In Memoriam: Scott Slutsky

Scott Slutsky, one of the most dedicated and effective AIDS
activists, died in New York on May 28. Scott, a long-time,
active member of ACT UP/New York, was particularly good at
working with difficult drug companies and sticking with
unglamorous issues until they were resolved. He contributed to
forcing the approval of fluconazole for fungal infections, and to
getting Abbott Laboratories to provide expanded access to
clarithromycin, making that drug available for thousands of
people as well as gathering data leading toward approval. Scott
also worked on making rifabutin available as prophylaxis for MAC.

Scott was one of the founders of the Countdown Eighteen
Months project to develop treatments and prophylaxis for the five
most common opportunistic infections, of a working group on non-
nucleoside antivirals in ACT UP/New York's Treatment and Data
Committee, and of the new treatment activist group TAG. Scott
will be greatly missed. We hope others will pick up his work.