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Uncommon Questions:
A Feminist Exploration of AIDS
Women's Health Interaction
August 1999
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Uncommon Questions: A Feminist Exploration of AIDS
Research and writing:
WHI Collective: Donna Chiarelli, Julie Delahanty, Carla Marcel is, Rose Mary Murphy,
Bibiana Nalwiindi Seaborn, Karen Seabrooke
Published by:
Women's Health Interaction, Ottawa, 1999
Design:
Allegro 168 Inc.
Acknowledgements
We have benefited a great deal from the friendship, resources, and perspectives shared by our colleagues at Inter Pares
in Ottawa - special thanks to Brian K. Murphy for his editorial assistance. We also wish to thank Health Education AIDS
Liaison (HEAL) in Toronto, especially Carl Strygg, Rob Johnston and Patricia Watteyne for their generous contributions
to our dialogue and research process. Many thanks to Liz Fajber and Barbara Blokpoel for their early contributions to
the research and writing of Uncommon Questions, when they were part of the WHI Collective.
While we gratefully acknowledge these contributions, Women's Health Interaction takes sole responsibility for the views
expressed in this publication.
Will Website:
www.web.net/~whi
ISBN:
0-9695267-6-8
Women’s Health Interaction (WHD: Who are we?
Women's Health Interaction is a voluntary feminist health collective, started in 1983. We advocate for women's health in
the context of social and economic justice. At WHI we develop and use feminist principles in working together, sharing
responsibilities in the group and making decisions by building consensus.
WHI believes that the personal is political, and we link our own experiences to those of other women around the world.
We analyze these experiences for common themes and build our education and advocacy work from this. We collaborate
with women's and health organizations and networks in Canada and around the world.
Uncommon Questions:
A Feminist Exploration of AIDS
Table of Contents
PREAMBLE
SETTING THE CONTEXT
1
2
INTRODUCTION
PART I
A FEMINIST FRAMEWORK
3
PART II
COMMON KNOWLEDGE/UNCOMMON QUESTIONS
5
PART III
1.
How is AIDS defined?
5
2.
AIDS as an Epidemic - Reviewing the Statistics
7
3.
AIDS and Testing
12
4.
AIDS and Breastfeeding
16
5.
Treatment
17
6.
Reflections on the Construction of Knowledge about AIDS
21
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
23
24
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Appendix A:
Alternative Activists, Theories and Organizations
28
Appendix B:
Chronology of CDC's AIDS Definitions
33
Appendix C:
Provisional WHO Clinical Case Definition for AIDS (Bangui)
34
Appendix D:
Factors Known to Cause False-Positive HIV Antibody Test Results
35
Appendix E:
AZT Label
40
Uncommon Questions:
A Feminist Exploration of AIDS
Preamble: Setting the Context
Women's Health Interaction (WHI) has prepared this paper
as a contribution to the ongoing discussion on AIDS. We are
concerned about the suffering and death around the world
that has been attributed to HIV/Al DS. At the same time,
along with a growing number of people, we have come to
question the links between HIV and AIDS, and the idea that
HIV = AIDS = Death. Specifically because of the high human
costs involved, it is important to understand the weaknesses in
the dominant theory concerning the cause of AIDS, and to
question the treatments that are being prescribed and, in some
cases, imposed.
The focus on HIV and AIDS is relatively new to our group. In
the past, WHI has worked on issues of women's reproductive
rights and women and pharmaceuticals, promoting our femi
nist vision of holistic and integrated approaches to health care
that increase women's control over our own bodies and health,
anduthat focus on prevention of illness. We believe, together
with many others, that women's health status is fundamentally
linked to the position and power of women in society, and to
the social and economic conditions in which we live. The medicalization and manipulation of women's health has led to
programs and strategies that ignore the root causes of illness.
Women are victimized and targeted for dangerous drugs, often
bypassing the right to informed consent. Further, alternative
health therapies and strategies are ignored. This focus on med
ical interventions by governments and the medical industry is
based on a model that promotes and relies on a "pill for ever)'
ill" rather than the eradication of the social conditions that
cause disease to flourish.
It is from our evolving understanding and critique of the
medical model as applied to women's health that Will has
begun to take a look at the issue of AIDS. Our previous work
on women's health has caused us to question "common knowl
edge" about issues, and challenge the assumptions that under
pin popular beliefs. It has caused us to question in whose
interest specific knowledge is constructed and disseminated.
As we delved deeper into the literature and spoke with HIVseropositive "dissidents", we began to question some of the
assumptions about the relationship between HIV and AIDS.
We learned that there were alternative theories about the
causes of AIDS, and that the researchers and activists who
questioned whether HIV = AIDS = Death, were often silenced
and in other ways isolated and punished for challenging the
dominant theory.
We became concerned that women diagnosed as HIV positive,
particularly pregnant and breast-feeding women, are routinely
advised and sometimes pressured to take extremely toxic drug
therapies, such as AZT. Pregnant or nursing women who
refuse retroviral drugs for themselves or their newborns, or who
refuse to stop breastfeeding, have been threatened with having
their children taken from them (Farber, 1998, 1999). We
began to have concerns about the human rights and reproduc
tive rights of HIV-positive women seeking treatment or having
treatment imposed, in addition to many questions about the
safety of the AIDS drugs, and the link between HIV and
AIDS itself.
With the above in mind, WHI decided to engage in a deeper
learning process, to educate ourselves about HIV and AIDS,
to identify gaps in our knowledge and to seek to fill these gaps
through research and consultation with others. We have written
this paper as a first step in this learning and dialogue process.
We recognize that there are gaps in this discussion paper; for
example, it was difficult to obtain alternative information on
HIV/AIDS in the Third World. This is a priority for our
future exploration.
While many women's health advocates have argued that
women have been excluded from treatment and are discrimi
nated against in programs that address HIV and AIDS, this
critique has generally not extended to challenging prevailing
HIV/AIDS orthodoxy itself. We feel that our own questioning
in this regard is important and consistent with the history of
our work. We realize that for many this paper will represent a
great deal of unexplored territory and its content may be per
ceived as threatening to those living with an HIV-positive or
AIDS diagnosis. We know that others in the women's health
movement will respect our choice in asking these questions,
and will engage with us in seeking answers.
Donna Chiarelli
Julie Delahanty
Carla Marcelis
Rose Mary Murphy
Bibiana Nalwiindi Seaborn
Karen Seabrooke
Women's Health Interaction
Ottawa, August, 1999
Uncommon Questions — 1
Introduction
Our involvement in AIDS is not an academic exercise.
We fear that people are dying unnecessarily as a direct
result of the way that AIDS has been conceptualized and
treated. In this paper, we challenge common assumptions
that are made about AIDS and HIV. We ask questions
that focus on three basic injustices associated with the
way that HIV and AIDS have come to be understood and
addressed globally. The first injustice is the unequal
power and marginalization of women. The second injus
tice arises when people are prevented from exercising
their right to fully-informed consent in issues of testing
and treatment. The third injustice arises when alternative ||
‘ viewpoints are discredited, or worse, silenced.
Part I of this paper identifies the feminist framework that
has informed our analysis. The framework identifies prin
ciples associated with women's health that guided our
elaboration of the issues. These include: 1) critiquing the
medical model of disease; 2) defining women as experts
in our own health; 3) enshrining principles of informed
consent; and 4) challenging the current allocation of
research funding.
In Part II, we ask specific questions about the AIDS
paradigm. Each section begins with a set of common
assumptions or "common knowledge" on a particular
2 — Uncommon Questions
issue, followed by a series of "uncommon questions" questions that are rarely asked, but ought to be. While
we do not have all the answers ourselves, we believe that
these questions have to be asked, and ultimately, they
have to be answered. Identifying the "uncommon ques
tions," and developing a discussion around them, began
with reading extensively in the mainstream literature on
AIDS, as well as literature by those dissenting from the
popular understanding of AIDS. Our bibliography, and
Appendix A, include many of these resources. We con
clude this section by exploring how the AIDS paradigm
has been constructed, with particular reference to the
medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies
which have had overwhelming control over the scientific
information produced and disseminated publicly about
AIDS.
Finally, in Part III, as a contribution to the dialogue we
hope to promote, the paper outlines some of the policy
implications which emerge from what we have learned
in creating this discussion paper. A series of appendices
is also attached to the discussion paper, which provide
more detail on points raised throughout the document.
I.
A Feminist Framework
Women have unequal power in society, which results
in less control over our lives and health, fewer choices,
unequal treatment and, for many women, physical and
psychological violence that critically affects our health. In
addition, women's health and disease, and the research
and treatment of women's disease, are defined by those
who hold most power in society. It is in this context that
women's health needs and problems have to be under
stood. The concepts valued by the women's health move
ment promote better lives and health care for women,
and for all people.
A feminist perspective attempts to de-medicalize disease
and health by taking a broader, more holistic and com
prehensive view of these processes. It takes into consider
ation the multi-factoral elements of disease, including the
economic, social and political factors that have a direct
impact on health. It recognizes that health is affected by
a whole range of factors, including nutrition, stress, pol
lution and other contaminants. A feminist perspective
emphasizes the need to recognize the complex way the
internal environment, which is the body, interacts with
the external environment.
fhe women's health movement has a powerful tool in
feminist theory which, at base, includes a critique of
male-dominated and hierarchical power structures that
underlie poverty and powerlessness. A feminist analysis
of women's health problems is based upon core princi
ples with which to approach the phenomena of disease
and health, as well as the related processes involved in the
research, treatment and prevention of disease. The follow
ing principles are central to a feminist analysis of health.
We recognize the role and power of mind in maintaining
health, as well as in healing, and the interactive effects of
our social environment on our state of wellness (or illness).
We advocate for improving peoples' social conditions
and for preventing disease rather than treating people
exclusively with powerful drugs. Confronting and resolv
ing the causes of poverty, stress and addiction are’cehtfal
to dealing with disease.
Critiqu.e of the TWedical
M.odel of Disease
The medical model of disease, including its preoccupation
with the germ theory of disease, is a limited and often
harmful model. The medical model assumes that illness
is caused by a specific and identifiable agent, bacteria or
virus, that invades the body. When the body cannot fight
off the invader, a person succumbs to the attack and
becomes ill. The physician identifies the agent through
laboratory tests, and then prescribes specific drugs de
signed to repulse the invading organism. This model
implies that the causes of disease lie within the (weak
and imperfect) individual, and focuses therapeutic inter
vention on individuals, and on symptoms, while ignor
ing other variables and elements within the social and
physical environment. The model defines the body in a
mechanistic way and sees medicine quite literally in mili
tary terms as a "war" against hostile agents, requiring the
use of an arsenal of drugs to combat the disease. Just as
in war, the side effects of therapies are seen as unfortu
nate but necessary consequences of medicine, echoing
the military notion of "collateral damage".
Women, ag Experts: Knowing
our Bodies, Defining our
Health
We advocate that women have the central role as experts
in their own health and illness. Women need to be heard
and their experiences validated. Fundamental to a femi
nist perspective is the recognition that consciousnessraising is a powerful tool to empower women, and that
women's health depends on that empowerment. When we
share our experiences and gain knowledge and authority
to make decisions, we can prevent many harmful prac
tices and promote alternative solutions. Consciousnessraising and political activism brought about the childbirth
movement, identified violence against women as a major
global problem, made visible and reduced the psychiatrizing and tranquilization of women, and built a movement
for women to regain reproductive control of our bodies.
It is through discussion with other women that we have
named our experience, identified the powerful forces that
have kept us dependent on, and often harmed by, medical
processes, and empowered us to find alternatives. This
process has played an important role in "de-medicalizing"
Uncommon Questions — 3
disease and going beyond measures that focus on indi
viduals and too often "blame" us for our own illness.
Consciousness-raising, sharing experiences and becoming
fully-informed, allows us to redefine problems and create
healthy solutions.
Women need to be a central part of all processes dealing
with disease and health. Our experiences and voices need
to be included in every phase of research, treatment and
prevention programs. Women's needs are different from
men's needs, and our bodies react differently than men's.
Women's reproductive and breastfeeding capacities place
us in a critical and vulnerable position. What happens to
a pregnant woman can directly affect her baby in utero
and after birth. Further, the gender roles that women are
ascribed by society may also create specific health prob
lems that need to be addressed. For example, it is well
documented that women are more likely to work in the
unregulated sector of the economy where occupational
health issues go unaddressed by formal regulations and
where they are physically and psychologically vulnerable.
Informed Consent
A central principle that has been promoted by the
women's health movement is that every person has the
right to control over her own body and to fully-informed
choice and consent concerning medical interventions.
This means that therapeutic alternatives should be pre
sented with the full range of risks and benefits outlined.
It means receiving full information on alternative thera
pies, as well as the consequences of refusing treatment.
The importance of informed choice extends to testing.
No one should be coerced into being tested for a disease.
For consent to be truly informed, information should be
based on sound research conveyed accurately, honestly
and objectively. It is also fundamental that the potential
consequences of our choices should never be exaggerated.
Funding- Research.
The women's health movement has questioned why
women's health problems receive such a low proportion
of funding in comparison to funding for male-identified
diseases, and specifically in comparison to research on
AIDS. Comparison with funding for breast cancer research
is illustrative. In 1992, Health Canada pledged $25 million
over five years to the Breast Cancer Initiative. At the same
time, it allocated $203.5 million for a five year national
AIDS strategy. And yet, in the fourteen years between
1982 and 1996, while 9,500 Canadians (565 women)
had died of AIDS, more than 60,000 died of breast cancer.
In other words, in this period for every person who died
of AIDS, 6 women died of breast cancer, and for every
woman who died of AIDS, 106 died of breast cancer
(Mallet, 1996)1.
This disproportionately low level of funding for research on
women's specific health issues is a serious flaw in current
research programs, but we must also question medical
research priorities in general, regardless of their gender
bias. Research funds are weighted heavily in favour of
funding the medical/pharmacological approach to under
standing and addressing disease, rather than emphasizing
prevention and alternative therapies that take social and
economic conditions into consideration.
The application of these four principles as a guide in our
analysis of women's health issues has focused our concern
that current research, testing, treatment and portrayals
of AIDS are remote from a feminist understanding and
approach and may be putting women and their children
at risk. This process has led us to explore the very mean
ing and definition of AIDS, and the potential human
rights questions arising from the testing and treatment
of women.
1. Because AIDS is considered a relatively "new" health problem, funding might for a time justifiably have been higher than for a health problem with an
already well established research program. However, the unprecedented investment in AIDS research and the rapid establishment of AIDS research facil
ities since the mid-Eighties - coupled with the fact of the failure of early predictions of AIDS developing as a widespread and deadly epidemic - confirm
the conclusion that the present disproportionate levels of funding for AIDS research and prophylaxis cannot be justified.
4 - Uncommon Questions
II. Common Knowledge/
Uncommon Questions
1. How is AIDS Defined?
Common Knowledge
HIV = AIDS = DEATH
Uncommon Questions
Is HIV the cause of AIDS? Does HIV always lead to AIDS? Has the definition of AIDS changed over the years? Are there alternative
theories? Is death inevitable? Do social, economic and political factors play a role in developing AIDS?
Is HIV the cause of AIDS, and does
HIV always lead to AIDS?
The relationship of HIV to AIDS is not an obvious
and undisputed fact, but rather a theory constructed,
advanced and defended by the scientific and medical
community. The dominant medical model of AIDS
(Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome) states that
AIDS is a condition directly linked to HIV, a virus that
attacks the body's T-Cells and immune system, weaken
ing the body's capacity to resist disease, thereby making it
susceptible to a long (and rapidly lengthening) list of
"opportunistic" infections. AIDS is a medical "construct",
and integral to its definition ancTdiagnosis is the pres
ence of HIV. In the U.S. for example, according to the
Centers for Disease Control's definition, a person cannot
have AIDS, regardless of other symptoms, unless she has
HIV, since HIV is considered the cause of AIDS and is
part of its diagnosis. As Celia Farber reports, "it is the per
fect circular definition, and has ensured the AIDS estab
lishment a near perfect correlation between HIV and
AIDS" (Farber, 1997: 99).
Are there alternative theories?
Even within the scientific community there is controversy
over the cause and treatment of AIDS.2 A number of
established researchers have challenged the prevalent
theory that HIV causes AIDS and have raised alternative
explanations for the disease. Robert Root-Bemstein,
Professor of Physiology at Michigan State University and
author of Rethinking AIDS: The Tragedy of Premature
Consensus (1993), was one of the first to publicly ask:
"What if HIV doesn't cause AIDS?" Root-Bernstein along with other scientists such as Peter Duesberg, a
renowned microbiologist and virologist, member of the
National Academy of Science, and a former candidate for
the Nobel Prize, and Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, bio
physicist and chairwoman of the Board of the International
Forum for Accessible Science - has pointed out many gaps
in this simplistic virus-disease causation theory. They
assert that even within the medical paradigm, HIV does
not meet the criteria of a human retrovirus, nor does
it follow the epidemiological course of an "epidemic"
(Root-Bemstein, 1993). Nobel Laureate (Chemistry),
Kary Mullis, asserts that "...we have not been able to dis
cover any good reasons why most of the people on earth
believe that AIDS is a disease caused by a virus called
HIV. There is simply no scientific evidence demonstrating
that this is true" ("Introduction" to Duesberg, 1996: xiii).
Despite strong resistance to their speculation and
alternative theories, many members of the scientific
establishment continue to raise questions about how
"AIDS" functions. Root-Bernstein, for example, places
emphasis on an immune system already weakened by any
of a wide variety of possible "co-factors" (other than HIV)
which allows the infections associated with AIDS to take
hold. Others, such as Joseph Sonnabend, suggest that there
are other, more specific, co-factors which play key roles in
the onset of AIDS (Sonnabend, 1993). K. Shallenberger
asserted in the journal Medical Hypotheses that the single
HIV infectious pathogen model of AIDS, "just does not
2. See Appendix A: Alternative Activists, Theories and Organizations.
Uncommon Questions — 5
fit the bill" (Shallenberger, 1998: 67-80). Shallenberger
has developed a theory of AIDS based on the immune
system itself, rather than a single invasive virus. He does
not question the existence of HFV, but argues that AIDS is
a multifactoral condition based on a reversal of the tradi
tional roles of the two principle arms of the immune
system, "cell mediated immunity" (CMI) and "antibody
mediated immunity" (AMI). Shallenberger suggests that
AIDS is a disease event entirely separate from HFV, and
found principally in people most subject to repeated
antigenic exposure, including 1) people with multiple
sexually-transmitted diseases, and viral, bacterial and
parasitic infections; 2) drug addicts exposed to various
hepatitis and other pathogens via dirty syringes and con
taminated street drugs; and 3) hemophiliacs exposed to
commercially-made clotting factor consisting of 99%
alloantigenic impurities (Shallenberger, 1998: 67-80).
Do social, economic, and political factors
play a role in developing AIDS?
The greatest number of AIDS cases are reportedly among
groups which are socially and economically marginal
ized. It is well known that social, economic and political
conditions play integral roles in building, or in destroy
ing, immunity. People living in poor social and economic
conditions do not have access to good nutrition, safe
water, or adequate health care. Their immune systems may
be weakened and they are often much more susceptible
to disease.
In Europe and North America, AIDS-defining diseases
include over 30 conditions,3 including tuberculosis and
cervical cancer. In addition, an HIV-positive test and a
T-cell count below 200 in the absence of other symptoms
may be adequate for a confirmed diagnosis (Geshekter,
1994). Conversely, despite the official definitions and
AIDS orthodoxy, in Africa and other developing countries
the presence of HIV is not necessary for an AIDS diagno
sis, and testing is rare. The World Health Organization's
clinical-case definition for these countries is based on a
list of symptoms that include chronic diarrhea, prolonged
fever, ten percent body weight loss in two months and a
persistent cough.4
These criteria for AIDS are disturbingly similar to endemic
diseases such as dysentery, tuberculosis, cholera and
malaria. Many experts, such as Dr. Harvey Bialy, eminent
Science Editor of Bio/Technology, a sister publication of the
journal Science, argue that AIDS is simply a new name for
old diseases that result from inadequafe'heal'th"care, wide
spread malnutrition, endemic infections and unsanitary
water supplies (Shenton, 1998; Murphy, 1994). In this
case, it would be very easy for widespread, and counter
productive, misdiagnosis, of AIDS. For those who do
undergo testing for HIV, the tests have been proven
remarkably unreliabl&JJarticularly in developing countries
(Johnson, 1996: 5). The potential for false positives is
very high partly due to anomalies in the tests themselves,
but also because - as is now well-documented - people
who live in areas where leprosy, malaria, and TB are
prevalent, routinely produce false positive HIV test results
since the test reacts to the proteins of the antibodies for
these diseases" (Harrison, 1996:9).
A growing number of scientists and researchers argue
that, to be effective, AIDS research and prevention has
to address structural poverty, unhealthy living conditions
and the lack of primary health care, rather than simply
attempting to change peoples' sexual behaviour (Murphy,
1994; Geshekter, 1997). Shenton reports that in Uganda,
"As a result of the redefined AIDS problem, coping with
malaria, a curable disease, has become seriously neglected
with cutbacks in funding for malaria control and medica
tion" (Shenton, 1998: 168).
