Paul Thorn
"Today, it is not only the poorest and the marginalized who turn up on hospital beds with tuberculosis, but also the intellectuals and the eloquent…It is an old, very old disease, but it is still with us in the 21st century." – Paul Thorn
Paul Thorn (formerly Paul Mayho) is the author of two books and regularly writes about TB-HIV issues for numerous professional publications. Formerly a student nurse, he was forced to abandon nurse training when he was found to be HIV-positive in 1990. From there he became an HIV activist and wrote his first book, Positive Careers - The Rights and Responsibilities of HIV Infected Healthcare Workers (Cassell PLC, 1996).
While writing the book as an in-patient at a West-London hospital in 1995, Paul unfortunately contracted multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the midst of a hospital-wide outbreak. Often transmitted within the confines of a hospital, Paul's MDR-TB case was like many others, the result of poorly implemented infection control. Seven patients eventually died from the outbreak, Paul was the sole survivor.
"HIV struck me like a death sentence," Paul recounts, "but I never felt so lonely in my life as several years later in a TB ward when, for three long months, I did not see people's smiles as their faces were covered with protective masks and my communication with nurses was limited to a few dry sentences a day."
After nearly three years of treatment, Paul was finally cured of MDR-TB and the experience served to not only bolster his work in HIV/AIDS, but also awakened him to the disturbing and deadly synergy between HIV/AIDS and TB. Shifting his focus to the dangerous interaction of HIV-TB co-infection, Paul published his second book in 1999, The Tuberculosis Survival Handbook (XLR8 Graphics). Met with high acclaim, widespread publication and a second edition in 2006, Paul became a notable face and voice in the TB arena. He can regularly be found at TB conferences all around the world, either speaking or participating. He has also served on several Stop TB Partnership Core Groups.
(www.tbsurvivalprojecct.org). He is also a columnist for Gay Times (GT magazine) writing about HIV and lifestyle issues and is currently working on his next book, The Diary of a Modern Consumptive.
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