio station. With the volume up to 11. Live Aid videos and CDs will be plucked from shelves and the tuned-in, turned-on planet will all go a little bit sentimental (and Freddie-mental).

A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, indeed.

Watch his gaunt face and haggard figure in the basically ‘adios, amigos!’ song These Are The Days of Our Lives (his last video performance in May ’91) and if the heart doesn’t ache with that final ‘I still love you’ then it will certainly be a surprise to this writer.

Although everyone (including Mercury, of course) knew about AIDS (scientists discovered the true nature of the virus that causes it in 1983, and named it HIV, for human immunodeficiency virus), certain lifestyles were slow to change. Some didn’t shift one iota. Certainly Freddie’s didn’t change much at all - to his cost.

Back then, treatment for HIV was not very advanced and many gay men died young. Today, things are different. Although there is still no cure, plenty of people with HIV live long and (relatively) healthy lives these days.

Modern treatment for HIV involves antiretroviral drugs, which produce strong anti-HIV effects and, vitally, go a long way to stopping reproduction of the killer virus. The drugs allow the immune system to grow stronger in order to fight infections, such as the bronchopneumonia that killed Freddie.

The medication is taken on a daily basis and total adherence is therefore obviously necessary. (HIV is not the same thing as having AIDS. With the right treatment, in many cases the virus may not actually develop into AIDS.)

Mercury declined medication in the latter days of his life, knowing it was by then too late. He was going blind at that point, unable to leave his bed and simply took painkillers.

But that was 1991. And, as stated above, almost 25 years on things are very different. Research into the virus eventually hit the ground running and survival rates are dramatically up, as is quality of life. Twenty years ago there is no doubt that being HIV-positive was a death sentence. People diagnosed with the virus would get AIDS within ten years. And life expectancy for most was a mere two years once AIDS started to develop.

These days, patients with HIV who begin their treatment quickly can have a much-better prognosis. There are side-effects, as you may expect (let’s not forget that we are dealing with a virus that eventually wears down the immune system), but research has produced amazing drugs that have made lives better and longer.

Stakeholders in the Brussels-based #EAPM strongly believe that European investment in research and development makes a massive difference in the battle to conquer diseases and fight viruses. Not just for HIV and the high-profile Freddie, but for all of us. The money needs to keep flowing and, given our ageing population, actually needs to increase. The hard cash is, sadly, always under threat, especially in times of austerity.

We are in the year 2016, but researchers and scientists everywhere striving to do battle with life-threatening diseases have always had one thing to say. And will carry on saying it.

To quote the late, great Freddie Mercury: 'Don’t stop me now'.

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