The focus on the HIV virus as the cause of AIDS and the
key to its prevention means that research and treatment
programs continue to search solely for pharmaceutical
cures. Financial and human resources are diverted away
from addressing the underlying social and economic
causes of the chronic immune suppression that blights
the lives of hundreds of millions who live in grinding
poverty.
3. See Appendix B: Chronology of CDC's AIDS Definitions.
________
_________________
J
in Africa there are upwards of 2,200 documented cases of people who met
4. See Appendix
C: Provisional
WHO Clinical Case Definition
for AIDS (Bangui).
the WHO definition of AIDS and who are HIV-free. At a leading African centre for AIDS research in Abidjan, the researchers found that, "over one-third
of cases not qualifying as AIDS under |the| Bangui definition of symptoms were HIV-positive, and one-third of cases that did quality as AIDS were HIV
negative" (Shenton, 1998: 13 ).
6 — Uncommon Questions
Has the changing definition of AIDS affected women?
Is death inevitable?
The list of AIDS-defining diseases is being continually
changed, and from year-to-year diseases are added to or
deleted from the list. Recently, more attention has been
given to women's specific conditions related to AIDS. In
the beginning of 1993, the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) in the United States added cervical cancer and
pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) to the list of AIDSrelated conditions. Notably, and not surprisingly, at the
same time that these diseases were added, thejiumber of
women diagnosed with AIDS and HIV increased rapidly,
and often retroactively. However, many researchers believe
that there is in fact no causal link between HIV and cervi
cal cancer, and that the potential for misdiagnosis is very
high (Ratcliffe, 1995: 15). In both cervical cancer and PID,
researchers claim that the conditions themselves may cause
a woman to test positively, but falsely, for HIV antibodies.
It is important to note that no other kind of cancer, with
the exception of kaposi sarcoma, has been linked to AIDS
or to other immune suppression conditions.
It is the standard assumption that there is no cure for
AIDS. We are told that if we contract HIV we will even
tually develop AIDS and ultimately die from its effects.
When a person is diagnosed as HIV-positive, she is pres
sured to take whatever drug treatments she can afford,
regardless of whether she has symptoms of disease. Even
when asymptomatic, she is forced to struggle with the
presumed fatality of her condition, and the rapidly debil
itating side effects of the drugs. However, the number of
healthy long-term HIV-positive people - particularly sero
positive women, men and children who have not initiated
drug treatments - is an increasingly identifiable group, and
more and more we are hearing dissenting and concerned
voices pose the question: is AIDS really the fatal disease
and epidemic that we have been led to believe? (Doherty,
1999; see also HEAL Website www.epcnet.com; and
Appendix A attached).
2. AIDS as an Epidemic : Reviewing- the Statistics
Common Knowledge
AIDS spreads rapidly and has now reached epidemic proportions. AIDS is not just a gay disease. Everyone is at risk. More and more
women are getting AIDS, and the fastest growing risk group is heterosexual women.
Uncommon Questions
Does AIDS follow the pattern of an epidemic? Is there an AIDS explosion? Are heterosexual women really at high risk? Have we been
manipulated by AIDS statistics? Do we need to re-assess this "epidemic?"
Does AIDS follow the usual pattern of epidemics?
As Celia Farber asks, "If the HIV-spreads-like-wildfirekills-like-a-truck model of disease were true, then why
wouldn't there be a heterosexual explosion by now?"
(Farber, 1996: 87). One of the reasons why AIDS is
assumed to have reached "epidemic" proportions is
because of the mainstream belief that AIDS is caused by
an infectious agent, HIV, which is transmitted through
the blood and other bodily fluids, such as semen or
breast milk. While these routes of transmission would
actually make it more difficult to contract HIV than, for
example, a flu or a virus transmitted through the air, the
assumption persists that the general population is at high
risk of contracting HIV, particularly men and women
who are sexually active, people who come into contact
with infected blood products, and infants born to HIV
positive women. Because of these assumptions about
how AIDS is spread and the high risk associated with the
routes of transmission, AIDS is (quite understandably)
believed to be spreading rapidly and evenly across the
general population.
Uncommon Questions — 7
Following this logic, if we assume that AIDS works like
a typical infectious disease, then we would expect that
it would follow the five characteristics of an infectious
disorder (Horton, 1996: 14), that is:
1.
It would spread randomly between sexes;
2.
It would rapidly appear, at least within months;
3.
It would be possible to identify "active and abundant
(HIV) microbes in all cases";
4.
Cells would die or be impaired, beyond the ability of
the body to replace them;
5.
There would be a consistent pattern of symptoms in
those infected.
In the case of AIDS, most of these characteristics have not
been met. In the U.S. and Europe, men are affected far
more commonly than women, particularly homosexual
men. In 1988, Toronto-based epidemiologist, Eric Mintz,
already questioned the epidemic hypothesis: "...if the
median time between HIV seropositivity and full-blown
AIDS is at least 7 years (or 15 years, as has been recently
claimed), then this epidemic is about 20 years old. Since
it has begun to plateau, it is most likely in middle age. If
there has been no widespread heterosexual spread, why
would one expect it to occur now, as the reservoir in
most of the high-risk groups is diminishing?" (Mintz,
1988: 28).
The disease does not appear rapidly; in fact, for most
it has never appeared even many years after the original
diagnosis. This is evident by the fact that only 1 percent _
of HIV-positive people in the USA develop AIDS per year
(Duesberg, 1987). Further, it is not possible to identify
active and abundant HIV microbes in all cases. The CDC
has shown that 10 percent of cases diagnosed with AIDS
have no sign of antibodies to HIV (Shenton, 1998: 11).
Cells do not die out in the numbers necessary to cause
disease and death. Finally, in Africa, the symptoms asso
ciated with AIDS are very different from those seen in
North America and Europe, although this can be partially
explained by the fact that immune deficiency will make
people more vulnerable to the infections endemic in
their specific locale, which may differ from place to place.
8 -Unco-mmon Questions
In fact, figures published by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control for the year ending 1997 show total U.S. HIV/AIDS
diagnoses declined from 68,808 in 1996 to 60,634 in
1997 in a population of 272,000,000. In 1996, hetero
sexual contact was ascribed to 14 percent of all cases;
in 1997, 13 percent. In absolute numbers, heterosexual
contact cases declined from 9,526 in 1996, to 8,112 in
1997. Female adult diagnoses declined from 13,767 to
13,105. Pediatric diagnoses declined from 671 to 473, of
which all but 63 were among those defined as "racial/
ethnic minorities".
Is there an AIDS explosion?
According to Health Canada the global figure of all
reported AIDS cases, living or dead, as of December,
1996, was 1,393,638. North America accounted for
555,321 of these cases. The remaining cases were distri
buted among all the countries of Europe (167,571) and
the other continents, including the Third World. Africa
accounted for 499,035 cases, with all other regions com
bined reporting the remaining cases. All of Asia accounted
for only 29,705 cases. These statistics are from the World
Health Organization (WHO) for the diagnosed incidence
of AIDS to December 1996 (Health Canada, 1996: 5).
The totals in these statistical updates from the WHO are
cumulative since 1979, and reflect not merely cases diag
nosed in a particular year, but all cases ever reported
worldwide, living and dead. There is no other endemic
or epidemic disease for which such cumulative statistics
are maintained (Murphy, 1995: 39-46).
Even at that, these numbers are far lower than the predic
tions made about the scale of the problem. The frequent
explanation for the differential between the predicted
incidence of HIV/AIDS and the more modest figures that
are actually reported is that: 1) very few countries have
the capacity to diagnose AIDS; and 2) they resist report
ing the true incidence because they do not want to admit
to the problem. While some countries may not have the
capacity, or inclination, to do wide-scale testing for HIV,
these countries are still diagnosing AIDS in the absence
of the test. As a result, given the potential for mis-diagnosis based on common symptoms, actual cases of AIDS
may well be much lower than reported, rather than higher.
In any case, the idea that governments resist reporting
AIDS has little credence, given the pressure on govern
ments to bow to the agenda of the WHO and other inter
national institutions, and the funds made available to
governments willing to accept AIDS as a priority. In many
cases virtually the only international health money avail
able is for AIDS research and treatment so there is a great
incentive to diagnose AIDS wherever possible, and to
focus on sexual/reproductive behaviours in treatment
and education programs. A common complaint of Third
World NGOs is that if they do not give priority to AIDS,
there is little international funding available for their
health activities. Given this pressure, together with the
tremendous interest in tracking down and reporting AIDS
by the multilateral and non-governmental humanitarian
sector - not to mention the lucrative pharmaceutical
industry and its associates in the medical training and
research field - we can have some confidence that the
numbers reported above are not significantly below actual
incidences. The idea that the incidence of AIDS is worse
by a factor of five, ten, or twenty has no basis. In many
countries, NGOs are hard-pressed to find AIDS sufferers
(Health Ganada, 1996: 4).
globe through sexual transmission, the present modest
numbers would be much higher. Indeed there would be
no controversy, because the numbers in Canada and the
United States themselves, where diagnosis and reporting
is aggressive and rigorous, would already be astronomi
cal, which they are not. The facts simply do not back up
the theory.
Many activists are concerned about the effect of claims
that AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in Africa
and other developing countries. These claims have been
used to justify the use of Third World populations, par
ticularly in Africa, but also in South-East Asia and the
Americas, for vaccine trials and drug tests that are not
permitted in Europe and North America. Poor countries
in the South - desperately seeking health care funding and
drugs to curtail the reported "epidemic" - employ much
less strict regulations over testing of drugs and vaccines,
and are under extreme pressure to acquiesce to sponsoring
such experimental trials. When governments in the South
make decisions that run counter to prevailing orthodoxy
offAIDS, as was recently the case in South Africa, they
come under extreme attack from AIDS advocates
(Mickleburgh, 1999; Murphy, 1999).
1. They avoided taking chemotherapy/anti-retroviral
drugs such as AZT, ddl, ddC, d4T, and 3TC;
It is the theoretical premise that the cause of AIDS is
primarily viral, together with the social-sexual theories
about the spread of AIDS, that leads to a prediction of
an epidemic, not the observable facts. If a deadly virus
was indeed spreading widely and rapidly throughout the
One explanation given for the present low numbers in
North America is that the figures are in part due to the
increased use of more effective anti-retroviral drugs which
are prolonging the onset of full blown AIDS in those with
HIV. Yet there is serious debate about the positive and
negative impact of AZT and the so-called "drug cocktails",
with many critics challenging the claims of their effective
ness in preventing the onset of disease in HIV-positive
people. The recent use of these drugs cannot explain the
failure of the prediction made in the mid-1980s that North
America and Europe would experience a major catastrophic
epidemic by the early nineties. Indeed, research compiled
by Kevin Doherty (1999) indicates that the three most
common characteristics of long-term "HIV-positive
survivors" are:
2.
On learning of their HIV status (HIV-positive), they
stopped all high-risk activities such as drug use and
unprotected sex;
3. They began taking charge of their lives, including
their nutrition, exercise, and health.
Clearly, more research is required that carefully accounts
for these factors.
Are heterosexual women really at high risk?
In hard numbers, relatively few women are diagnosed
with AIDS even with the inclusion in recent years of spe
cific women's diseases such as cervical cancer. As Celia
Farber reports, fewer women are becoming infected, and
"the bulk of heterosexual transmission is taking place
within a disenfranchised community that is marked by
poverty, poor health care, sexually-transmitted diseases
and drug use" (Farber, 1996). This conclusion is not new.
Uncommon Questions — 9
Stephen Strauss, a science editor for the Ghbe and Mail,
years ago asked the critical question, "If zMDS is caused
solely by HIV, and spread via sexual intercourse, then
why is it not spreading along sexual lines so much as
along sociological lines, with poverty and drug use being
central co-factors?...prostitutes have no higher incidence
of either HIV or AIDS than any non-risk groups - unless
they are IV-drug users" (Strauss, 1993). The work of Eric
Mintz (1988) discussed earlier also undermined the con
clusion that women were at significant risk of contracting
HIV through sexual contact.
Have tee been manipidated by AIDS statistics?
It appears that AIDS statistics are often manipulated to
give the illusion of an increase in AIDS cases, when there
has actually been a decrease. In a very revealing example,
Christine Maggiore (15)97) reports -hat:
in Canada, a nation with an extremely low inci
dence of AIDS, AIDS groups and reporters play up
the few cases they can find and often perform their
own magic with -he numbers. For example, new
Canadian AIDS cases for 1995 were 1.369 and of
these, HI or 8% were among women. In 195)6,
when the numbet of new AIDS cases dropped by
almost 50% to a total of 712, the media and AIDS
organizations not only ignored the good news, but
devised a way' io make it appear bad. Since 67 of
the 712 AIDS cases for 1996 were among women
(a decrease of 44 from the year before), the lower
number of cases among women was now part of
a smaller total. This provided an opportunity to
express a decrease of 44 as an increase of 1.4%
(emphasis added).
Maggiore provides -he following char- to illustrate:
year Reported
195)5
1996
Total New
AIDS Ccises
1369
712
Nuw.'oer of
Womerc
ill
' '
6?
What is key here is that in 195)6, only a miniscule total
of 67 women - among a population of over 15 million
women - were diagnosed with AIDS in Canada; and
although this itself was an almost 50 percent reducfwn in
new cases, we read about it as a major and continuing
increase. We can only ask why, and in whose interest, are
statistics reported this way?
tn addition, unlike other statistics on disease which are
reported on an annual basis, AIDS statistics in Canada
and around the world are calculated c^mtdadvely. This
means -hat statistics report the cumulative total of people
who have AIE>S or have died from AIDS since it was first
defined as a category in the late seventies. Thus, of the
total number of AIDS cases ever reported in Canada
between 1979 and December 1998 (that is, 16,2.36
cases), 71 percent (• 1,525) are deceased. Since 1995,
the number of AIDS deaths each year has significantly
declined, with an 89.5 percent drop in deaths in 1998 as
compared with 1995. Deaths peaked at 1,420 in 1995,
and fell to just above 100 in 1998. Similar trends are visi
ble in the incidence of positive HIV tests, which have
declined 23.3 percent between 15)95 and the end of 15)98
(Health Canada, 1999:5). Tills is precisely the kind of
plateau and decline in figures predicted by people like
Eric Mintz over ten years earlier.
Since numbets on theii own are diffiaih -o interpret espe
cially given the differing ways numbers are presented, it is
important that these figures are contextualized. Well over
100 women and children are murdered across Canada every
year. In Quebec alone, between December 6; 1985/, when
14 women in Montreal were killed by a gun-wielding anti
feminist, and December 6, 1998, 501 women and children
were killed by men (Montreal Men Against Sexism, 195)8 ;.
The generalized confusion and fear about AIDS is
caused trot by direct experience, but by speculation out
% of Coses
ofWon-en
8%
9.4%
] From: What if everything you thought you knetv about AIDS was wrong? by Christine Maggiore, 1997: 371
io — VJYicomrrxon Questions
What tnakes the News? Rise of
AIDS among Women by L4%
of proportion with the scale of events in the real world.
Prevailing preoccupation about AIDS among most
Canadians, for example, could not be based on direct
personal experience since, according to the official
Government of Canada cumulative statistics as of
December, 1998, reported above, there has been a total
of 16,236 cases of AIDS reported in the almost twenty
years since records have been kept, of which 1,218 were
women. As in the United States, most of the increase in
diagnosis in Canada in the past several years has been due
to the retroactive inclusion of new diseases within the
diagnostic definition of AIDS, rather than the discovery
of new cases. As Brian Murphy emphasizes, "...compared
to other deadly conditions, such as breast cancer and
heart disease, for example, which are far more prevalent,
or the horrendous incidence of traffic deaths and occupa
tional accident and disease, this number of cases in and
of themselves would have relatively little direct impact on
30 million Canadians, very few of whom have ever met
a person with AIDS" (Murphy, 1995).
Another poignant example is the alarming statistic that
iatrogenic death (death from medical treatment) is now
one of the largest causes of death in the United States. A
recent ground-breaking study by Pomeranz, Lararou &
Corey (1998) documents the very serious adverse effects
of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs, reveal
ing that adverse drug effects are one of the leading causes
of death worldwide. The side effects of drugs are between
the 4th and 6th leading cause of death after heart disease,
cancer and lung disease. Following analysis of thousands
of hospital patients in 39 U.S. cities, the researchers found
that adverse reactions - which didn't include prescribing
errors or drug abuse - kill 100,000 Americans every year
and seriously injure 2.1 million more (Pomeranz, Lararou
& Corey, 1998: 1200-1205)!
In 1995, 12 times more Americans died of cancer (538,455)
and 17 times more of heart disease (737,563) than died
of AIDS (43,115). Yet today at the U.S. National Institute
of Health, funding for AIDS research (US$1.5-billion) is
second only to cancer research ($2.2-billion) and exceeds
the $1.4-billion spent on heart disease (Bailey, 1995). As
Celia Farber notes, "because AIDS is perceived as 'every
body's disease', funds that might have saved lives had the
education campaigns been better targeted were instead
squandered across a broad population, most of whom
were never at risk" (Farber, 1996).
Joan Shenton argues that money is at the root of the
alarming AIDS figures put out by the UN system. "In
the early 1990s, the WHO's Global Programme on AIDS
JlateFtoTe taken over by UNAIDS] was employing
between 2,000 - 3,000 people. They continually fed
highly inflated figures to the press, and officials at public
meetings began to quote their estimated cases for AIDS
in order to drum up funding, quietly dropping the actual
reported figures. When they were challenged there was
acknowledgment that the figures they were using as fact
were no more than guesswork" (Shenton, 1998: 59).
By 1995, the WHO AIDS program dismissed 75Qjof
its workers because none of the pandemic predictions
had come true.
Do we need to re-assess this “epidemic" ?
The fact is, the number of people with AIDS is not astro
nomical; the numbers are not increasing but decreasing,
and they reveal none of the mathematical characteristics
of an epidemic. The projections issued by the UN and
other bodies concerning "estimated" cases worldwide are
just that - projections based on estimates, specifically esti
mates of infection with HIV - all based on a theory that
itself is highly suspect, and in direct contradiction with
the actual diagnosed incidence of AIDS. And increasingly
we are seeing this question being asked even in the popu
lar media, when only a few years ago headlines predicted
only apocalypse.
A challenge to the epidemiology of AIDS must be
made, because such extravagant numbers are used to
justify the preoccupation with AIDS. In an open letter
from the Secretary General of the International Forum
for Accessible Science (IFAS), Michael Baumgartner advo
cates a full reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS hypothesis by
an international independent scientific committee. He
asserts that, "Epidemiological data does not support the
predictions made in 1984 that the conditions labeled
AIDS were caused by a new specific retrovirus, transmissi
ble by sexual intercourse, inevitably fatal and spreading
uncontrollably in the general population, culminating
in a global pandemic. Independent epidemiological
research together with the passage of time has since
shown that this hypothesis and the ensuing predictions
are wrong" (Baumgartner, 1998: 11).
Uncommon Questions — 11
3. AIDS and Testing-
Common Knowledge
Everyone should be tested for HIV The tests designed to determine a person's HIV status are acairate and reliable. If you test positive
for HIV you will eventually get AIDS. Pregnant women should have an HIV test as part of their routine testing.
Uncommon Questions
Does HIV even exist? What do HIV tests actually measure? How reliable are HIV tests, and what are the chances of getting a false
test result? Should pregnant women be subject to routine or mandatory HIV tests? What are the effects of being diagnosed with HIV?
What are the human rights implications of such a diagnosis? How might someone be discriminated against having tested positive or
been diagnosed with AIDS ?
Does HIV exist?
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and a group of HIV/Al DS
dissident scientists at the University of Western Australia,
known as the 'Perth Group7, maintain that HIV has never
truly been isolated, that the proteins alleged to be specific
to HIV are actually stress proteins released in response to
a severe disease condition. The various indirect molecu
lar, biochemical and genetic findings have been inter
preted as meaning HIV isolation, but none have offered
conclusive direct evidence of HIV - that is, HIV has not
been isolated as art independent, stable particle - and
therefore, according to Papadopulos-Eleopulos, HIV may
not exist at all (Papadopulos-Eleopulos, 1993 and 1995;
Ankomah, 1996).
mend that all positive test results be verified by repeat
ELISA tests and a second independent assay, usually the
Western Blot immunoblot or radioimmune precipitation.
The Western Blot test demonstrates antibodies to specific
viral proteins. The different proteins are separated and a
person's serum is placed over each of the antigens. If the
antibodies are present in the serum, they will bind to the
test antigens causing a colour change or dark band. The
formations of various bands of the viral proteins is con
sidered a positive result because the bands are said to
confirm the presence of specific HIV antibodies in the
person's blood. The Western blot is technically difficult
and expensive (Malarkey, 1996:158). When a person has
a negative or indeterminate result, it is recommended
that she be tested again in 6 weeks.
