Margaret Denise Portman (27 May 1974 – 6 February 2019) was a British

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

who specialised in sexual health. She was an advocate for

pre-exposure prophylaxis Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the use of medications to prevent the spread of disease in people who have not yet been exposed to a disease-causing agent, usually a virus. The term typically refers to the use of antiviral drugs as a strate ...

medication (PrEP) to prevent new

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

cases.

Early life and education

Portman was born on 27 May 1974 in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. Portman completed her

MBChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1998, qualifying as a general practitioner in 2003. She then received her

Certificate of Completion of Training The Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) is the certificate that medical doctors in the United Kingdom receive to indicate that they have completed training in their chosen specialty and are therefore eligible for entry onto the specialis ...

(a UK medical specialist training) in 2014.

Career

Portman was called a "pioneer within the sexual health sector". She advocated for access and usage of

medication (PrEP) to reduce incidence of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

in the United Kingdom. Portman has been attributed with preventing thousands of new HIV diagnoses through her work ensuring PrEP accessibility. In 2014, Portman began working at the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and spe ...

as an HIV consultant. While there, she worked on the PROUD study, which demonstrated that a daily dose of the drug

Emtricitabine/tenofovir Emtricitabine/tenofovir, sold under the brand name Truvada among others, is a fixed-dose combination antiretroviral medication used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS. It contains the antiretroviral medications emtricitabine and tenofovir disoprox ...

(brand name Truvada) was effective at preventing HIV infection in gay and bisexual men. She joined Mortimer Market Centre, part of Central and North West London Foundation Trust (CNWL) in September 2015. After HIV activist Greg Owen launched the website IWantPrEPNow—a site where those in the United Kingdom could order generic PrEP, which was not available in-country—Portman became involved with the project. She assisted in testing the generic pills that were ordered to ensure that none were inactive "dummy" pills. She appeared prominently in a 2017

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

documentary, ''The People vs the NHS: Who Gets the Drugs?'', which followed the aftermath of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

's (NHS) 2016 decision to not fund PrEP. Doctors, including Portman, as well as activists and AIDS charities worked together to lobby for the overturn of the decision.

Personal life

Portman had a husband, Martin. Together, they had two children. Portman was diagnosed with

mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...

in January 2017. She suspected that her cancer was a result of

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

exposure from working in a hospital. She died of her illness on 6 February 2019 at the age of 44.

Honors and legacy

In October 2018, the

Terrence Higgins Trust Terrence Higgins Trust is a British charity that campaigns about and provides services relating to HIV and sexual health. In particular, the charity aims to end the transmission of HIV in the UK; to support and empower people living with HIV, to ...

established the Mags Portman PrEP Access Fund. The Fund's purpose was to provide PrEP to those in England and Northern Ireland who could not afford it. The PrEP Access Fund closed in 2020 as PrEP became available via the NHS.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portman, Mags 2019 deaths 1974 births 21st-century British medical doctors HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom Place of death missing Medical doctors from Leeds British HIV/AIDS activists Deaths from mesothelioma English women medical doctors Medical doctors from Yorkshire 21st-century English women 21st-century English medical doctors