The popular doctor did not let go of the topic of AIDS.
Eilke Helm is dead. The doctor and researcher first diagnosed HIV in a patient in Germany in 1982 at the Frankfurt University Clinic. She is considered a pioneer and was popular with the student body at the university hospital. As the Frankfurter Rundschau learned from their circles, Helm died on Saturday night following a long illness. She was 86 years old.
AIDS changes the world
Let’s let them speak for themselves. “No disease in the twentieth century has changed the world as much as AIDS,” Helm wrote twelve years ago in an article in a specialist magazine marking 30 years of HIV/AIDS. “It not only changed the lives of those affected, but also those who cared for the victims of HIV disease.” One of them was the author Helm herself . The first few years were a challenge for everyone involved.”
AIDS changes the world
The specialist in internal medicine had studied medicine in Frankfurt, received her doctorate in 1969 and habilitated in 1976 on the “antibacterial activity of antibiotics in body fluids”. Was a senior physician specializing in infectious diseases in the infectious diseases department of the University of Frankfurt until 2003, then switched to a practice specializing in HIV in Frankfurt. In addition to numerous science awards, she received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1987 and the Great Federal Cross of Merit in 2003.
In her magazine article, Helm describes the “great dying” before the introduction of the highly effective antiretroviral therapy. “Sometimes I was afraid of the rounds on Monday.” An above-average number of talents died too early. She had to fight for every staff position – be it for additional nursing staff or for a doctor. Also regarding the acceptance of the sick.
“I often heard: How can one stand up for these people, gay men and drug addicts, who are to blame for their own fate.” An assertion that has always annoyed her greatly. “Because HIV disease is a viral infection – it might have broken out in any other group of people.”
AIDS changes the world
Not only because of her expertise, but also because of her strong empathy, Helm was a role model for young doctors, recalls one of her former students. “Her heart was in the right place.”