What do HIV tests actually measure?
Current HIV tests do not test for the HIV virus itself, but
for its antibodies. In fact, tests look for any antibody
whose "key" fits the "lock" of the proteins in the mixture.
The most commonly used test world-wide for the detec
tion of HIV antibodies is called ELISA - the Enzyme
Linked Immunosorbent Assay. The proteins reacting
with the antigens of the ELISA test are supposed to be
exclusive to HIV. According to the Canadian Medical
Association, "A positive test result indicates that the
person has been infected with HIV and can transmit the
infection to others" (CMA Guidelines, 1995: 12). However,
the ELISA test is known to produce false positive results
because the solution reacts to many different antibodies,
not just HIV antigens. CMA guidelines therefore recom-
12 — Uncommon Questions
According to many AIDS experts, the Western blot is
more specific than ELISA, but neither is accurate enough
to be used as a benchmark for measuring HIV status.
Notably, the criteria for a positive Western Blot test varies
widely around the world. The number of bands of pro
teins needed to react before considering the Western Blot
positive depends on where and by whom the test is done,
reflecting a lack of standardization globally. "Around the
world different combinations of two or three or four of
the ten possible bands are deemed proof of infection.
In Africa you need two bands but in France, the United
Kingdom and Australia you need four and under the U.S.
FDA and Red Cross rules you need three" (Turner, 1998,
as quoted by Christie, 1998: 14). The number of bands
is set according to the prevalence of HIV infection. In
theory, by emigrating from New York to Australia, an
HIV-positive status can become negative.
How reliable are HIV tests, and what are the chances
of getting a false test result?
Several AIDS experts critique the HIV tests because they
are unreliable. HIV antibody tests lack what are techni
cally known as specificity and sensitivity,5 and according
to Peter Duesberg, "the |ELISA| test can be wrong over
50% of the time" (Guccione, 1996: 9).
Antibodies are known to be non-specific and they
cross-react with many conditions and proteins. Valendar
Turner of the Perth Group says that "all the (antibody)
test indicates is that some antibodies in patients react
to some proteins present in cultures of tissues from the
same patients. But, given that information, what a scien
tist is obliged to do next is make the comparison with
the virus gold standard, before pronouncing the test
highly specific for diagnosing HIV infection" (Christie,
1998:18). In other words, scientists must be able to find
the virus itself to determine the presence of HIV. Without
this "gold standard" there is no way to interpret test results
accurately. Turner suggests that it is incorrect for scientists
to claim that HIV antibody tests are better nowadays
because they use purer proteins, because the gold stan
dard comparison has not been used (because HIV itself
has never been independently isolated in the lab). He
goes on to say that it is a "tragedy that these tests were
introduced in the total absence of proof of their speci
ficity" (Turner, cited in Christie, 1998: 18).
Further, "In 1988 the U.S. Army tested over a million
soldiers and found that even in healthy military recruits,
half of all the 12,000 first positive ELISA's were negative
second time around. And after a second positive ELISA
two thirds failed to react on a first Western Blot. And
some first Western Blots failed to react on a second
Western Blot" (Turner, cited in Christie, 1998: 18).
The potential for false positive test results escalates when
the population tested is likely to have infections such as
those frequently seen in the Third World or among immi-
grants from these countries. There are more than 70 con
ditions and proteins that can cause false positive HIV
tests, including hepatitis, TB, malaria, leprosy and even
certain types of influenza which produce similar anti
body proteins as the so-called HIV antibodies.6 Both the
ELISA and Western Blot tests have difficulty detecting the
difference (Burkett, 1995: 13; Christie, 1998; Johnson,
1996). Pregnancy can itself cause an antibody reaction.
Repeating the test is only likely to repeat the same cross
reaction to non-HIV antibodies. Furthermore, new cross
reactions are being discovered all the time.
In spite of these serious and well documented limitations,
kits for the rapid and simple testing of the presence of
HIV advertise that they can provide a person with a defi
nite negative or preliminary positive result in 10 minutes
or less. As of April 1995, none of these tests had been
approved for sale in Canada. However, the CMA Guidelines
suggest that these tests have advantages over current pro
tocols (for example, they do not require complex labo
ratory equipment or technical training to perform) in
specific settings, such as remote areas, or developing
countries, even though in their own document they admit
that these tests raise "significant scientific, technical, epi
demiological, cost and ethical issues" (CMA Guidelines,
1995: 19). Given the probability of errors, widespread use
of these kits can have serious and dangerous consequences.
In addition to some of these technical factors in generat
ing unreliability in various tests, Root-Bernstein explains
the statistical error (known as Bayes Law) involved with
reliability of diagnostic tests in general. When testing is
done on a random or a screening basis for people who
are not at specific risk for AIDS due to other factors (usu
ally socio-economic), the number of false positives esca
lates. Linder laboratory conditions tests are reliable about
97 percent of the time. This sounds good on the surface,
but it actually means in random testing under laboratory
conditions, "...about eight false positives for every true
positive. [And] if the test kit were 90 percent reliable, a
home test for HIV would yield between twenty-five and
several hundred false positives for every true positive"
(Root-Bernstein, 1990: 7). This high probability of error
is one of the reasons tests should be re-confirmed and
administered only to people who belong to an identified
5. SpecAficity is essential for reliability and is usually indicated as a percentage. Specificity is a measure of how often a positive test turns up when it is
known that HIV is absent; this is called a false positive result. A test should not react unless the HIV antibody is actually present. If the test is negative
100 times in 100 people with no HIV, then it is considered 100% specific. Sensitivity, on the other hand, is a measure of how often a test is positive
when you know HIV is present. If you get a negative result when HIV is present, this is commonly called a false negative (Christie, 1998: 18).
6. See Appendix D, b'actors Known to Cause False Positives.
Uncommon Questions — 13
risk group or who already display other symptoms of
AIDS, such as opportunistic infections, and therefore
have a much higher than average probability of being
infected. "Accuracy begins to approximate reliability only
when an appreciable fraction of the population is afflicted
- say 10 percent - or if the test is limited to [people] who
display symptoms suggesting a high probability of being
infected - that is, when testing is not random" (RootBernstein, 1990: 7).
Should pregnant women be subject to routine or
mandatory HIV tests?
While HIV testing of pregnant women is theoretically
done only with the consent of the woman, some
provinces have recently made routine HIV testing and
counselling the norm. In 1998, the Ontario Ministry of
Health announced that the provincial screening program
was being expanded to include voluntary prenatal HIV
testing for all pregnant women, regardless of other risk
factors. Under the new program, approximately 150,000
prenatal HIV screening tests will be performed annually
(Government of Ontario, 1998). According to the Health
Ministry, the primary goal of the new program is "to
assist women in accessing appropriate treatment for HIV
as early as possible. Anti-retroviral treatment will help to
maintain the health of the woman as well as reduce the
risk of passing the virus to the baby" (Government of
Ontario, 1998). According to the Ontario Government,
"many women with HIV do not have obvious risk factors
- most are diagnosed only after their children are found
to have the virus" (Government of Ontario, 1998). The
test is also being recommended to all women considering
becoming pregnant.
Elsewhere in Canada other provinces are making changes.
The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services has
initiated a new program recommending that all pregnant
women, and women contemplating pregnancy, be offered
an HIV test. Since 1993, the Northwest Territories' Maternal
and Perinatal Committee, which has representation from
the Department of Health and Social Services and the
Northwest Territories Medical Association, has recom
mended that all pregnant women be tested for HIV. This
is now considered routine, although technically women
may "opt out" (Health Canada, 1998; Samson, 1998).
— Uncommon Questions
There are real concerns about routine HIV testing of
pregnant women. First, pregnancy is a condition that is
known to cause cross-reactions with HIV tests, leading
to higher rates of false positive test results. The Alberta
Reappraising AIDS Society (ARAS) asserts that testing this
low-risk population will likely result in many false posi
tives, with dangerous consequences. They maintain that
the health of every pregnant woman who is branded HIV
positive, as well as that of her baby, will be damaged by
both toxic AZT therapy (used to fight HIV) and the prohi
bition against breastfeeding. ARAS suggests that people
have forgotten some of the lessons history has taught
us about the dangers of certain drugs in pregnancy.
For example, they wonder, "Does anybody remember
Thalidomide?" (ARAS press release, February 23, 1999).
What are the effects of an HIV-positive diagnosis?
One of the problems of consenting to an HIV test in
the first place, especially in the case of asymptomatic per
sons, is that a positive test causes profound psychological
distress and immediately moves a person into the med
ical system and treatment with toxic drugs. In the case
of a pregnant woman, she will be given information on
terminating her pregnancy and if she continues with the
pregnancy, drug treatments will be recommended in the
belief that AZT administered to the pregnant woman
reduces mother-to-child transmission of HIV. She often
will be advised to have her birth by cesarean section.
Furthermore, breastfeeding will be strongly discouraged,
and possibly prohibited, because it is believed that unin
fected infants breast-fed by HIV-positive women can
become infected (CMA, 1995: 17-18). All of these drastic
measures are based on the assumptions that HIV is accu
rately detected by the tests, that HIV causes AIDS, that
drugs such as AZT effectively treat and prevent AIDS, and
that it is justifiable to use AZF in the presence of positive
HIV tests, even in asymptomatic infants and their mothers.
We, along with many others, question each of these
assumptions and point out the serious impacts - physical,
mental, emotional, economical, social and legal - that
can result.
The implications of testing include real physical, psycho
logical and economic concerns. When people are diag
nosed as HIV-positive, their doctors often suggest that
they begin to take chemotherapeutic drugs to treat their
condition. The medical model of disease and treatment
cultivates this response. People who are misdiagnosed,
or are in any case asymptomatic, are still treated with
potent drugs, such as AZT, which have hazardous effects;
indeed, effects that precisely parallel the defined symp
toms of AIDS itself, since these chemotherapies destroy
virtually all growing cells and critically undermine the
immune system along with much else in the body. In this
case, testing - which leads to treatment - jeopardizes a
person's health.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) recommends
that testing only be carried out with the consent of the
patient and when the patient considers the advantages to
be greater than the disadvantages, and that the person be
counselled pre- and post-testing. However, even though
the CMA promotes "informed consent", the underlying
assumptions are that 1) tests actually identify the pres
ence of HIV; 2) HIV will lead to the development of
AIDS; and 3) an HIV-positive test should be followed
by medical treatment (CMA, 1995: 10).
Meanwhile, beyond all of these risks to health, there
is the risk of alienation and social isolation. The public
continues to stigmatize people who are identified as HIV
positive or diagnosed with AIDS. A person is blamed for
her condition - it is her fault because she is "promiscu
ous"; it is his fault because he is gay; it is their fault
because they are drug addicts. In many people's eyes,
it is "wrongful" behaviour that has led to this condition.
The responsibility for contracting the disease is placed on
the sufferer; she is made to feel guilty and shameful for
her condition, in addition to being pressured into making
choices of testing and treatment.
What are the human rights implications of an HIV-positive
diagnosis? How might someone be discriminated against
having tested positive or been diagnosed with AIDS?
In the United States there have already been cases where
HIV-positive women have had their babies removed by
child welfare authorities, and then been ordered by the
courts to give their newborns AZT and to stop breastfeed
ing, under threat of losing custody of their children. This
is happening even though, as Farber points out, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifies in
their recommendations that: "Discussion of treatment
options should be non-coercive, and the final decision
to accept or reject AZT treatment recommended for her
self and her child is the right and responsibility of the
woman. A decision not to accept treatment should not
result in punitive action" (Farber, 1999).
It is these kinds of actions that concern us because,
despite the right of women to informed consent, the
wide acceptance of the assumption that HIV causes AIDS
and can be transmitted by breastfeeding poses very real
potential for human rights violations, over and above
health implications. It is already happening, in the
United States, and in Canada.
Yet there continue to be calls for mandatory testing and
treatment for HIV in North America. Already in some
cases, employers or health insurance companies will not
consider applicants without proof of HIV-free status. The
potential for discrimination is dear: people may lose
their jobs or be prevented from access to employment,
may not be granted health care, and may not be able
to visit or immigrate to some countries. According to a
recent report, "Canada is considering whether it should
routinely screen would-be immigrants for HIV, the deadly
virus that causes AIDS, as it does for communicable dis
eases such as tuberculosis and syphilis. The government
says that it is the first time it has raised the possibility of
testing and excluding carriers of the virus. The review is
linked to proposed changes to immigration policy..."
(The Ottawa Citizen, January 9, 1999: A4).
Another serious implication of HIV-positive status is the
possibility of being denied treatment for other illnesses.
For example, at a clinic in Haiti where patients come for
treatment forTB and other infectious diseases, those
identified as HIV-positive have been refused treatment
on the assumption that they "will definitely die of AIDS"
and that the clinic "cannot afford to give HIV-positive
patients medication" (Shenton, 1996: 12-14). There is
considerable anecdotal evidence among Canadian aid
workers and their Third World counterparts, that this
reaction is very common in poor areas of the world
where they work.
Uncommon Questions — 15
4. AIDS and BreastfeedingCommon Knowledge
Although breastfeeding is normally the best infant care possible, women with HIV should not breastfeed because the baby can get
AIDS from breastmilk.
Uncommon Questions
Can a mother pass on the HIV virus through breastmilk? Do infants develop AIDS through this kind of transmission? Should HIV
positive pregnant women be discouraged from breastfeeding especially where conditions are known to be unsafe for formula feeding?
Can a mother pass on the HIV vims through breastmilk, and
do infants develop AIDS through this kind of transmission?
A number of reports claim that HIV infection rates
increase with breastfeeding. UNAIDS states that more
than one third of infants infected through "vertical trans
mission" (mother-to-child transmission) are infected
through breastfeeding. In a recent report, UNICEF
announced that a child stands a 20 percent risk of vertical
transmission of the virus in late pregnancy and childbirth
and is at an additional 14 percent risk of infection
through breastmilk. Obviously, these conclusions are
controversial, and the policy dilemmas enormous, given
the staggering implications for breastfeeding practices
worldwide. Yet despite the potentially disastrous conse
quences, in 1998 the UN released a statement warning
HIV-positive women not to breastfeed their children,
but rather resort to infant formula.
There are a number of points that need to be raised in
connection to AIDS and breastfeeding. The first question
is whether the studies which indicate that breastfeeding
increases the rate of 11IV transmission are valid. In fact,
these are speculative statements, projections from models
of prevailing AIDS theory - like all projections on AIDS
issued by the UN. The hypothesis that AIDS can be con
tracted from mother to child in this way has not yet been
proven. Some of the studies simply compared the chance
of vertical transmission in developing countries, where
women generally breastfeed, and developed countries,
where the rate of breastfeeding is much lower, and showed
the risk to be higher in the developing countries, and
extrapolated breastfeeding as the determining variable in
the difference (Goldfarb, 1993). Obviously, without look
ing at control samples, such studies are not conclusive.
16 — Uncommon Questions
The American Academy of Pediatrics, while presently
holding that breastfeeding can be a source of HIV infec
tion, does state that, "currently no randomized clinical
trials are available that accurately document the incre
mental risk of HIV transmission through breastfeeding
over that occurring during the intrauterine and intrapartum
periods. Evaluation of populations that vary only by
method of infant feeding have been limited to date, due
to the homogeneity of feeding practices in current cohorts,
with breastfeeding the norm in developing countries and
formula feeding the norm in industrialized countries"
(AAP Policy Statement on Human Milk, Breastfeeding
and Transmission of HIV in the US, 1997).
Secondly, while some accept that HIV can be present in
breast milk and conclude that it is the source of some
infants testing positive for HIV antibodies, there is as yet
no study done on the number of those infants developing
AIDS. In fact, some studies have shown that breastfeeding
slows the progression of the disease in babies who are
bom HIV-positive. A 1995 study showed that human milk
contains a factor that inhibits the binding of HIV to spe
cific receptor sites on human T-cells (La Leche League,
1995). It is important to note also that there have been
multiple anti-infectious, protective substances which have
been identified in human milk (Jelliffe & Jelliffe, 1978;
La Leche League International, 1995; Radetsky, 1999).
Another issue that has significant policy implications
derives from the fact that world-wide, most pregnant
women are not aware of their HIV status. There is no reli
able test that guarantees against false positives and it is
highly unlikely - and in any case, undesirable - that all
pregnant women could be tested for HIV antibodies,
particularly given the cost and the reality that most women
the world over do not have access even to basic prenatal
care. As such, the policy of discouraging breastfeeding is
absurd, and any significant shift from breastfeeding to
bottle-feeding as a result of such a policy will generate
child mortality figures several times higher than the best
estimate of those dying as a result of HIV transmission.
Should pregnant women who are HIV-positive be discour
aged from breastfeeding, especially when conditions are
known to be unsafe for formula feeding?
In the absence of appropriate information, discouraging
breastfeeding due to its purported connection with HIV
is truly frightening. It is imperative that policy-makers
not lose sight of the importance of breastfeeding to
maternal and infant health. For decades health advocates
have been able to say without hesitation that breastfeed
ing is the best thing for both the mother and the baby.
Besides being an excellent source of nutrition, a mother's
milk protects her child against morbidity and mortality
from infectious diseases of bacterial, viral, and parasitic
origin, while the act of breastfeeding establishes a bond
between mother and infant. As a spokesperson from
UNAIDS states, "In 90% of the developing world, the
protection that is afforded by breastfeeding against the
diseases of the Third World is higher than the rate of
HIV transmission" (Meier, 1997).
Over the years, the campaign to restrict manufacturers
from marketing and selling infant formula to women who
are unable to use it safely, or who do not have appropri
ate information about its negative health effects, has been
an uphill struggle. Despite an international code of con
duct for the sale and marketing of breastmilk substitutes,
infant formula manufacturers have continued to flaunt
these codes, continuing to put profits over maternal and
child health (Delahanty, 1994). The efforts by health care
workers and advocates, including earlier important efforts
of UNICEF, to improve infant health through breastfeeding
have saved the lives of countless children - and improved
their long-term health and life expectancies even more.
Breastfeeding also confers significant and well documented
benefits to women's health (Jelliffe and Jelliffe, 1978;
Palmer, 1988; Van Esterik, 1989; Minchin, 1989; La Leche
League, 1995).
S. Treatment
Common Knowledge
There is no Imown cure for AIDS but life can be prolonged through drug therapy. People with HIV-positive status should begin treat
ment early to prevent the onset of the disease. An HIV-positive pregnant woman should begin treatment early and have a cesarean
section to avoid transmission to her child. HIV-positive infants should begin treatment at birth.
Uncommon Questions
What are the effects of these highly toxic drugs, and how have they been tested before being administered? Could these drugs in fact be
making some people sick, and even killing them, who would otherwise not be seriously ill at all? Who is benefiting from the emphasis
on drug treatment? Are there any alternatives?
What are the effects of these highly toxic drugs, and how
have they been tested before being administered?
When we hear in the media about people who are living
with HIV and AIDS, the discussion is most frequently
centered around treatment. Those who have been diag
nosed as being HIV-positive are advised immediately to
take chemotherapeutic drugs such as AZF or drug cock-
tails known as protease inhibitors. These incredibly
expensive drugs involve a highly regimented schedule.
We often hear about people who are struggling to gain
access to these drugs to "save" their lives. We have been
told that these drugs offer the only prospect for survival
and that everyone who has HIV or AIDS needs these
drugs. Yet these drugs do not cure AIDS - the research
Uncommon Questions — 17
literature does not even pretend they do - and they have
severe adverse effects, many of which are similar to the
symptoms ascribed to AIDS itself.
What generally goes unquestioned is the safety and
value of these drugs. How have they been tested before
being marketed? There is conclusive documentation that
the trials for AZT contain flawed data and that the trials
were cut short before long-term effects could be known
(Lauritsen, 1993: 381-398). Beyond this, the iznown toxicity
of AZF is of real concern, for any human being, but espe
cially when its use is proposed for pregnant women. We
know the vulnerability of the mother and her developing
fetus, and as a result pregnant women are discouraged
from smoking, drinking and even therapeutic use of patent
medicines and prescription drugs - all to protect her own
health and that of her unborn child and infant. Yet now
we would force powerful toxins like AZT on the mother
and baby as a prophylaxis?
This seems absurd, and even more so since scientific
studies have pointed towards a similarity between AZT
and DES - diethylstilbestrol (Avicenne 1996: 86-102).
DES is a synthetic estrogen that was used in Canada for
prevention of miscaniage between 1941 and 1971. When
it was withdrawn from the market in 1971, scientists
knew that it had direct health impacts, including a risk
for vaginal cancer, on the daughters whose mothers had
taken DES during pregnancy. We question why this infor
mation about the link between DES and AZT compounds
has not meant a radical re-examination of the therapeutic
value of AZT use in pregnant women and their children.
are known. Maggie Atkinson, an HIV-positive woman
who was offered a new drug cocktail, reported that her
body began to change after taking the drugs: "her arms
and legs started wasting away; her breasts became enlarged;
her body fat got redistributed; her period came twice a
month" (Foot, 1998: A5). Ms. Atkinson and a group of
women with the Canadian AIDS Society criticized Health
Canada for allowing the drugs to enter the market before
the side effects were documented. They noted that there is
no system in Canada that ensures that long-term studies of
the drugs are carried out to determine their adverse effects.
