Mike Snow: infectious diseases specialist who treated the UK’s first HIV patients

While he was a senior house officer in Ashington, Northumberland, Mike Snow developed open tuberculosis. He had a considerable amount of time off work, including 100 days of intramuscular injections of streptomycin.

This experience may have coloured his choice of career. Despite infectious diseases being prevalent in the 1970s the specialty was in its infancy and most patients, apart from the most serious cases, were treated by general physicians.

In 1978 Snow was appointed to a new post at Newcastle General Hospital, where most of the serious infectious diseases were treated. There was a small isolation unit to which any consultant in Newcastle could refer patients for nursing care, while their medical care would be delivered by the referring consultant. Snow took a strong interest …