Once a drug is licensed and marketed, pharmaceutical
companies monitor the effects of drugs only on an ad
hoc basis through sporadic reports from physicians and
on-going clinical trials. Often doctors don't report unex
pected side effects, either because they are not sure that
the cause of the side-effect is due to a specific drug, or
because the reporting process is too time-consuming.
In any case, there has not been much discussion on the
long-term effects of drug treatments on AIDS itself. We
know that misuse or overuse of antibiotics leads to drug
resistance, the development of virulent strains which
cannot be treated, and to severely compromised immune
systems. How will AIDS treatment affect the "opportunis
tic" diseases from which people with an AIDS diagnosis
actually suffer? The side effects of the drugs cause many
to end treatment - side effects such as metabolic disor
ders, body changes like swollen abdomen and breasts,
severe weight loss, soaring cholesterol levels and diabetes.
Doctors have noted that many patients rationally end
treatment, largely, in the words of one patient, because
"sometimes battle fatigue just comes along" (Picard,
July, 1998: A6).
Many women's groups have sought the inclusion of more
women in clinical trials for HIV drugs, emphasizing that
the side-effects appear to be very different for women
than for men. Perhaps we should instead question why
clinical trials should be done with women or men at all,
when the research thus far has not attempted to determine
the long-term effects of these drugs in any systematic way,
and to the extent that their effects are known, they are
known to be deleterious, and potentially deadly.
The problems with the main anti-viral drug therapy,
AZT, are massive. AZT is, in fact, a cause of death in HIV
positive people (Lauritsen, 1993: 71-86). As Christine
Maggiore reports:
A good example of these problems was highlighted
recently in The Ottawa Citizen. The article pointed to our
flawed system of approving and administering HIV drugs
before the adverse side effects, particularly for women.
AZT is not a new drug. It was not created for the treat
ment of AIDS and is not an anti-viral. AZT is a chemical
compound that was developed - and abandoned - over
30 years ago as a chemotherapy treatment for cancer.
i8 — Uncommon Questions
Could these drugs be killing people?
I
As we know, chemotherapy works by killing all growing
cells in the body. Many cancer patients do not survive
chemotherapy due to its destructive effects on the
immune system... AZT was designed to prevent formation of new cells by blocking the development of DNA
chams. In 1964, experiments with AZT on mice with
cancer showed that AZT was so effective in destroying
healthy growing cells that the mice died of extreme
toxicity. As a result, AZT was shelved and no patent
was ever filed. Twenty years later, the pharmaceutical
company Burroughs Wellcome (now Glaxo Wellcome) ,
(took out a patent and| began a campaign to re-market
AZT as an anti-viral (anti-HIV) drug and won FDA
approval for its use as an AIDS treatment after one
highly flawed study of only four months duration...
In addition to destroying T Cells, B Cells and the red
blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body, AZT
and other nucleoside analog drugs destroy the kidneys,
liver, intestines, muscle tissue, and the central nervous
system (Maggiore, 1997: 14-15).
The lack of efficacy of available AIDS drugs has led
researchers to the widespread belief that, "...a safe and
effective vaccine remains the single most important scien
tific goal in AIDS research, for it offers the only realistic
strategy for stopping the worldwide epidemic" (Montreal
Gazette, July 3, 1998: B7). However, the same report sug
gests that research on AIDS vaccines to date have shown
them to be^both unsafe and ineffective. Given the many
questions that exist in the scientific community about
the way 11IV is transmitted and the factors underlying
the onset of disease, the drive towards finding a vaccine
appears premature and potentially unfounded (VereyElliott, 1997: 6-7). Who would be the target groups for
receiving such a vaccine if it existed? Would a vaccirie~be
appropriate for the general population? Would certain
marginalized groups 6e pressured to use the vaccine
against their will? We know that already the prime targets
for testing are people in Africa and Asia, where some
trials have already been allowed to proceed.
Who is benefiting from the emphasis on drug treatment?
How much is the drive for profit a factor in advocating
drug therapy? Pharmaceutical companies have much
invested in marketing their treatments for AIDS. Inevitably,
and often unwittingly, the medical profession itself is a
primary vehicle to improved pharmaceutical sales, since
advice to patients for earlier or increased use of phar
maceutical treatments - even without adequate testing increases sales and profit for the companies that produce
these agents. And despite the toxicity of AIDS drugs,
HIV-positive people, including those with no symptoms
of disease, are increasingly being told to begin early
drug treatment.
Joan Shenton reveals astonishing figures in her book,
Positively False - Exposing the Myths around HIV and AIDS.
She describes how governments have spent thousands
of millions of dollars on AIDS since 1984 - some
US$40 billion of public money. "With $40 billion spent
in 14 years in the U.S. alone, it is the biggest industry
next to the defense department" (Shenton, 1998: 31, 246).
Shenton believes the AIDS establishment is at least partly
driven by money. The sale of HIV test kits has become a
source of immense revenue. Each time blood is tested, it
means about Cdn$l .00 for the company producing the kit.
"Many scientists researching the AIDS virus themselves had
companies selling test kits and owned millions of dollars
in company shares. AIDS for these individuals was a
very profitable business" (Shenton, 1998: 15). Gallo and
Montagnier, the two scientists who claimed discovery of the
HIV virus, worked out a settlement where they agreed to
"split the royalties from the blood test kits. By 1994, those
royalties had amounted to $35 million" (Shenton, 1998:
47). Gallo holds thirteen U.S. patents and has applied for
twenty-nine others. He will split the profits 50-50 with his
employers, thf'University of MarylandjThe royalties from
HIV test kits were providing Montagnier's employer, the
/Pasteur Institute, with a steady 5 percent of its funding.
The sales of diagnostic and monitoring kits totaled
more at $186 million in 1995 in the U.S. alone and
were predicted to rise by 50 per cent within five years
(Hodgkinson, 1998: 2).
The greatest profit is made by the pharmaceutical com
panies which produce drug therapies for not only those
people diagnosed with AIDS, but also those who have
merely tested positive for HIV but remain symptom-free.
By 1997, cumulative worldwide sales of Glaxo Wellcome's
AZT, the first "anti-HIV drug", had exceeded $2.5 billion
Uncommon Questions — iq
(Hodgkinson, 1998:2). Canadian researchers have calcu
lated that providing drug cocktails to everyone in the
world with HIV-AIDS who would supposedly benefit from
treatment would cost US$36 billion annually. A threedrug cocktail would cost US$24 billion to distribute to
patients in Africa, another $7 billion in Asia, $4 billion
in the Americas and almost $1 billion in Europe (Picard,
May 4, 1998: A5). The three-drug cocktail costs one person
about Cdn$ 11,000 per year. Ontario residents following
these regimes have to cover many of these high drug costs
themselves (see Box 1).
Are there alternatives?
Little attention is given to the underlying factors of
poverty and poor social and economic conditions that
have a direct and dramatic impact on health conditions
and on people's immune systems, or to the social justice
measures that could radically reduce people's vulnerability
to immuno-suppression and easily-preventable diseases
(Murphy, 1994, 1995). Most money that goes into AIDS
research is focused on the biomedical link between HIV
and AIDS, rather than on examining the socio-economic
causes of chronic immuno-deficiency, whether in the
industrialized North or in the nations of the South. In
the South, where pervasive poverty increases the likeli
hood of the breakdown of already weakened immune
systems, the use of toxic drugs like AZT to treat HIV rather than employing other remedial public health and
economic measures - is even more questionable than it is
in the industrial nations of the North. But increased use
of AZT is exactly what is transpiring, as Glaxco Wellcome
makes the drug available at a much lower cost - often
reduced by 50 to 75 percent - through subsidized pro
grams with local governments in developing countries.
In any other case this would be callec^drug dumping )
(Marais, 1999: 1).
Box 1
The cost of AIDS treatment in Omario
Acwrdjngto a study published by the Globe and Mail (May 4, 1998), it costs 518,146 to Heal a pe.tsots living with HIV ot AIDS
in Quta-w. About half goes to dtugs. and one-quarter each to formal care (doctots, hospitals) and community eaie (mostly home
care). Even though Canadians are supposed to enjoy tmiversal health care, only about half the costs are covered by these programs.
Sunuybrook research found (ha- average utu-qf-ppckei expenses for people with HIV-AIDS are dose to $5,1)00 annually. Much othat is spent on drugs as well as supplenaenta (ma-ry necessitated by the side, efletls of the coek-ai-s) as well as physical therapy and
home care.
20 — Uncommon Questions
6. Reflections on the Construction of Knowledge about AIDS
Common Knowledge
The medical profession and the media provide the public with all the information about AIDS that is available.
Uncommon Questions
Does the public have access to alternative information about AIDS? Who controls how we understand AIDS? What if they are wrong?
Does the public have access to alternative information
about AIDS?
Those people who have claimed that HIV does not cause
AIDS or is not the sole cause of AIDS - and the numbers
within the medical community are growing - have been
vilified by both the medical establishment and the media.
The most famous "heretics" in the HIV=AIDS theory experts such as Root-Bernstein, Duesberg, PapadopulosEleopulos and the Perth Group, Mullis - all have impec
cable credentials. Despite their record of excellence and
scientific rigour, these scientists face severe criticism and
are ostracized by the scientific establishment. Efforts to
silence these and other scientists have been intense. They
have lost funding and the respect of their peers and they
find it difficult to publish in mainstream scientific and
medical journals (Duesberg, 1996: 396; Horton, 1996).
Given the repercussions to outstanding scientists who
have questioned AIDS orthodoxy, it is no wonder that
others are nervous about making similar claims. When
we at WHI began to think about some of these issues, we
were very apprehensive about delving into this area, and
particularly to entertain critiques of the HIV=AIDS con
nection. Grappling with these questions has not been
easy, particularly in an environment where to ask a ques
tion, to express doubt, is tantamount to heresy. Still, even
though at times we have felt insecure in our own course,
we continue to ask the questions that need to be asked
and seek answers that can increase our understanding.
We believe that debate and the investigation of alterna
tive views of AIDS, its causes, treatment and prevention,
are essential. It is through healthy debate that the most
appropriate health policies are promoted, particularly
where treatment involves toxic and experimental drugs.
Who controls how we understand AIDS?
The medical-pharmaceutical industry is a powerful force
rarely questioned by the media, or other institutions in
society or the public. Healthy debate and adherence to
accepted scientific protocols is often considered unneces
sary, redundant, and even a threat to public health. This
is particularly evident with AIDS. Because powerful scien
tific institutions and individuals believe they already have
an acceptable answer, alternative investigation of AIDS is
seen as diversionary and discredited. For the most part,
the media uncritically perpetuate many of the myths sur
rounding AIDS and are reluctant to publish alternative
views. As a result, mainstream media coverage of critical
voices is rare.
What if they are wrong?
While examining the reality of AIDS is necessary, we have
not asked these questions simply to determine the truth.
We would not have had the courage to do that.
What has kept us going in this inquiry is the simple
question, "What if they are wrong?" We realize that if
the common definitions, assumptions and solutions to
AIDS are wrong, or even distorted, the life and death
consequences are enormous. If prevailing AIDS theory is
wrong, then resources are being diverted from real needs.
More importantly, the conventional solution, AZT and
other drugs, are harming people, not healing them. For
us, then, this investigation is about social justice and
human rights. We are asking these difficult questions
because silence is no longer an acceptable alternative.
Uncommon Questions — 21
III. Policy Implications
While we ask questions about the causes of and solutions
to AIDS as it is currently defined, we also know that people
are dying - whatever the causes - and that solutions need
to be found. Our research has led us to the conclusion
that current approaches are inadequate, and we advocate
for greater attention to the root causes of immune defi
ciency. From a publicTiealth perspective there needs to be
I a re-focusing of attention on issues of poverty, empower
ment, drug use, social infrastructure and other determi/ nants of health. All health problems, including AIDS,
will remain a problem as long as communities face prob
lems of poverty, malnutrition, drug abuse, and lowered
health status. Governments, health authorities, and com
munities themselves need to address long-term solutions
to health problems as a first line of action. A number of
policy recommendations are implicit in our analysis.
They include:
•
Government and private sector research funds should
be directed towards alternative theories and treatments
for AIDS, including the multi-factor causation theory.
Research into alternative and holistic interventions
should be supported. Research on specific anti-viral
therapies, including vaccines, should cease until the
role of HIV in AIDS is understood.
Research should be conducted on the toxic effects of
AIDS drugs and the effects on the immune system
from multiple infection, IV drug use, blood transfu
sions and malnutrition.
•
•
All testing should be voluntary, aad involve intensive
counselling. Under no circumstances should manda
tory testing be introduced, or testing be imposed on
an individual or a group. Such testing increases the
probability of discrimination, forced treatment and
other human rights violations. In the context of
highly unreliable testing, and questions concerning
the relationship between HIV and AIDS, such viola
tions can never be justified on public health grounds.
There should be no screening for HIV, particularly for
pregnant women or for immigration purposes, until
problems of accuracy, reliability, standardization and
specificity are addressed.
•
HIV self-testing kits should be banned. These kits
are extremely unreliable and the consequence of
receiving a positive diagnosis can result in severe
psychological and physical consequences.
•
True informed consent should be promoted, by requir
ing that alternative treatment be presented as well as
full disclosure of the toxic and long-term effects of
drug therapy for AIDS, as well as the consequences
of refusing treatment.
•
Pregnant women, including those identified as HIV
positive, should have fully-informed choice regarding
drug therapy and method of delivering their child.
•
The Canadian health protection system should be
strengthened and actively enforced to protect the
safety of Canadians, particularly with respect to
drug approval processes.
•
Reporting by physicians and pharmaceutical compa
nies of adverse drug effects should be systematic and
mandatory, not voluntary, and criminal sanctions for
liability in cases of injuries through negligence and
corruption must be maintained.
•
Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs
should be prohibited.
•
Breastfeeding should be encouraged for all women.
The risk of transmission of HIV compared to the
risks of not breastfeeding should be fairly portrayed.
Women should have access to all information regard
ing the consequences of having a positive test for
HIV, including the material provided in this paper.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Code of
Marketing for Breastmilk Substitutes should be
monitored and enforced in all countries.
•
Official Development Assistance (ODA) should
prioritize eradication of poverty. Budgets for health
should be reflective of the true needs identified by
the recipients and current levels of funding for AIDS
should be reassessed in light of this information. In
particular, ODA money should not be diverted from
primary health programming to AIDS work.
Uncommon Questions — 23
•
Public education programs and medical practitioners
should impart a broad view of health and the multi
ple factors that affect the immune system so that
prevention of immune deficiency can be enhanced.
•
Governments and international organizations should
critically examine the statistics on AIDS reported in
24 — Uncommon Questions
Canada and worldwide. Existing contradictory statis
tics bring into question the reliability of these numbers and highlight the problem of formulating policies
based on these figures. Governments should re-assess
whether AIDS is an epidemic in their countries, and
globally, and revise their policies accordingly.
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Control, August, 1997.
Health Canada, "Quarterly Surveillance Update. AIDS in
Canada", Bureau of HIV/AIDS, STD andTB Update Series,
Health Protection Branch - Laboratory Centre for Disease
Control, May, 1998.
Health Canada, "Perinatally Acquired HIV Infection",
Bureau of HIV/AIDS, STD andTB Update Series, Health
Protection Branch - Laboratory Centre for Disease
Control, May, 1998.
Health Canada, "AIDS and HIV in Canada", Bureau
of HIV/AIDS, STD and TB Update Series, Llealth
Protection Branch - Laboratory Centre for Disease
Control, May, 1999.
Hodgkinson, Neville, "Zeitgeist; World AIDS
Conference", in The European, June 22, 1998.
Horton, Richard, "Truth and Heresy About AIDS",
in The New York Review, May 23, 1996, pp. 14-20.
26 — Uncommon Questions
Immen, Wallace, "Prenatal HIV Testing Urged", in The
Clobe and Mail, July 25, 1997, p. Al.
Jelliffe, D.B. and E.EP. Jelliffe, Human Milk in the Modem
World: Psychosocial, Nutritional and Economic Significance.
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1978.
Johnson, Christine, "Whose Antibodies Are They Anyway?
Factors Known to Cause False-Positive HIV Antibody Test
Results", in Continuum, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1996, pp. 4-5.
La Leche League International, "Role of Mothers Milk
in HIV Transmission Unclear", Press Release, August 15,
1995.
Lauritsen, John, "AZT: Iatrogenic Genocide (Chapter XI)",
and "FDA Documents Show Fraud in AZT Trials (Chapter
XXIX)", in The AIDS War, ASKLEPIOS, New York, 1993.
Maggiore, Christine, What if everything you thought you
knew about AIDS was wrong?, 3rd edition (revised), Health
Education Aids Liaison (HEAL), Los Angeles, 1997.
Malarkey, L„ and Mary Ellen McMorrow, Nurse's Manual
of Laboratory Tests and Diagnostic Procedures, W.B. Saunders
Co., 1996.
Mallet, Gina, "The Politics of Breast Cancer", in The Globe
and Mail, Saturday, October 26, 1996, p. DI.
Marais, Hein, "AIDS sets a grim record in hard-hit South
Africa", in The Globe and Mail, May 10, 1999, p. 1.
Meier, Barry, "In War Against AIDS, Battle Over Baby
Formula Reignites", in New York Times, Sunday, June 8,
1997.
Mickleburgh, Rod, "South Africa berated for not providing
AIDS drug", in The Globe and Mail, May 3, 1999, p. A3.
Minchin, M., Breastfeeding Matters: What We Need to Know
About Infant Feeding, Alma Publication, Australia, 1989.
Mintz, Eric, unpublished abstract, 1988, p. 28. See also
Max Allen interview with Eric Mintz, in "Calculated
Risks," CBC IDEAS transcripts, CBC Radio, first broadcast
in September, 1991, rebroadcast March, 1999. Transcripts
available from CBC Radio, see www.radio.cbc.ca/programs/
ideas/Aids/index/html.
Montreal Gazette, "AIDS experiment safety questioned:
research casts doubt on use of live strain as vaccine in
human test", July 3, 1998, p. B7.
Montreal Men Against Sexism, "501 of the Women and
Children Assassinated by Men-as-Men in Quebec Alone,
Since December 6, 1989", in Feminista (Webzine), Vol. 2,
Number 7, 1998.
Munoz, A. et. al., "Long-term survivors with HIV-infection;
incubation period and longitudinal patterns of CDA +
Lymphocytes", in Journal of Acquired Deficiency Syndrome
& Human Retrovirology, Vol. 8, No. 5, 1995, pp. 496-505.
Munroe, Margaret, "Anti-viral drugs lose life-saving lustre",
in The Ottawa Citizen, September 27, 1997, p. A6.
Murphy, Brian K., "The Politics of AIDS", in Third World
Resurgence, Issue 47, July 1994, pp. 33-40.
Murphy, Brian K., "AIDS Obscures Injustice and
Medicalizes Poverty", in Canadian Dimension, June-July,
1995, pp. 39-46.
Murphy, Brian K., "Bucking AIDS orthodoxy (a response
to 'South Africa berated for not providing AIDS drugs')",
Letter to the Editor, The Globe and Mail, May 5, 1999.
Palmer, Gabriel, The Politics of Breastfeeding, Pandora
Press, London, 1988.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, "Factor VIII, HIV and AIDS
in haemophiliacs: an analysis of their relationship", in
Genetica, Vol. 95, 1995, pp. 25-50.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, "Is a positive Western blot
proof of HIV infection?", in Bio/Technology, Vol. 11, June,
1993.
Picard, Andre, "Research into cost of AIDS drug cocktail
sparks debate", in The Globe and Mail, May 4, 1998, p. A5.
Picard, Andre, "AIDS Preventable for babies - but a
million a year infected", in rFhe Globe and Mail, June 30,
1998, p. Al.
Picard, Andre, "Simple jelly bean a lifesaver at cocktail
time", in The Globe and Mail, July 2, 1998, p. A6.
Pomeranz, Bruce, Jason Lazarou, and Paul N. Corey,
"Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized
Patients", in Journal of the American Medical Association,
279, 1998, pp. 1200-1205.
Radetsky, Peter, "How Cancer Cells Commit Suicide:
Quite by accident, Dr. Catharina Svaborg discovered
that ordinary breast milk compels cancer cells to die", in
The Ottawa Citizen, July 2, 1999, p. A10, reprinted from
Discover.
Ratcliffe, Molly, "Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and
Cervical Cancer", in Continuum, Vol. 3, No. 1, AprilMarch, 1995, pp. 15-16.
Root-Bernstein, Robert, "Misleading Reliability", in The
Sciences, The New York Academy of Sciences, March/April,
1990, pp. 6-8.
Root-Bernstein, Robert, Rethinking AIDS. The TYagic Cost
of Premature Consensus, The Free Press, New York, 1993.
Samson, Lindy, and Susan King, "Evidence-based guide
lines for universal counselling and offering of HIV testing
in pregnancy in Canada", Canadian Medical Association
Journal, June 2, 1998, pp. 1449-1457.
Shallenberger, K., in Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 50, No. 1,
Jan. 1998, pp. 67-80.
Shenton, Joan, "AIDS in Africa", television transaipt
from Meditel, Rethinking AIDS www site, 1993.
Shenton, Joan, "Whatever Happened to AIDS in Haiti",
in Continuum, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1996, pp. 12-14.
Shenton, Joan, Positively False - Exposing the Myths around
HIV and Aids, LB. Tauris & Co. Ltd., Victoria House,
Bloomsbury Square, London, 1998.
Sonnabend, Joseph, quoted in Graham, Lamar, "The
Heretic: What if HIV doesn't cause AIDS", in GQ,
November, 1993, p. 243.
Strauss, Stephan, "Something's wrong when we have 600
stories on AIDS and only six on arthritis", in The Globe
and Mail, April 10, 1993.
Uncommon Questions — 27
The Ottawa Citizen, "Canada considers HIV tests for
would-be immigrants", January 9, 1999, p. A4.
Walton, Clair, "What makes a survivor?", in Continuum,
Vol. 5, No. 5, Winter, 1998-99, pp. 16-18.
Van Esterik, Penny, Beyond the Breast-Bottle Controversy,
Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, 1989.
Winikoff, B., M.A. Castele and H. Laukaran (eds.), Feeding
Infants in Four Societies: Causes and Consequences of Mothers
Choice, Greenwood Press, New York, 1988.
Verney-Elliott, Michael, "AIDS Vaccines - the Cruel
Delusion", in Continuum, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1997, pp. 6-7.
Walton, Clair, "Lust for Life, Clair Walton challenges
anomalies in a healthcare system that ignores her
choices", in Continuum, Vol. 4, No. 6, June/July, 1997.
28 -Uncommon Questions
Appendix A
Alternative Activists,
Theories and Org-anisations
Bialy, Harvey, a molecular biologist, worked for many
years as a tropical disease expert and is now the sci
ence editor of Bio/Technology. He believes that "AIDS
death" in Africa is caused by poverty-linked diseases
likeTB, whose deadliness is exacerbated when peo
ple mistakenly diagnosed HIV-positive are denied
proven conventional treatment for their already wellknown diseases - TB, malaria, parasitic infections;
and that much needed funding is being diverted
to AIDS and away from treating these conventional
diseases (Shenton, 1998: 155-160).
Duesberg, Peter, a professor of molecular and cell biology
at the University of California, and a renowned
pioneer in retrovirus research, challenges the HIVcauses-AIDS hypothesis and advocates for research
funds into other explanations for AIDS. Duesberg
argues that HIV is a harmless hitch-hiker unable
to cause AIDS because: there are very low levels of
HIV in the body, which never rise, even in advanced
AIDS; there are too few infected cells in the body
for HIV to cause disease; the latency period, from
infection with HIV to full-blown AIDS, is unprece
dented in any viral disease, is inexplicable within
prevailing viral theory, and inconsistent with what
is known of viral behaviour and effects; there are
many cases of HIV infection with no AIDS; and
10 percent of diagnosed AIDS cases have no sign
of antibodies to HIV (Duesberg, 1996; Shenton,
1998:11). Duesberg also does not believe that AIDS
is an infectious disease, because it does not adhere
to Koch's 4 postulates for infectious diseases. Instead
he believes that AIDS results from toxic agents. He
believes that the immune system is weakened by
co-factors including the recreational use of amyl
nitrates, intravenous drug abuse, repeated infections,
and malnutrition. Once the immune system is defi
cient, opportunistic infections invade the body. His
book, Inventing the AIDS Virus (1996) and the
following articles explain these arguments. See:
Duesberg, Peter, "Retroviruses as carcinogens and
pathogens: expectations and reality" in Cancer
Research, Vol. 47, no. 5, CNREA 8, 1 March 1987,
pp. 1199-1220.
Duesberg, Peter, "AIDS epidemiology: inconsisten
cies with human immunodeficiency virus and with
infectious disease", in PNAS, Vol. 88, February 1991,
pp. 1575-9.
Duesberg, Peter, "AIDS Acquired by Drug
Consumption and Other Noncontagious Risk
Factors", Appendix B, p.505-642, in Inventing
the AIDS Virus, Regnery, Washington, 1996.
A very useful summary of Duesberg's perspective
on the causal relationship between AIDS and drug
use can be found in Duesberg, Peter, and David
Rasnick, "The Drug-AIDS Hypothesis", a supple
ment insert to Continuum, Vol. 4, No. 5,
February/March, 1997, pp. 1-24.
More information about Dr. Duesberg's research
can be found at: www.duesberg.com
Farber, Celia is a journalist who has researched and written
many articles challenging the AIDS orthodoxy which
were, for many years, published in Spin magazine.
She now writes for several periodicals, including a
regular column in the webzine. Impression. In an
article written for Mothering, Farber comprehen
sively outlines the flawed process for adopting AZT
for the treatment of AIDS and pregnant women
who are HIV positive. Farber clearly documents
the toxic effects of AZT therapy and the potential
dangers to pregnant women. She also reviews the
critique that HIV causes AIDS and the research that
demonstrates that HIV tests are inaccurate. Farber's
regular column in Impression can be found at:
www.impressionmag.com/aids.html. See:
Farber, Celia, "AZT Roulette. The Impossible
Choices Facing HIV-Positive Women", in Mothering,
September-October, 1998, pp. 53-65.
Uncommon Questions — 29
Griffiths, Mark, a musician, tested HIV-positive in
1986 while staying at a detoxification centre in
Switzerland. He relates his positive test result to a
decade of alcohol and heroine addiction and his
self-destructive life as a rock musician. Since his
diagnosis he has transformed his life, improved his
nutrition and his general emotional health. When
in 1990 he found out about Duesberg and other sci
entists confronting the HIV/AIDS paradigm, he was
confirmed in what he intuitively knew all along. He
remains in good health and works at making alter
native AIDS theories known in France. His story can
be read on the web site: perso.wanadoo.fr/sidasante/
temoigna/tem markg.html
Lanka, Stefan, is a member of a group of retired scientists
who formed a Study Group on Nutrition &
Immunity, to study emerging fields of science, and
they challenge the virus - AIDS hypothesis. Lanka's
article, "HIV: reality or artifact?" (Continuum, Vol. 3,
no. 1, April/May, 1995) presents the Alfred Hassig
(Berne) group's opinion on the cause of AIDS. They
say that AIDS is the result of a persistent stress
response, shifting the metabolism of the body into
a state of assault on the immune system which the
body cannot sustain, resulting in chronic whole
body inflammation, causing antibodies to be formed
against proteins from the body's own cells. These
are the antibodies that have become interpreted as
HIV antibodies. They say the inflammatory response
involves the neuroendocrine system much like other
autoimmune disease such as SLE (lupus), and isn't
viral at all. They are opposed to drug treatment and
suggest practical ways of helping people with this
phenomena - reducing stress, controlling inflam
matory response, ensuring good nutrition and
avoiding recreational/street drugs (Shenton, 1998:
225). See:
Conlan, Mark G., "Interview with Stefan Lanka,
Challenging both Mainstream and Alternative AIDS
Views", Neu>smagazine, December 1998. This article
about the virologist, biochemist and evolutionary
biologist, describes Lanka's discoveries and view
points about HIV in easily understandable terms.
It explains why Lanka believes that all so-called
3© — Uncommon Questions
retroviruses are actually the body's own creations;
that hepatitis is an autoimmune disorder rather than
a viral disease; that AIDS has nothing to do with
immune suppression and that it should actually
be called Acquired Energy Deficiency Syndrome AEDS - because its true cause is a breakdown of the
immune system itself. This interview can be found
on the Rethinking AIDS homepage at: www.virus
myth.com/aids/data/mgglanka.htm
Also see: A. Hassig, et. al., "Errors on pathogenesis,
prevention and treatment of AIDS", Continuum,
Vol. 5, No. 4, Summer 1998, pp. 28-29.
Passi, Siro, is a biochemist, presently Scientific Director of
the Pathophysiology Laboratory of the St. Gallicano
Research Institute (Rome). Over the past two decades
he has published many papers on oxidative stress
and its adverse consequences in different patholo
gies. On the basis of his studies on HIV positive
and AIDS patients, he asserts that HIV phenomena
are the outcome of oxidative stress, and not vice
versa. He says there are multiple factors capable of
inducing oxidative stress and leading to immuno
suppression: recreational drugs including ampheta
mines, nitrates, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, cigarette
smoke, etc.; medication drugs, including antiviral,
antimicotic, antibiotic, chemotherapeutic, and other
drugs. He argues that malnutrition/denutrition,
poor sanitation, and parasitic infections represent
the main causes of African AIDS. See:
Passi, Siro, "Progressive Increase of Oxidative
Stress in Advancing Human Immunodeficiency",
Continuum, Vol. 5, No. 4, Summer, 1998, pp. 20-26.
Passi, Siro, and Chiara de Luca, "Dietic Advice for
immunodeficiency", in Continuum, Vol. 5, no. 5,
Winter, 1998-99.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, is a bio-physicist from the
University of Western Australia,and the Chairperson
of IFAS (International Forum for Accessible Science).
She leads a research team that argues for a reap
praisal of HIV and its role in AIDS. The Perth group
contends that antibody proteins are not specific to
HIV and are probably endogenous (part of the body
itself) and may increase when the body is under
severe immunological stress. They argue that because
HIV has never been isolated according to the Pasteur
Institute's criteria of 1973, it may not exist at all. See:
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, V. F. Turner, J.M.
Papadimitriou et al. "HIV Antibodies: Further
Questions and a Plea for Clarification", in Medical
Research and Opinion,Vo\. 13, 1997, pp. 627-634.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, "Factor VIII, HIV
and AIDS in haemophiliacs: an analysis of their
relationship", in Genetica, Vol. 95, 1995, pp. 25-50.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Eleni, "Is a positive Western
blot proof of HIV infection?", in Bio/Technology,
Vol. 11, June, 1993.
Papadopulos-Eleopulos' views on the false link
between HIV and haemophilia are reviewed by
Christine Johnson, in "Bad blood or bad science:
are haemophiliacs with AIDS diagnoses really
infected with HIV?", in Continuum, Vol. 5, No. 4,
Summer 1998, pp. 32-36. The same issue contains
an essay by Papadopulos-Eleopulos and her Perth
colleagues on "Oxidative stress, HIV and AIDS",
reprinted from Research in Immunology, No. 143:
145-148, Paris 1992. See also:
"Is HIV the cause of AIDS?", an interview by
Christine Johnson with Eleni PapadopulosEleopulos, in Continuum, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1997.
More information and references can be found at:
www.virusmyth.com/aids/perthgroup.index.html
Root-Bernstein, Robert, held the MacArthur Prize fellow
ship (known as the MacArthur "genius" award)
from 1981-1986, and is associate professor of phy
siology at Michigan State University. In his book,
Rethinking AIDS. The TYagic Cost of Premature
Consensus (1993), Root-Bernstein reviewed the
entire existing body of AIDS research to that point.
Root-Bernstein believes that HIV cannot be the sole
cause of the immune-suppression found in AIDS
patients. He argues that co-factors are necessary for
AIDS, and that they alter its course (1993: 337). He
shows that many people infected with HIV remain
healthy and sometimes HIV positive people even
rid themselves of the virus; that sexual transmission
is extremely difficult and rare - female prostitutes
virtually never contact HIV unless they also use
drugs; and that the predicted heterosexual epidemic
has not come about. Root-Bernstein presents a
"multi-factorial" model of AIDS, which views the
disease as resulting from numerous insults to the
immune system itself. He identifies co-factors such
as illicit and prescription drug use, sexual promiscu
ity, anal exposure to semen, transfusions, malnutri
tion, or multiple infections (1993: 338). He argues
that a person's life-circumstances (socio-economic)
and behaviours are a much more important factor
in determining a person's susceptibility to develop
ing AIDS than is commonly accepted in the medical
community. Thus he focuses on specific controllable
factors that increase risk of AIDS. He advocates for
more research into the various co-factors and their
effects on our health. See:
Root-Bernstein, Robert, Rethinking AIDS. The TYagic
Cost of Premature Consensus, The Free Press, New
York, 1993.
Root-Bernstein, Robert, "Misleading Reliability",
in The Sciences, The New York Academy of Sciences,
March/April 1990, pp. 6-8.
The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of HIV/AIDS
Hypothesis is a group of 500 scientists and health pro
fessionals, whose purpose is to study and challenge
the AIDS orthodoxy, founded by Dr. Charles Thomas
and Dr. Peter Duesberg and includes Dr. Kary Mullis,
Chemistry Nobel Prizewinner (Shenton, 1998: 12,
33). This group produces a monthly newsletter
called Reappraising Aids.
Articles by many of the members of the group
and other interesting information challenging
the HIV=AIDS paradigm can be found on the
group's Rethinking AIDS homepage at www.virusmyth.com/aids. Subscription information as well
as an index of issues can be found at:
www.virusmyth.com/aids/reappraising/index.html.
Uncommon Questions —3/
Health Education AIDS Liaison (HEAL) is a non-profit
education network committed to increasing public
awareness of important information not made
available by AIDS service agencies and unacknowl
edged by most media. HEAL's mission is to inform
people of the evidence that the HIV=AIDS
Hypothesis is false. HEAL asserts that "anti-viral"
drugs, claimed to eradicate HIV, are harmful and
dangerous. HEAL supports people who have been
labeled HIV-positive by assuring them that their
diagnosis is not a death sentence. HEAL encourages
people to EXPECT HEALTH and pursue holistic,
non-toxic approaches to the prevention and
treatment of disease.
The HEAL Los Angeles homepage with lots of infor
mation can be found at: www.epcnet.com/heal
There is also a dynamic HEAL chapter in Toronto.
HEAL Toronto's pamphlet is available from tel/fax
416-406-4325; email: endaids@hotmail.com. The
HEAL Toronto homepage is at: www.geocities.com
The French HEAL affiliate, called A.M.G. can be
found at: perso.wanadoo.fr/sidasante
The International Coalition for Medical Justice fights for the
rights of consumers and parents to reclaim respon
sibility for their own health without government
intrusion into the decision making. They insist on
accountable scientific and medical research and try
to help people make "true" informed decisions
rather than simply trust the hypotheses set forth by
the CDC and NIH. The ICMJ Legal Defense Fund
offers patients, families and parents legal informa
tion, advice and funding, and the Fund will also
establish an initiative in the United States to hold
all health departments and medical practitioners to
standards as they relate to testing, the toxic effects
of conventional treatment and the "true" cause of
AIDS and other diseases and conditions. ICMJ can
be reached at 540-829-9350, or by e-mail at icmjustice@yahoo.com; their websites are www.icmj.org
or www.tripod.members/ICMJ/
32 - Uncommon Questions
International Forum for Accessible Science (IFAS) is an
umbrella group which has brought together scien
tists, gay health activists and human rights workers
to highlight radical challenges to current AIDS
research, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
International Long Term Survivors Network (HIV/AIDS)
has been established to link and support people
living with HIV for seven years and longer without
recourse to anti-HIV pharmaceutical drugs, and to
do research on alternative measures to maintain
health. The Network is currently conducting what it
has called the International (Community Collaborative
Long Term Survivor Survey. People wanting infor
mation about the network or to participate in the
survey, can contact Clair Walton, the Network
coordinator, through Continuum.
The Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society (ARAS) was "formed
to challenge the myth that HIV is the cause of AIDS
and to provide information to Albertans that will
ensure that they realize that HIV tests are inaccurate,
that AIDS is caused by exposure to toxic or immunesuppressive substances, and that anti-HIV drugs are
extremely toxic, can cause AIDS, and may be fatal."
ARAS President, David Crowe can be reached at
crowed@cadvision.com or (403) 289-6609.
Continuum is A UK-based magazine edited by Huw
Christie, which promotes an open discussion of
a wide variety of views on the causes of AIDS, and
the consequences of orthodox views and treatments,
as well as news of alternatives. The address for sub
scriptions is Continuum, Rear Unit 4, IA Hollybush
Place, London E2 9QX, phone 44-171-613-3909, fax
613-3312, email continu@dircon.co.uk. An index o
issues and subscription information can be found
at www.continuum.org or www.virusmyth.com/
aids/continuum/index.html
Medecines Nouvelles is a French critical alternative health
quarterly with articles on a wide range of studies and
criticisms of the conventional medical system, includ
ing toxicity of vaccines, death and illness caused by
pharmaceuticals, and alternative approaches to dif
ferent diseases. Every issue contains one or more
articles on AIDS, ranging from French translations of
articles by Duesberg and Lanka, to a critique of AZT
toxicity by Dr J. Avicenne, a physician and conseiller
medical with "Positifs", an organization of "angry
HIV-positive people" (as they call themselves).
Medecines Nouvelles can be contacted at:
www.positifs.org. The magazine, Medecines
Nouvelles, can be obtained from: B.P. 2, 14130
Blangy-le-Chateau, France, tel: 31.64.63.00.
IDEAS About AIDS is an extensive series of excellent radio
documentaries on AIDS dissent and alternative AIDS
theories broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) program "CBC Ideas" between
1987 and 1999. The series, which has won awards
from the Canadian Science Writers Association, has
been produced by a brilliant and courageous team
of journalists led by Max Allen and Colman Jones.
All transcripts, including extensive bibliographies,
are available from CBC Radio at: Ideas Transcripts,
CBC, Box 500, Stn. A, Toronto, Canada, M5W 1E6,
or by email from ideastran@toronto.cbc.ca. For
more information and extensive resource lists, see:
www.radio.cbc.ca/ programs/ideas/Aids/index/html.
A French alternative AIDS activist website can be
found at: perso.wanadoo.fr/sidasante
Uncommon Questions —33
Appendix B
Chronology of Centres for Disease Control's AIDS Definitions
(Duesberg, Inventing the AIDS Virus, pp. 210-211)
Year
Diseases
1983
Protozoal and helminthic infections
1. Cryptosporidiosis, intestinal, causing diarrhea for more than a month
2. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
Strongyloidosis, causing pneumonia, central nervous system (CNS)
3.
infection or disseminated infection
Toxoplasmosis, causing pneumonia or CNS infection
4.
Fungal infections
Candidiasis, causing esophagitis
5.
Crytococcosis, causing CNS or disseminated infection
6.
HIV Antibody
not required
Bacterial infection
7. "Atypical" mycobacteriosis, causing disseminated infection
Viral infection
Cytomegalovirus, causing pulmonary, gastrointestinal tract, or central
nervous system infection
I lerpes simplex virus, causing chronic mucocutaneous infection with
9.
ulcers persisting more than a month or pulmonary, gastrointestinal tract,
or disseminated infection
10. Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (presumed to be caused
by a papovavirus)
8.
Cancer
11. Kaposi's sarcoma in persons less than 60 years of age
12. Lymphoma, primary of the brain
1985
1987
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Histoplasmosis
Isosporiasis, chronic intestinal
Lymphoma, Burkitt's
Lymphoma, immunoblastic
Bronchial or pulmonary candidiasis
Chronic lymphoid interstitial pnemonitis (under 13 years of age)
19.
20.
21.
22.
Encephalopathy, dementia, HIV-related
Mycobacterium, tuberculosis any site extrapulmonary
Wasting syndrome, HIV-related
Coccidiomycosis, disseminated or extrapulmonary
Crytococcosis, extrapulmonary
Cytomegalovirus, other than liver, spleen, or nodes
Cytomegalovirus retinitis
Salmonella septicemia, recurrent
23.
24.
25.
26.
1993
required
required
27. Recurrent bacterial pneumonia
28.
29.
30.
31.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis any site (pneumonia)
Pneumonia, recurrent
Invasive cervical cancer
T-cell count less than 200 cells per microliter or less than
14 percent of the expected level.
34 — Uncommon Questions
required
Appendix C
Provisional AA/orld Heath Organisation Clinical Case Definition
for AIDS CBang"u.D
(The following information is quoted from Chirimuuta,
Richard and Rosalind, pp. 171-172, who referenced
WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record No. 10, March 7,
1986, page 71.)
case definition was developed at a WHO Workshop on
AIDS held in Bangui, Central Africian Republic, 22-24
October, 1985. This definition was reviewed and slightly
adapted at the Second Meeting of the WHO Collaborating
Centres on AIDS as follows:
A clinical case definition is needed in countries where
diagnostic resources are limited. A provisional clinical
Adults
AIDS in an adult is defined by the existence of at least 2 of the major signs associated with at least 1 minor sign, in the
absence of known causes of immunosuppression such as cancer or severe malnutrition or other recognized etiologies.
1. Major signs
(a) weight loss > 10% of body weight;
(b) chronic diarrhoea > 1 month;
(c) prolonged fever > 1 month (intermittent or constant).
2. Minor signs
(a) persistent cough for > 1 month;
(b) generalized pruritic dermatitis;
(c) recurrent herpes zoster;
(d) oro-pharygeal candidiasis;
(e) chronic progressive and disseminated herpes simplex infection;
(f) generalized lymphadenopathy.
The presence of generalized Kaposi's sarcoma or cryptococcal meningitis are sufficient for the diagnosis of AIDS.
Children
Paediatric AIDS is suspected in an infant or child presenting with at least 2 of the following major signs associated with
at least 2 of the following minor signs in the absence of known causes of immunosuppression such as cancer or severe
malnutrition or other recognized etiologies.
1. Major signs
(a) weight loss or abnormal slow growth;
(b) chronic diarrhoea > 1 month;
(c) prolonged fever > 1 month.
2. Minor signs
(a) generalized lymphadenopathy;
(b) oro-pharygeal candidiasis;
(c) repeated common infections (otitis, pharyngitis, etc.);
(d) persistent cough;
(e) generalized dermatitis;
(f) confirmed maternal LAV/HTLV-III infection.
Uncommon Questions — 35
Appendix D
Factors Known to Cause False-Positive HIV Antibody Tests Results
Anti-carbohydrate antibodies52,19,13
Naturally-occurring antibodies5,19
Passive immunization: receipt of
gamma globulin or immune globulin
(as prophylaxis against infection
which contains antibodies)18,26, 60,4/
22, 42, 43, 13
Leprosy2,25
Tuberculosis25
Mycobacterium avium25
Systemic lupus erythematosus15,23
Renal (kidney) failure48,23,13
Hemodialysis/renal failure56,16,41'10,49
Alpha interferon therapy in hemodialysis
patients54
Flu36
Flu vaccination30, 11, 3' 20, 13, 43
Herpes simplex I27
Herpes simplex II11
Upper respiratory tract infection
(cold or flu)11
Recent viral infection or exposure to
viral vaccines11
Pregnancy in multiparous women58, 53,
13, 43, 36
Malaria6,12
High levels of circulating immune
complexes6,33
1 lypergammaglobulinemia (high levels
of antibodies)40, 33
False positives on other tests, including
RPR (rapid plasma reagent) test for
syphilis17,48, 33,10,49
Rheumatoid arthritis36
I lepatitis B vaccination28, 21, 40, 43
Tetanus vaccination40
Organ transplantation1, 36
Renal transplantation35,9'48,13, 56
Anti-lymphocyte antibodies56, 31
Anti-collagen antibodies (found in gay
men, haemophiliacs, Africans of both
sexes and people with leprosy)31
Serum-positive for rheumatoid factor,
antinuclear antibody (both found
in rheumatoid arthritis and other
autoantibodies)14, 62,53
Autoimmune diseases:44, 29,10,40,49,43
Systemic lupus erythematosus,
scleroderma, connective tissue
disease, dermatomyositis
Acute viral infections, DNA viral infec
tions59, 48,43, 53,40,13
Malignant neoplasms (cancers)40
Alcoholic hepatitis/alcoholic liver
disease32, 48140,10,13, 49, 43, 53
Primary sclerosing cholangitis48, 53
Hepatitis 54
"Sticky" blood (in Africans)38,34,40
Antibodies with a high affinity for
polystyrene (used in the test kits)62,
40, 3
Blood transfusions, multiple blood
transfusions63, 36,13,49,43,41
Multiple myeloma10,43, 53
HLA antibodies (to Class I and II
leukocyte antigens)7,46, 63,48, 10,13,49,
43, 53
Anti-smooth muscle antibody',48
Anti-parietal cell antibody48
Anti-hepatitis A IgM (antibody),48
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1. Agbalika F, Ferchal E Garnier J-P, et al. 1992. raise-positive antigens related to
emergence of a 25-30 kD protein detected in organ recipients. AIDS. 6:959-962.
2. Andrade V, Avelleira JC, Marques A, et al. 1991. Leprosy as a cause of false
positive results in serological assays for the detection of antibodies to HIV-1.
Inti. J. Leprosy. 59:125.
3. Arnold NL, Slade RA, Jones MM, et al. 1994. Donor follow up of influenza
vaccine-related multiple viral enzyme immunoassay reactivity. Vox Sanguinis.
67:191.
4. Ascher D, Roberts C. 1993. Determination of the etiology of seroreversals in
HIV testing by antibody fingerprinting. AIDS. 6:241.
5. Barbacid M, Bolgnesi D, Aaronson S. 1980. Humans have antibodies capable
of recognizing oncoviral glycoproteins: Demonstration that these antibodies
are formed in response to cellular modification of glycoproteins rather than as
consequence of exposure to virus. Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. 77:1617-1621.
36 — Uncommon Questions
Anti-Hbc IgM48
Administration of human
immunoglobulin preparations
pooled before 198510
Haemophilia10,49
Haematologic malignant
disorders/lymphoma43, 53, 9'48,13
Primary biliary cirrhosis43, 53,13,48
Stevens-Johnson syndrome9,48,13
Q-fever with associated hepatitis61
Heat-treated specimens51, 57,24,49,48
Lipemic serum (blood with high levels
of fat or lipids)49
Haemolyzed serum (blood where
haemoglobin is separated from
the red cells)49
Hyperbilirubinemia10,13
Globulins produced during polyclonal
gammopathies (which are seen in
AIDS risk groups)10,13, 48
Healthy individuals as a result of
poorly-understood cross-reactions10
Normal human ribonucleoproteins48,13
Other retroviruses8, 55,14,48,13
Anti-mitochondrial antibodies48, 13
Anti-nuclear antibodies48,13,53
Anti-microsomal antibodies34
T-cell leukocyte antigen antibodies48,13
Proteins on the filter paper13
Epstein-Barr virus37
Visceral leishmaniasis45
Receptive anal sex39, 64
® Sept. 1996, Zenger's, California
6. Biggar R, Melbye M, Sarin P, et al. 1985. ELISA HTLV retrovirus antibody reac
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7. Blanton M, Balakrishnan K, Dumaswala II, et al. 1987. HLA antibodies in blood
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8. Blomberg J, Vincic E, Jonsson C, et al. 1990. Identification of regions of HIV-1
p24 reactive with sera which give "indeterminate"results in electrophoretic
immunoblots with the help of long synthetic peptides. AIDS Res. Hum. Retro.
6:1363.
9. Burkhardt U, Mertens T, Eggers H. 1987. Comparison of two commercially
available anti-HIV EUSA's: Abbott HTLV-II1 ELA and DuPont HTLV-III ELISA.
J. Med. Vir. 23:217.
10. Bylund D, Ziegner U, Hooper D. 1992 Review of testing for human immuno
deficiency virus. Clin. Lab. Med. 12:305-333.
11. Challakere K, Rapaport M. 1993. False-positive human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 ELISA results in low-risk subjects.West. J. Med. 159(2 ):214-215.
*
12. Charmot G, Simon F. 1990. HIV infection and malaria. Revue du practicien.
40:2141.
13. Cordes R, Ryan M. 1995. Pitfalls in HIV testing. Postgraduate Medicine. 98:177.
14. Dock N, Lamberson H, O'Brien T, et al. 1988. Evaluation of a typical human
immunodeficiency virus immunoblot reactivity in blood donors. Transfusion.
28:142.
15. Esteva M, Blasini A, Ogly D, et al. 1992. False positive results for antibody
to HIV in two men with systemic lupus erythematosus.Ann. Rheum. Dis.
51:1071-1073.
16. Fassbinder W, Kuhni P, Neumayer H. et al. 1986. Prevalence of antibodies
against LAV/HTLV- III |HIV| in patients with terminal renal insufficiency
treated with hemodialysis and following renal transplantation. Deutsche
Medizinische Wochenschrift. 111:1087.
17. Fleming D, Cochi S, Steece R. et al. 1987. Acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome in low-incidence areas. JAMA. 258(6):785.
18. Gill MJ, Rachlis A, Anand C. 1991. Five cases of erroneously diagnosed
HIV infection. Can. Med. Asso. J. 145(12): 1593.
19. Healey D, Bolton W. 1993. Apparent HIV-1 glycoprotein reactivity on Western
blot in uninfected blood donors. AIDS. 7:655-658.
20. Hisa J. 1993. False-positive ELISA for human immunodeficiency virus after
influenza vaccination. JID. 167:989.
21. Isaacman S. 1989. Positive HIV antibody test results after treatment with
hepatitis B immune globulin. JAMA. 262:209.
22. Jackson G, Rubenis M, Knigge M, etal. 1988. Passive immunoneutralisation
of human immunodeficiency virus in patients with advanced AIDS. Lancet,
Sept. 17:647.
23. Jindal R, Solomon M, Burrows L. 1993. False positive tests for HIV in a
woman with lupus and renal failure. NEJM. 328:1281-1282.
24. Jungkind D, DiRenzo S, Young S. 1986. Effect of using heat-inactivated serum
with the Abbott human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III |HIV| antibody test.
J. Clin. Micro. 23:381.
25. Kashala O, Marlink R, Ilunga M. etal. 1994. Infection with human immunod
eficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and human T-cell lymphotropic viruses among
leprosy patients and contacts: correlation between HIV-1 cross-reactivity and
antibodies to lipoarabionomanna. J. Infect. Dis. 169:296-304.
26. Lai-Goldman M, McBride J, Howanitz P, et al. 1987. Presence of HTLV-II1
|HIV| antibodies in immune serum globulin preparations. Am.J. Clin. Path.
87:635.
27. Langedijk J, Vos W, Doornum G, et al. 1992. Identification of cross-reactive
epitopes recognized by HIV-1 false-positive sera. AIDS 6:1547-1548.
28. Lee D, Eby W, Molinaro G. 1992. HIV false positivity after hepatitis B vaccina
tion. Lancet 339:1060.
29. Leo-Amador G, Ramirez-Rodriguez J, Galvan-Villegas F, et al.1990. Antibodies
against human immunodeficiency virus in generalized lupus erythematosus.
Salud Publica de Mexico. 32:15.
30. Mackenzie W, Davis J, Peterson D. etal. 1992. Multiple false-positive serologic
tests for HIV, HTLV-1 and hepatitis C following influenza vaccination, 1991.
JAMA. 268:1015-1017.
31. Mathe G. 1992. Is the AIDS virus responsible for the disease? Biomed &
Pharmacother. 46:1-2.
32. Mendenhall C, Roselle G, Grossman C, et al. 1986. False-positive tests for
HTLV-III |HIV| antibodies in alcoholic patients with hepatitis. NEJM. 314:921.
33. Moore), Cone E, Alexanders. 1986. HTLV-III |HIV| seropositivity in 1971-1972
parenteral drug abusers - a case of false-positives or evidence of viral exposure?
NEJM. 314:1387-1388.
34. Mortimer P, Mortimer J, Parry J. 1985. Which anti-HTLV-HI/LAV |HIV| assays
for screening and comfirmatory testing? Lancet. Oct. 19,p873.
35. Neale T, Dagger J, Fong R, et al. 1985. False-positive anti-HTLV-IIl |HIV|
serology. New Zealand Med. J. October 23.
36. Ng V. 1991. Serological diagnosis with recombinant peptides/proteins. Clin.
Chem. 37:1667-1668.
37. Ozanne G, Fauvel M. 1988. Perfomance and reliability of five commercial
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits in screening for anti-human immun
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38. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E. 1988. Reappraisal of AIDS - Is the oxidation
induced by the risk factors the primary cause? Med. Hypo.25:151.
39. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E, Turner V, and Papadimitriou J. 1993.Is a positive
Western blot proof of HIV infection? Bio/Technology. Junell: 696-707.
40. Pearlman ES, Ballas SK. 1994. False-positive human immunodeficiency virus
screening test related to rabies vaccination. Arch. Pathol.Lab. Med. 118-805.
41. Peternan T, Lang G, Mikos N, et al. Hemodialysis/renal failure 1986. JAMA.
255:2324.
42. Piszkewicz D. 1987. HTLV-III |HIV| antibodies after immune globulin. JAMA.
257:316.
43. Profitt MR, Yen-Lieberman B. 1993. Laboratory diagnosis of human immuno
deficiency vints infection. Inf. Dis. Clin. North Am. 7:203.
44. Ranki A, Kurki P, Reipponen S, et al. 1992. Antibodies to retroviral proteins in
autoimmune connective tissue disease. Arthritis and Rheumatism. 35:1483.
45. Ribeiro T, Brites C, Moreira E, et al. 1993. Serologic validation of HIV infec
tion in a tropical area. JA1DS. 6:319.
46. Sayers M, Beatty P, Hansen J. 1986. HLA antibodies as a cause of false
positive reactions in screening enzyme immunoassays for antibodies to
human T-lymphotropic virus type III |HIV|. Transfusion. 26(1): 114.
47. Sayre KR, Dodd RY, Tegtmeier G, et al. 1996. False-positive human immuno
deficiency virus type 1 Western blot tests in non-infected blood donors.
Transfusion. 36:45.
48. Schleupner CJ. Detection of HIV-1 infection. In: (Mandell GI, Douglas RG,
Bennett JE, eds.) Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 3rd ed. New
York: Churchill Livingstone, 1990:1092.
49. Schochetman G, George J. 1992. Serologic tests for the detection of human
immunodeficiency virus infection. In AIDS Testing Methodology and
Management Issues, Springer-Verlag, New York.
50. Simonsen L, Buffington J, Shapiro C, et al. 1995. Multiple false reactions
in viral antibody screening assays after influenza vaccination. Am. J. Epidem.
141-1089.
51. Smith D, Dewhurst S, Shepherd S, et al. 1987. False-positive enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay reactions for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus
in a population of midwestem patients with congenital bleeding disorders.
Transfusion. 127:112.
52. Snyder H, Fleissner E. 1980. Specificity of human antibodies to oncovirus
glycoproteins; Recognition of antigen by natural antibodies directed against
carbohydrate structures. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.77:1622-1626.
53. Steckelberg JM, Cockerill F. 1988. Serologic testing for human immunodefi
ciency virus antibodies. Mayo Clin. Proc. 63:373.
54. Sungar C, AkpolatT, Ozkuyumcu C, et al. Alpha interferon therapy in
hemodialysis patients. Nephron. 67:251.
55. Tribe D, Reed D, Lindell P, et al. 1988. Antibodies reactive with human
immunodeficiency virus gag-coated antigens (gag reactive onlyjare a major
cause of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay reactivity in a bood donor
population. J. Clin. Micro. April:641.
56. Lljhelyi E, Fust G, Illei G, et al. 1989. Different types of false positive anti-HIV
reactions in patients on hemodialysis. Immun. Let.22:35-40.
57. Van Beers D, Duys M, Maes M, et al. Heat inactivation of serum may interfere
with tests for antibodies to /HTLV-III |HIV|. J. Vir.Meth.l2:329.
58. Voevodin A. 1992. HIV screening in Russia. Lancet. 339:1548.
59. Weber B, Moshtaghi-Borojeni M, Brunner M, et al. 1995.Evaluation of the
reliability of six current anti-HIV-l/HIV-2 enzyme immuno assays. J. Vtr. Meth.
55:97.
60. Wood C, Williams A, McNamara J, et al. 1986. Antibody against the human
immunodeficiency virus in commercial intravenous gammaglobulin prepara
tions. Ann. Int. Med. 105:536.
61. Yale S, Degroen P, Tooson J, et al. 1994. Unusual aspects of acute Q feverassociated hepatitis. Mayo Clin. Proc. 69:769.
62. Yoshida T, Matsui T, Kobayashi M, et al. 1987. Evaluation of passive particle
agglutination test for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus. J. Clin.
Micro. Aug: 1433.
63. Yu S, Fong C, Landry M, et al. 1989. A false positive HIV antibody reaction
due to transfusion-induced HLA-DR4 sensitization.NEJM.320:1495.
64. National Institute of Justice, AIDS Bulletin. Oct 1988.
(Johnson, 1996: 5)
Uncommon Questions —37
Appendix E
AJZT LABEL
TOXIC
Toxic by inhalation, io
contact with skin and ft
swall^ed. Target Brgan(s}: Siooci softe mao
fow. H ysii leei cnweli,
5a«fc medica! advice
[show the label «her«
poaibtaL Wear cultablo
pr&tectiv? clothing,
3’4ZID0-3!-DE0XYTHYMIDINE
(AZT; AzIdGthymldme) _
C,.H„NA
FW 267.2
Desiccate
Purity 59% (HPLC)
Store at fess
fo: t&!wirt.jr¥ m efity
than O'C
*uj,
zr «Mt »ws.
ACTUAL COPY OF AN AZT LABEL
Ihis label has appeared on bottles containing as little as 25 tniliigraros,
a small fraction (1/20-1/50) of a patien t's daily prescribed dose*
(*‘Reference: Physicians Desk Reference 1994, pp. 324)
38 — Uncommon Questions
■pts - 7-^'
Questions and Answers which come to mind regarding the HIV theory of AIDS
Question A
Q
Answer
Q 1. How is infection with HIV diagnosed?
A 1.
Bv an antibody test. Several proteins, claimed to HIV proteins by HIV experts, are positioned on a
narrow cellulose strip, which then is reacted with the patient's blood If there is a reaction, the reading
proteins appear as a series of horizontal bands. The number and combination of bands necessaiy to
proclaim the patient is infected varies from countiy to country and even from laboratory to laboratory
(see attached Table 1).
Q 2. What is the proof that the proteins claimed to be HIV are indeed HIV?
A 2. None. In 1983 Luc Montagnier and his team1, and in 1984 Robert Gallo and his team2, claimed to
have proven the existence of HIV proteins by purifying the virus particles. That is, by obtaining the
particles separated/isolated from everything else. In 1997 Montagnier admitted that he had not purified
(isolated) HIV and in his view neither did Gallo3. By this time there was ample evidence that HIV
proteins were proteins of normal cells. The fact that these proteins are cellular proteins found in all of us
was proven beyond reasonable doubt in 1997 by some of the best HIV experts4.
Q 3. Why do these cellular proteins react with antibodies, which are present in patient sera? (Blood)
A 3. Because people who are in the AIDS risk groups such as gay men, haemophiliacs, drug users as well as
people who are infected with different non-HIV agents including mycobacteria have antibodies to their
own proteins, that is, auto-antibodies5? 6 7.
Even if they were unquestionably HIV proteins it doesn t
follow the reacting antibodies are also HIV. Thai’s because antibodies meant for one thing regularly
latch on to proteins belonging to other things. Sometimes they latch on even harder to other things. So
these reacting antibodies could be antibodies that appeared in response to something else. For example,
it’s been proven that antibodies which appear in response to mycobacterial (such as leprosy and TB)
infection and fungal organisms, which between them infect 90% of AIDS patients, react with the proteins
in the HIV antibody test8. In fact AIDS patients are full of antibodies and react with just about anything
you can think of, even laboratory chemicals3. But no one says AIDS patients are infected with laboratory
chemicals.
Q 4. Does this mean that a positive antibody test does not prove HIV infection?
A 4. Yes. In fact the manufacturers of the antibody test are telling us exactly this. For example, Abbott
Laboratories in their packet inserts state: ‘"At present there is no recognized standard for establishing the
presence or absence of HIV-1 antibody in human blood”. 910
Q 5. Why then is everybody with a positive antibody test told that they are infected with HIV,
especially when such news is so devastating for both patient and his or her family?
A 5.
The HIV experts have never given a valid reason,
everything in terms of HIV they cannot see the alternatives.
Perhaps they are so focussed in explaining
Q 6. Is ttiei'e a way to determine if anyone who has a positive antibody test is indeed infected with
HIV?
A 6.
Yes. It can be done by determining what relationship exists between a positive antibody and the
presence of HIV itself. That is, by simultaneously performing an HIV antibody test and HIV isolation
purification. This has never been done and could not be done so far because HIV isolation/purification
has not been achieved.11
Although many claims have been made for HIV isolation the correct
procedure has ne\ er been followed. What the experts call HIV isolation is nol distinct from the HIV
antibody lest. In fact it's an HIV antibody test "done backwards". The difference is that instead of the
patient supplying the antibodies (in their blood), and the test manufacturers the proteins (in the test kit):
in the "HIV isolation” procedure the protein are present in the cell culture and the lest manulaclurers
suppl\- the antibodies.12’1' Or rather just one commercially manufactured antibod) . So all that's
different is the source of the reagents. The purported HIV isolation is still a reaction betw een a protein
and an antibodv. And that's an anlibodv test.
Q7. If HIV has not been isolated (hen what is the proof for its existence?
A 7. There is no proof. Il may or may nol exist.
Q 8. What are the pictures purporting to show HIV particles?
A 8. The vast majorit) of these pictures originate from cell cultures w hich ha\ e been exposed to numerous
chemicals.1’2 In such cultures these types of particles are commonplace and the HIV experts are fullv
aware of this.11 As far as the pictures taken from fresh human tissue are concerned, it is sufficient to
mention that particles identical to that called HIV are found as frequently in people who don't have
AIDS and are not at risk of getting AIDS as in those who have AIDS.14 HIV is said to be a specific
kind of virus, a retrovirus. Yet all the pictures published so far of "HIV” particles, no particle has bo^
main characteristics of retroviruses, that is. a diameter of 100 to 120 nm and spikes on their surface.1
Q9. If there is no proof for the existence of HIV, then what ai e mothers transmitting to their babies?
A 9. Mothers with ' HIV” antibodies have babies that also are found to have "HIV” antibodies. In fact, at
birth all their babies have "HIV” antibodies but these are the mother's, not the baby’s antibodies. They get
into to the baby by crossing the placenta not long before birth. By approximately 2 years of age, only
about 15% are lefi with such antibodies and these are said to be babips who have been infected. That's
what the experts lead us to believe and they say those 15% now have their own antibodies, which they
made because HIV took hold in that proportion of babies. They're not the mother's antibodies because by
then they've all disappeared. But their conclusion creates a very largb problem. And it's this: Sure it s
true that in the babies the mothers antibodies gradually disappear. That's because the babies metabolise
them. Not just the "HIV’’ variety of antibodies but all the different varieties of antibodies mothers pass to
their children before they are bom. In fact the disappearance of mother’is antibodies is why babies are most
susceptible to infections around 3-4 months of age because by this timf nearly all the mother's antibodies
have gone but the baby still hasn’t built up enough of its own. Beforeithe AIDS era it was known that all
of the mother's antibodies disappear by nine months of age. And we: mean all. At nine months they m
zero.16 And there's no way the body can selectively get rid of the "HIV” variety. The biochemica
machinery can't say "You're a measles antibody. I’ll get rid of you but you're an HIV antibody. I'll keep
you tw ice as long”. To the body an antibody molecule is just another protein (antibodies are all proteins by
the way). But the way the "HTV” variety is lost after birth reveals something that doesn't fit. And it s this:
If you follow the disappearance of the "HIV” antibodies from birth, it drops from 100% at birth to 75% at
9 months. Then to about 15% at 22 months, which the experts say, is the proof that 15% of babies are
infected by their mothers. This means that 60% of children lose the "HIV” antibodies and lest negative in
an antibody test between 9 and 22 months. So what are the antibodies, which have been lost9 Where did
the\- come from? They can't be the mother's because they've all been metabolised by 9 months. They
can't be caused by HIV infecting the babies because, according to the experts, if that happens, the
antibodies remain for life. So how do you explain it? You can only explain it by saying they re nol HIV
antibodies al all but other antibodies that reacted in the test. But if that's true for 60% it could be true lor
all the babies including the 15% left w ith antibodies at 22 months. And if the tests are false in the babies
they are also false in their mothers. And their fathers 17
Q 10. Since the HIV experts admit that the antibody test cannot be used in babies what methods do
they use to prove mother-to-child transmission of HIV?
A 10. Two methods are used, namely death and a test that detects “HIV RNA or “HIV DNA known as the
PCR. When a baby is born to an HIV positive mother, if that baby dies before they can use an antibody test,
the baby is said to have died from AIDS caused by HIV transmitted from the mother. PCR is used in many
of the studies, which attempt to prove mother-to-child transmission. This test has at least as many draw backs
as the antibody lest. For example, a PCR test can revert from a positive to a negative for which the HIV
experts have no explanation. Also the specificity of the PCR has never been determined accurately. Even
the DNA-PCR, which is said to be more specific than the RNA-PCR, varies from 0 to 100%. 18 For babies,
the RNA-PCR is used in an attempt to prove mother-to-child transmission of HIV. However, according to
the manufacturer (Roche) of this test, “The Amplicor HIV-1 [RNA] Monitor test is not intended to be used as
a screening test for HIV-1 or as a diagnostic test to confirm the presence of HIV-1 infection". 19 And that
means in anyone. According to the latest CDC AIDS definition. "In adults, adolescents, and children infected
by other than perinatal exposure, plasma viral RNA nucleic acid tests [PCR] should NOT be used in lieu of
licensed HIV screening tests (e.g.. repeatedly reactive enzyme immunoassay)". 20 But surely a test that can
NOT be used to prove infection of adults, adolescents and even children (for example, by blood transfusion)
will also be invalid to prove mother-to-child transmission of HIV. After all, the experts tell us it's all the
same virus.
Q 11. But doesn’t AZT and nevirapine reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV?
A IL There is no proof for this. Most of the studies which claim proof that AZT reduce transmission are not
randomised, or double-blind and do not have controls.17 Even the best of them, the ACTG076 has so many
drawbacks that no valid conclusions can be drawn.21 As far as nevirapine is concerned, so far there has been
only one study HIVNET012.22 Given its design, execution and analysis, it is impossible to draw any valid
conclusions.23 Since all the HIV experts claim that AZT and nevirapine reduce mother-to-child transmission
of HIV by reducing viral load, and since neither AZT nor nevirapine have any effect on viral load, then it
follows these drugs cannot decrease mother-to-child transmission of HIV.17' 23 No matter what the reported
findings from these studies are, no physician or government can make decisions regarding the use of these
drugs for reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV unless and until the tests used to prove infection are
guaranteed to be HIV specific. Including by the manufacturers.
Q 12. Is HIV sexually transmitted?
A 12. No. Regarding AIDS since 1982, and regarding “HIV” since 1984, evidence existed from studies in
gay men that a positive test and AIDS is limited to the passive partner. The active partner does not get
“HIV” or AIDS.24'25'26 Not from sex. So we have the spectacle of an infectious disease going one w ay.
From active to passive partner. Like pregnancy. But that’s impossible because microbes rely on
person-to-person contact to spread. If they don't spread they’re dead.
Q 13. What about heterosexual transmission of HIV?
A 13. The heterosexual transmission of HIV was one of the main predictions of the HIV theory of AIDS.
Now, in the 3rd decade of AIDS, data from the largest, longest based design and executed prospective
study in heterosexuals clearly proves there is no heterosexual transmission in North America, Europe
and Australia.27
Q 14. Then how is it possible for HIV be transmitted heterosexually in Africa?
A 14. Unless HIV discriminates between people on the basis of race or colour, it is not possible. In fact, the
best available data proves that HIV” is no more heterosexually transmitted in Africa than in either North
In table 2 the evidence from the best two non-prospective studies
America. Europe or Australia.
performed in the USA and in Africa are presented. 2/’ 28 Take a look at this table. See how long it takes
for an "‘infected" man or woman, having sex every three days, no holidays, to " infect" their partner.
Contrast this with gonorrhoea where you'd be infected in a week.
Q 15. Why then do such a high percentage of Africans (for example, 10% of South Africans) test
positive but this is not seen in the rest of the world?
A 15.
Firstly, there is no proof that 10% of South Africans test positive for HIV. This figure has been
derived as follows: Pregnant women are tested with the ELISA antibody test. (HIV experts accept that
the ELISA antibody lest is non-specific in all individuals especially pregnant women). The findings for
pregnant women are then extrapolated to the general population.29 That is. it is assumed that since 10%
of pregnant w omen lest positive, then 10% of the w hole population test positive. This high percentage
of posilixe tests is not even found in the crowded South African prisons where the reported "HIV
infection ' is approximately 2.3%. 29 Second!} , due to poverty, South Africans frequently suffer from
infectious diseases, which lead to the appearance of antibodies that will give a positive "HIV" antibody
lest.
Q 16. But how can AIDS in Africa be explained? Isn’t AIDS a new disease?
A 16. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency (AID) Syndrome (S). AID is nothing new, nor is it
caused by a single factor such as HIV. Some of the best experts of "HIV/AIDS” in Africa such as Riot.
Clumeck. Essex, Quinn were aware of this and admit that immune deficiency in Africa has existed for a
considerable lime and this has not been due to HIV. "Tuberculosis, protein calorie malnutrition, and
various parasitic diseases can all be associated with depression of cellular immunity". ■'°
"A wide range
of prevalent [in Africa] protozoal and helminthic infections have been reported to indue
immunodeficiency".31
"Africans are frequently exposed, due to hygienic conditions and other factors, to
a wide variety of viruses, including CMV, EBV, hepatitis B virus, and HSV, all of which are known to
modulate the immune system...Furthermore, the Africans in the present study are at an additional risk for
immunologic alterations since they are frequently afflicted w ith a w ide variety of diseases, such as malaria,
trypanosomiasis, and filariasis, that are also known to have a major effect on the immune system"
[CMV=cytomegalovirus; EBV=Epstein-Barr virus; HSV=herpes simplex virus].02
If AIDS in Africa is the same condition with the same cause as anywhere else in the world then AIDS in
Africa and AIDS in the West should be identical. This is not the case and what is called AIDS in Africa is
almost unrecognisably different from AIDS in the West, so much so that if African patients suddenly
switched continents, very few Africans would remain AIDS cases. This is due to the existence of multiple
AIDS definitions, one for Africa (the Bangui definition which separately lists adults and children), one for
adults in North America, Europe and Australia, one for children in these countries and one for Latin
America. None of the definitions of AIDS includes a new disease. All the diseases existed long before
the AIDS era. In fact, the African definition (the Bangui definition) does not require a specific disease
diagnosis but consists largely of symptoms such as weight loss, diarrhoea, cough and fever. For example,
an African with diarrhoea, fever and persistent cough for longer than one month is, by definition, an AIDS
case. The symptoms listed in the Bangui definition are common and non-specific manifestations of man
diseases, which are endemic in Africa and were so long before the AIDS era. This is accepted by some of
the best-known experts on AIDS in Africa such as Mann, Fauci, Essex. For example, "...recognition of
paediatric AIDS is particularly difficult in Kinshasha [Zaire], since many children have severe infant and
childhood diseases with similar manifestations (eg. weight loss, chronic diarrhoea)". '4 "Well, ol course it
|the Bangui definition of AIDS] will be less reliable (than that used in non-Third-World countries). One
typical example is w'hat we call ’slim disease'. It's a wasting syndrome seen in Africa. Now that wouldn't
fall under any categorization of AIDS by the standard empiric definition, but nevertheless, (slim disease) is
being considered AIDS in Africa".35 Also "malnutrition and general lack of medical services contributed
to diarrhoea, tuberculosis, and other common African diseases that signify AIDS".
The diseases most
frequently reported as signifying AIDS in Africa are Kaposi's sarcoma and TB. In fact, 90% of AIDS
cases in developing countries are TB cases. '7 Kaposi's sarcoma existed in Africa in high frequency long
before the AIDS era. Ils cause was proven to be not an infectious agent. 's Al the beginning of the AIDS
era Kaposi's sarcoma wzas one of the main reasons for the introduction of the HIV theory of AIDS. The
overwhelming evidence which accumulated forced all the HIV experts to admit that HIV is not the cause of
this disease. 's Yet even today an African with Kaposi's sarcoma is an AIDS patient even if not tested for
HIV. " Up to 1987 TB wzas not considered to be an AIDS indicator disease. The 1987 CDC definition of
AIDS considered extra-pulmonary TB but not pulmonary TB as indicating AIDS. '9 Thus, from 1987 to
1993 there were two causes of TB. One for extra-pulmonary TB (HIV) and another for pulmonary TB.
According to the 1993 definition of AIDS, both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB are AIDS indicator
diseases.40 Since 1993. if an African patient (Australian TB patients are not tested for HIV) has TB and a
negative antibody test, then the patient has TB and is treated accordingly. A patient with TB and a positive
antibody test is not a TB patient but an AIDS patient and is treated accordingly. Although ample e\ idence
exists which show's:
(i)
that the antibodies which appear as a result of infection with the mycobacterial organism w hich causes
TB react with the proteins in the "HIV" antibody lest. That is a patient with TB would test positive for HIX'
even if not infected with such a virus:7
(ii)
other things being equal, "AIDS" patients gel belter with anti-TB drugs just as fast as "non-AIDS" TB
patients:41
(iii)
TB is not a new disease and existed in Africa long before the AIDS era. The only thing, which is new.
is an antibody test, which, so far nobody has shown to prove HIV infection. The notion that since 1993 a high
percentage of TB cases in Africa are caused by HIV implies that all the traditional causes of TB in Africa
vanished overnight in 1993 to make a way for a new cause. "HIV".
In other words, although the best known researchers of African AIDS clearly accepted that both AID and
the AID syndrome (S) existed in Africa long before the AIDS era. and that they were caused by agents
other than HIV. the same researchers expect the world to accept that in Africa there is a new disease.
AIDS, caused bv a new virus. HIV.
With AIDS representing over 35 diseases all traceable to a single HIV, what treatment
Q.17
must be given?
A.17
Modern medicine never had had any genuine antiretroviral drug, or antiviral drug for thai
matter. Modem medicine's ‘'treatment” of heart attack, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, stroke for
arthritis is always been symptom -oriented, without in any way understanding the cause / course / cure of
any of the foregoing maladies. Granting that there is HIV end that it causes AIDS, all that the five star
health care should do is to treat whatsoever the manifest illness, without wanting to attack the alleged root
cause, namely, the HIV. for any treatment of HIV itself is illogical, counter productive, and even lethal.
Q.18
What is the real nature of antiviral drugs?
A. 18
In reality, there is no antiviral drug. AZT was synthesized as a hope against cancer, but its
sheer toxicity forced its withdrawal. Now it is the same cell poison wearing the new ART garb. A thorn
by any other name pricks as deep. AZT and all other ART drugs are indiscriminate cell poisons that
devastate the body and the galaxy of side effects gel ascribed to HIV AIDS. A Gash back in to the history
of syphilis is relevant here. In the 16th century, mercury therapy of syphilis came to the fore with much the
same bravado as ART against HIV today. And it was Jean Feme! who pointed out in 1579 that " nearly all
the late symptoms of syphilis were really due to mercury poisoning." HIV is no problem. ART/HAART
are big problems however.
Q.19
What is the epistemology of HIV AIDS?
A. 19
Epistemology is recently recognised science that evaluates any knowledge to scientifically
declare its scope & limitations. It is of interest to note that whereas medical men know an oceanic lot on
cancer cell, coronary artery or the carotid, they can do nothing to control these entities.
The summaiy intellectual bankruptcy of the HIV AIDS establishment on the virus itself, the sheer
unreliability of all the tests and the blindly toxic nature of all therapies allows one to epistemological!}
declare that HIV AIDS is a dogma but no science.
Joseph Hixson has written an account of the greatest scientific scandal of the 20th century perpetrated
at the famous SKI. Newyork. (Hixson. J; The Patchwork Mouse, Anchor press, Newyork, 1976). Two
statements from his book are relevant here.
a) “The American Public known to the rest of the world as the originator of fads and fetishes, suffers
from time to time with a preoccupation over a single disease.
b) "I have some advice for young researchers in biology. Stay out of cancer reasearch because it s full of
mone\’ and just about out of science."
HIV -AIDS is an enemy that the USA has invented The establishment now find it hard to dismount
the tiger it has created. HIV AIDS is an obsession, a lot of money but no science nor sense.
Q.20
How would you reread HIV AIDS?
A.20
Highly Imagined Virus and Allopathy Induced Deficiency Syndromes
Q.21
Can HIV AIDS be prevented?
A.21 When the virus itself is in the realm of imagination, how do w e avoid it? Harvey Cushing, the famed
American neurosurgeon, complained in the early part of the 20lh century7 that pre\ ention is an over work ed
term. In the current medical scene, prevention is the predictable refuge of the therapeutical!} impotent,
intellectually bankrupt and epistemologically arrogant modern medicine. HIV AIDS prevention is no
exception.
Eleni Papadopulos-EIeopulos Biophysicist, Department of Medical Physics. Royal Perth Hospital. Perth.
Western Australia
Valendar F. Turner Consultant Emergency Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth
Hospital, Perth, Western Australia
John M Papadimitriou Professor of Pathology, University of Western Australia, Perth. Western Australia
Helman Alfonso Department of Research, Universidad Metropolitana Barranquilla. Colombia
Barry A. P. Page Physicist, Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia
David Causer Physicist, Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia
Sam Mhlongo Head & Chief Family Practitioner, Family Medicine & Primary Health Care, Medical University
of South Africa, Johannesberg, South Africa
Todd Miller Assistant Scientist, Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Universit}7 of Miami
School of Medicine, Florida, United States of America
Christian Fiala Gynaecologist, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, General Public Hospital,
Komeuburg, Austria
Anthony Brink Advocate of the High Court of South Africa
Neville Hodgkinson Science Writer, Oxford, England
Manu Kothari Consultant Oncologist and Naturopathist. 14/B. S.V.Rd., Santacruz(W), Mumbai 400 054,
INDIA.
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14. O’Hara CJ, Groopmen JE, Federman M. (1988). The Ultrastructural and Immunohistochemical
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(2001) Mother To Child Transmission of HIV and Its Prevention w ith AZT and Nevirapine. A Critical
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34 Mann, J.M. Francis, H. Quinn, T. Asila, P.K. Bosenge, N. Nzilambi, N. Bila, K. Tamfum, M. Ruti,
K. Piot, P. McCormick, J. & Curran, J.W. (1986). Surveillance for AIDS in a central African city.
Journal of the American Medical Association 255:3255-3259.
35. Fauci A.
AIDS Alert, Januan* 1987.
36. Essex M. New Scientist, 18th February' 1988.
37. Horton R. (1998) The 12th World AIDS Conference: a cautionary tale Lancet 352:122.
38. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E, Turner VF, Papadimitriou JM. (1992). Kaposi's sarcoma and HIV. Medical
Hypotheses 39:22-9.
39. CDC (1987). Revision of the CDC surveillance case definition for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
JAMA 258:1143-1154.
40. CDC (1993). Revised Classification System for HIV Infection and Expanded Surveillance Case
Definition for AIDS Among Adolescents and Adults. MMWR 41:1-19.
41 Pitchenik AE, Cole C, Russell BW, Fischl MA, Spira TJ, Snider DE, Jr. (1984) Tuberculosis,
atypical mycobacteriosis, and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome among Haitian and non-Haitian
patients in south Florida. Annals of Internal Medicine 101:641-5.
Table 1 Criteria defining a positive HIV Western blot
®
IUV
■
WESTERN
k? s Tos i RCX k’l>(?cnc CON
i
i
• BLOT STRIP*
pl 60
pl 20
p41
,
1
2
p 16G' : p:
p] ?C ip :20
AND i OR
. p4 ’• : p4:
£o
p • c0'p:>0
C-R
p4-
g I
g
o !
§
2 AND
1
co
3
O
i
.... 22;
6 ■"
r>24
I
p24
£
J
AFR=AFRICA:' AUS=AUSTRALIA;2 FDA=US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION;’ RCX=US
RED CROSS:3 CDC=US CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL;3 CON=US CONSORTIUM FOR
RETROVIRUS SEROLOGY STANDARDIZATION;3 GER=GERMANY; UK=UNITED KINGDOM;
FRA=FRANCE; MACS= US MULTICENTER AIDS COHORT STUDY 1983-1992. * Bands not in
electrophoretic order
NOTES:
I.
‘"The Association of Public Health Laboratories now recommends that patients who have minimal
positive results on the WB. eg p24 and gp!60 only, or gp41 and gp!60 only, be told that these patterns
have been seen in persons who are not infected with HIV and that follow-up testing is required to
determine actual infective status”.4
II.
In Februaiy 1993 the US Food and Drug Administration relaxed their criteria in order to "reduce th
number of HIV-1 seroindeterminate Western blot interpretations , that is, to increase the number of
HIV positive individuals?
1.
WHO. (1990). Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Proposed criteria for interpreting
results from Western blot assays for HIV-1, HIV-2 and HTLV-I/HTLV-II. Weekly Epidemiological
Record 65:281-298.
2.
Healy DS, Maskill WJ, Howard TS, et al. (1992). HIV-1 Western blot: development and assessment
of testing to resolve indeterminate reactivity. AIDS
3.
629-633.
Lundberg GD. (1988). Serological Diagnosis of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection by
Western Blot Testing. Journal of the American Medical Association 260:674-679. (Data presented in
this paper reveal that when the FDA criteria are used to interpret the HIV Western blot less than 50%
of US AIDS patients are HIV positive whereas 10% of persons not at risk of AIDS are also positive).
4.
Mylonakis E, Paliou M, Greenbough TC, Flaningan TP, Letvin NL, Rich JD. Report of a false-
positive HIV test result and the potential use of additional tests in establishing HIV serostatus.
Archives of Internal Medicine 2000;160:2386-8.
5.
Kleinman S. Busch MP, Hall L, et al. (1998). False-positive HIV-1 test results in a low -risk screening
setting of voluntary blood donation. Journal of the American Medical Association 280:1080-1083.
Table 2. Number of years to attain 50% and 95% probabilities transmission of HIV assuming sexual
contact once every three days
STUDY
USA
Uganda
DIRECTION OF
TRANSMISSION
M to F
F to M
M to F
F to M
Per contact
PROBABILITY
0.0009
0.0001125
0.0009
0.0013
Years for 50% Years for 95%
PROBABILITY PROBABILITY
'6.3
i27.4
222
51
27.4
6.3
19.5
4.4
pt S ' 1-H. 3
THE HIV DISBELIEVERS
By David France
Newsweek 19 August 2000
Christine Maggiore is a different kind of AIDS activist — one who tells people to forget
safe sex and stop taking their lifesaving drugs. Why'?
One sweltering California afternoon a few weeks ago, Christine Maggiore was sitting in
her cramped office, still jet-lagged from the long flight home from South Africa, where
she'd attended the International AIDS Conference.
She hadn't yet found time to answer the "hundreds and hundreds, perhaps literally
thousands" of e-mail messages she'd received from people she'd met there who were
looking for AIDS literature or doctor referrals, or simply wanting to pat her on the back.
"All your work and dedication is appreciated!!!" a typical message declared. She doesn't
know when she'll find time to catch up -- her whole life is behind schedule because of hei
AIDS work. "My fiance and I have been trying to find time to get married for years! she
says.
But Maggiore, who heads Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives in Burbank, Calif, is not your
typical AIDS activist. In South Africa, some scientists spit nasty epithets at her.
Protesters marching outside the meeting hall threatened to plug her and her galvanized
follov/ers with bullets. Why? Because Maggiore takes the strange contrarian stance that
HIV, which has been blamed in the deaths of 18.8 million people worldwide, doesn't
cause AIDS at all. She exhorts people to stop taking their medications and stop worrying
about spreading their virus.
But Maggiore's influence here and abroad is swelling. The singer Nina Hagen wrote a
song for her, and Esai Morales, the actor, is a big funder. The platinum-selling alternative
rock band Foo Fighters promotes Maggiore's ideas on its Web site. And in South Africa,
Maggiore met privately with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who endorses many
of her beliefs. Mbeki's call for more research into whether HIV causes AIDS dominated
headlines from the important biennial meeting. In response, 5,000 flabbergasted scientists
signed a declaration calling the laboratory evidence "clear-cut, exhaustive, and
unambiguous."
Such consensus doesn't impress Maggiore, a bright and compelling former garment
executive with no scientific training or college degree. Through emotional newspaper
columns, e-mail postings and lectures in such disparate places as the University of Miami
School of Medicine and the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Harlem, she
continues to try to pick apart the scientific literature, a strategy that especially appeals to
people with a beef against the establishment. "We're not saying that anybody is 100
percent correct or incorrect on this issue," Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel told
Newsweek. "Simply, there's information out there that is being blocked out "
Maggiore is convinced that the HIV doesn't cause AIDS. No medical journal has ever
proved to her it is dangerous. She calls standard HIV antibody tests so oversensitive that
they can show positive "if you've had a flu shot or if you've ever been pregnant" (the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagree), and she cobbles together reams of
footnotes, anecdotes and package inserts to prove it.
Then how does she explain all the deaths that have marked the pandemic9 Here's where
her argument takes a conspiratorial turn. In Africa, despite what health authorities say,
people are simply not dying more than before, she asserts. And she thinks the 420,000
Americans who have died of AIDS are victims of the prescription drugs they hoped
would save them. Or perhaps they died from recreational drugs. Or maybe they
succumbed to "a profound fear of AIDS" itself "We're not saying people haven't died of
what is called ’AIDS'," Maggiore explained one afternoon in the sunny Burbank home
she shares with her fiance, a 31-year-old video editor named Robin Scovill, and her son.
"We're just asking what is at the core of this incredible human tragedy. And by looking at
other avenues, might we better resolve this?"
There is no way to know how many patients she has persuaded to abandon their
medications or condoms, but Maggiore's detractors can barely contain their anger. "Many
people will die because they will go untreated," says Dr. Luc Montagnier. the co
discoverer of HIV. White House AIDS policy director Sandra Thurman says bluntly,
"Christine is putting lives in jeopardy."
Disbelievers — "flat earth" types who fervently doubt the conclusions of science — have
been around since the Enlightenment. But they are staging a resurgence today, partly in
reaction to the unparalleled role science plays in society. Disbelievers fear Big Science
the way millennialists feared Y2K. Fragments of contrarian evidence are enough to shake
their faith in everything from water fluoridation to global-warming statistics, childhood
vaccine programs to the artificial sweetener aspartame, the Holocaust to evolution. Fluge
parcels of the World Wide Web are devoted to such exposes. "We're at a moment for a
lot of things where skepticism becomes a dogma," says Michael Shermer, author of a
book about the antiscience backlash, "Why People Believe Weird Things."
But what's in it for them? "The basis of denial is a need to escape something that is
terribly uncomfortable," says Boston College psychology professor Joseph Tecce, who
has studied Holocaust deniers and AIDS dissenters. "If something is horrific, I might
want to pretend it doesn't exist."
Christine Maggiore's horrific event came on Feb. 24, 1992, when, she says, a routine
blood test came back positive for HIV. She was 36 years old, single and a partner in a
successful clothing wholesaler. A former boyfriend also tested positive. "I was
mortified," she says. "According to the conventional wisdom, 1 had just foolishly and
irrevocably ruined my entire life."
Maggiore was not immediately a disbeliever. Initially, the oldest child of a Los Angeles
advertising executive sought the advice of doctors and planned to start treatment. But
some scientific principles of the disease never added up to her. For one thing, she felt fine
— and still does. How could she have a killer virus? "There was this empirical data from
my own body," she says. "I was ridiculously healthy."
Ultimately she discovered the work of Berkeley virologist Peter Duesberg, whose belief
that AIDS is caused by lifestyle choices like promiscuity and drug use rather than
infectious agents have long been dismissed by his peers. One spring evening in 1994, as
she was sitting on a panel discussing AIDS prevention, it finally struck Maggiore that she
no longer believed in the epidemic. "Being a practical person, it didn't seem to me after
investigating this that there were good reasons for me to live my life as if I were dying,"
she says.
Now, nothing can dissuade her. Take the 1999 CDC report detailing the wild successes of
protease inhibitors, the new class of AIDS drugs introduced in 1996. The study correlates
a huge drop-off in classic AIDS-related infections with data on how many of the new
drugs were prescribed. "Prescriptions don't mean people are actually taking the drugs,"
she objected. "Do you know how many people flush their drugs down the toilet9" (In
fact, she says, the wholesale return to health is a direct result of that protest, in bathrooms
across America.)
Today Maggiore is the most prominent foe of what she calls "the HIV equals AIDS
equals death paradigm," having sold or given away 28,500 copies of her self-published
booklet since 1995, in addition to the copies in French, German, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese and Japanese. She founded Alive & Well, which has spun off chapters around
the globe and is affiliated with dozens of like-minded groups representing perhaps tens of
thousands of followers.
Their message has resonated among a number of gay men who, exhausted by 20 years of
medical vigilance and daily toxic drug regimens, are increasingly receptive to Maggiore's
exhortation to "live in wellness...without fear of AIDS." And they have reinvigorated
long-simmering AIDS conspiracy theories. According to a 1995 survey of 1,000 AfricanAmerican churchgoers, one third believed HIV was concocted by the government for
racial genocide. When she spoke before a crowded room in Harlem in 1998, spellbound
members of the audience likened her to the abolitionists, interrupting her with cries of
"John Brown lives!"
"If you told me five years ago I would be promoting the notion that HIV does not cause
AIDS, 1 would have said you were nuts. 1 believed adamantly that HIV was a killer and
these drugs were saving lives," says Michael Bellefountaine, 34, a friend of Maggiore's
who decided against taking anti-HIV medication years ago. Now he attributes his
survival to being drug-free. Last month he attended a protest in San Francisco and
chanted, "HIV is a lie! It's toxic pills that made them die!"
AIDS educators already hold Maggiore and her acolytes responsible for an upswing in
new infections. San Francisco authorities just announced that new HIV cases in 1999
were nearly twice as high as in 1997. "People are focusing on the wrong thing. They're
focusing on conspiracies rather than protecting themselves, rather than getting tested and
seeking out appropriate care and treatment," says Stephen Thomas, who directs the
University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health.
HIV renegades sometimes seem as if their main goal is mayhem, not constructive
discourse. For instance, the San Francisco chapter of ACT UP, once a major force
lobbying for more money for AIDS research, is now run by dissenters who stage protests
against other AIDS leaders — regularly bathing them in cat-box litter or spit. On Aug. 9,
police charged two ACT UP members with assault and battery for allegedly striking city
health department director Mitchell H. Katz and covering him with Silly String during a
public meeting. Similar antics now prevail among a half-dozen ACT UP branches.
"They're crazy," says Larry Kramer, who founded ACT UP in 1987. "They're undoing all
we've fought for."
Picking over a black-bean wrap at her kitchen counter recently, Maggiore described
herself simply as a person who asks questions others are overlooking. The fact that she
provokes hostility only emboldens her. She sees only intolerance and recalcitrance among
her detractors — they "smack of parental authority and religious authority," she said. Her
brother Steven, 41, calls her a modern-day Copernicus.
But she soon made it clear that her disregard for HIV is not just an intellectual gambit
when her talkative 3-year-old son, Charlie, wandered into the kitchen after a midday nap.
She talked about how she conceived him naturally and gave birth without drugs routinely
given to prevent transmission. She continues to breast-feed him today, according to the
family's pediatrician. Her family supports her in this, even though HIV can be transmitted
through breast milk and judges have charged mothers in similar cases with child
endangerment.
Maggiore and Scovill, Charlie's father, say they've never been curious to test the child for
HIV (Scovill does not know his own status). Their pediatrician is not as sanguine. "I
would not be opposed to testing his blood," admits Dr. Paul Fleiss, who says the boy has
been very healthy. "But she is."
"He's a perfectly healthy little boy," says Scovill, bending to offer his son a macaroon.
Charlie was skeptical. "They're really good," the father insisted patiently. "And for some
reason they decrease viral load!" With that, both parents had a good laugh at the silly
AIDS goblin. Such is the power of belief.
The Extremists versus the AIDS Experts
How Maggiore's book "What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was
Wrong?" conflicts with information on HIV from the National Institutes of Health.
** Issue: Are HIV tests accurate9 **
The Fringe: No. More than 70 conditions can cause false positives, from malaria to
alcoholism. And people can revert to negative.
The Scientists: Yes. "Virtually 100 percent," experts say. In 20 years, just five adults and
27 kids have mysteriously reverted to negative.
** Issue: Is HIV a deadly virus? **
The Fringe: No. Many people who test HIV-positive live "in wellness" for years. Some
say AIDS results from other factors.
The Scientists: Yes. Why some cases never progress is a puzzle, but all researchers agree
HIV is sufficient to kill.
** Issue: Do AIDS drugs work? **
The Fringe: No. Their side effects are suspiciously similar to AIDS symptoms, and the
drugs are said to be lethal poisons.
The Scientists: Yes. They're toxic, but proven, life-prolongers
them prophylactically without damage.
many people have taken
** The Issue: Can you forget the condoms? **
The Fringe: Yes. If your partner is not in a risk group, you're more likely to be struck by
lightning than HIV after one encounter.
The Scientists: No. That would be Russian roulette. HIV can be passed in a single
encounter. Why take that risk9
AIDS COCKTAIL
By Rupa Chinai
Times of India (Bombay) 29 May & 4 Jun 2001
Mumbai - Now that the AIDS 'cocktail therapy' is being offered at a lower price by Indian
pharmaceutical companies, developing countries like South Africa and India are under
increasing social pressure to distribute these drugs free through their public health system.
However, before jumping into this decision, other dimensions need to be considered.
It is a fact that anti-retroviral drugs offer no cure for AIDS. In fact, the US federal health
authorities issued new guidelines in February this year, backtracking on its long-held policy
of "hit hard and early" for AIDS treatment. It now recommends that treatment for HIV should
be delayed as long as possible for people without symptoms.
This US move is a result of growing concern over toxic effects of the therapies, reported The
New York Times recently. "These toxic effects include nerve damage, weakened bones,
unusual accumulation of fat in the neck and abdomen and diabetes. Many people have
developed dangerously high levels of cholesterol and other lipids in the blood, raising
concern that HIV positive persons might face another epidemic of heart disease," the report
states.
"Studies show that the drug cocktail does not destroy the HIV virus. When infected people
stop the therapy, the virus rebounds, making lifetime therapy a necessity the i eport adds.
Meanwhile, a wholly new dimension to this debate is brought by a strong body of Western
scientists, which include Nobel Prize winners. They believe that attacking the virus (HIV)
will not deal with the underlying causes of immune suppression. AIDS is the consequence of
a suppressed immune system, which has been subjected to repeated onslaughts by four
factors that build up toxins and deficiencies in the body. These are: antibiotic abuse,
recreational drug abuse, anal sex and nutritional stress.
The fact that these factors have appeared in combination over the past two decades, could
explain the emergence of AIDS, claim the alternative thinkers HIV, if it exists, is a marker
of a suppressed immune system, they say.
While closely following the 'AIDS story' over the past six years, this reporter found the
emergence of two clear trends:
* A large number of people from within the general population — that is, those not part of the
'high-risk group' -- enjoy good health despite testing 'HIV positive' a decade ago. In Mumbai,
the "AIDS capital of India", counselling groups such as Salvation Army and CASA
(Counselling and Allied Services), who attend to HIV-positive people from this segment of
the population, say there is strong evidence to show that the damage caused to the immune
system can be reversed.
"This happens when people change their habits of substance abuse, eat nutritious food,
involve themselves in community service, practice discipline and hygiene, receive regular
counselling, family and social support. Such persons emerge stronger and healthy," says
Arun Meitram, a counselor at the Salvation Army clinic.
Incidentally, Salvation Army counselors recall only 15 deaths have occurred among the 900
patients they have been following over the past decade. In most cases the cause of death is
related to malnutrition or TB.
Says Nagesh Shirgoppikar, a medical consultant to Salvation Army; "Our experience in
treating 'HIV positive' persons over the past decade shows that all the components of
comprehensive psychological, emotional, physical and conventional medical treatment are
very important. If a person is treated wholly, he is fine. Our patients have remained
asymptomatic for up to ten years, and enjoy perfect health without anti-retroviral drugs."
* However, a disturbing trend noticed among the 'gay community' and those indulging in
drug abuse is the rapid progression into full-blown AIDS. This downslide confirms what the
'alternative thinkers' on AIDS are also saying — chemical drugs (both recreational and
antibiotic abuse) cause immune suppression. So does anal sex, which causes toxic shock to
the 'receiving partner'.
Some evidence emerging from India substantiate this thinking. Rapid progression into AIDS
is evident, for instance in Manipur At a recent workshop on AIDS in the North-East region,
officials from the Manipur State AIDS Society, said that rampant drug abuse has made AIDS
a visible phenomenon.
In Manipur the intervention programme emphasises 'clean needle exchange', without
simultaneous support for detoxification and rehabilitation. Evidence from Sankalp, an NGO
working amongst drug addicts in Mumbai shows that when addicts are offered clean needles,
it helps create a sense of acceptance of their problem without any prejudice. But they also
need simultaneous detoxification facilities, with access to buprenorphine, (a 'partial opiate
agonist' that enables an addict to stop hard drugs and taper off the craving for a 'chemical
kick'), along with rehabilitation. Both facets receive mere 'lip service' in Mumbai and
Manipur, which has a sizeable population of drug addicts.
Meanwhile, studies amongst Mumbai's gay community reveal that anal sex is a dominant
pattern of sexual behaviour. More studies are required to establish whether this practice is
linked to the progression of AIDS, and whether a combination of other factors like alcohol
abuse, lack of proper nutrition and sanitation contributes to their vulnerability to AIDS.
India's STD clinics and health centers make no effort to address these issues.
***
Emerging evidence, both internationally and within India, is presenting a wholly new
dimension of AIDS. It suggests that repeated assaults on the body's immune system by the
build-up of toxins and nutritional deficiencies leads to AIDS. And, for many, the damage
could be reversible even without drugs.
This new demension puts to doubt the accepted belief that a virus, HIV, is responsible for
causing AIDS. In consequence, a question mark looms over the credibility of the HIV test
and its ability to identify a person who is vulnerable to AIDS.
Questions over the validity of the HIV test are coming from Mumbai, the 'AIDS capital of
India'. Evidence shows that the rampant use of HIV tests on asymptomatic persons is
resulting in a large number of false 'HIV positive' results. Nobody knows the true extent of
such incidents because the health authorities have no system of monitoring privately run
laboratories and hospitals.
Alka Gogate, director of the Mumbai AIDS Society acknowledges the problem. She
attributes it to the many private laboratories in the city that lack accreditation and technical
expertise to assure standardised testing.
Mumbai's corporation hospitals no longer insist on an HIV test on admission. It is prescribed
only when a patient shows symptoms such as repeated bouts of diarrhea, fever, loss of body
weight or TB -- the common symptoms of AIDS-associated illnesses in India.
Private hospitals in Mumbai insist on a routine HIV test before admission. Several newspaper
reports have documented the havoc false 'HIV positive' tests have caused in the lives of
patients. According to Dr. Gogate their insistence on rampant HIV testing in the absence of
clinical symptoms of AIDS, needs to be challenged.
Fear of social stigma has prevented many patients from making their complaint public.
Widely reported however, is the case of a young man who tested HIV positive when he was
undergoing a compulsory medical examination, required for getting a work permit in the
Gulf. Subsequent negative tests at reputed laboratories did not change the decision of the
Gulf Board to reject him.
Yet another reported case is that of two pregnant women who initially tested HIV positive,
and their babies were subjected to a course of AZT, a toxic and controversial anti-AlDS
drug. Thereafter, a second HIV test showed negative results.
The AIDS establishment now officially concede that reliance on a single HIV test is not
acceptable in labeling a person as 'HIV positive'. At least three confirmatory tests are
required to eliminate the possibility of picking up other infection markers. However, for most
poor patients a single test remains the norm.
The unreliability of the HIV test confirms what 'alternate thinkers' on AIDS have maintained
since long - there is evidence to show that the HIV tests, Elisa and Western Blot, can show
false results when there is cross-reactivity with a host of viral and bacterial species.
Their evidence holds there are at least 70 different conditions in a person being tested for
HIV that can show false positive results. These conditions include influenza, herpes simplex,
hepatitis, all mycobacterium bacterial species (including leprosy and tuberculosis), malaria,
and even pregnancy and malnutrition.
The substance of this argument goes back to the 1980s when Robert Gallo and Luc
Montagnier, American and French scientists respectively, first claimed to have isolated HIV.
Review of the published literature by an Australian scientist group shows that viral particles
claimed to be HIV, were taken from unpurified cell cultures and unspecific density gradients.
The standard norm for isolation of a retrovirus requires that it must be purified from the
presence of other "cellular debris", analysed and proven to be able to replicate.
The isolated particles in the Gallo-Montagnier experiment contained 'cellular debris' which
also resembles retrovirus particles, and can react in an 'HIV antibody test'. Despite the faulty
methodology, their research was unquestioningly accepted to set subsequent standards of an
HIV test kit.
The fact that the HIV test is not specific for the detection of the virus is clearly stated in the
literature accompanying the Eliza test kits (from Abbott Laboratories, for instance)
In the light of this evidence questions arise about whether bombarding the virus does any
good to the body. Overwhelming research evidence from the fields of AIDS, cancer and heart
disease, points to the dramatic difference in disease prevention, made through access to right
nutrition, exercise and changed lifestyle.
Africa is cited as the example of a continent in the throes of AIDS. Health historians say that
AIDS here, is a consequence of the depletion of the body's nutrition pool over generations,
and the destruction of the immune system. As sub-Saharan Africa plunged deeper into the
cycle of poverty, malnutrition and civil war, it also suffered epidemics of Ebola, Marburg or
Lhassa fever that stayed with them for decades. AIDS they say is the logical conclusion of
this onslaught.
The deepening economic crisis of India's poor will see more people testing 'HIV positive'
because of their depleting nutrition status, stress and compromised immunity. I his implies
that the Indian population as a whole need more than condoms, sex education and a cocktail
therapy of questionable value
p/.s 13TH INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE
DURBAN
Speech of the President of South Africa at the Opening Session of the Conference Py
Thabo Mbeki
Office of the Presidency 9 July 2000
Chairperson, Participants at the 13th International AIDS Conference; Comrades, ladies
and gentlemen:
On behalf of our government and the people of South Africa, I am happy to welcome you
to Durban and to our country.
You are in Africa for the first time in the history of the International AIDS Conferences.
We are pleased that you are here because we count you as a critical component part of the
global forces mobilised to engage in struggle against the AIDS epidemic confronting our
Continent. The peoples of our Continent will therefore be closely interested in your work.
They expect that out of this extraordinary gathering will come a message and a
programme of action that will assist them to disperse the menacing and frightening
clouds that hang over all of us as a result of the AIDS epidemic
You meet in a country to whose citizens freedom and democracy are but very new gifts.
For us, freedom and democracy are only six years old. The certainty that we will achieve
a better life for all our people, whatever the difficulties, is only half-a-dozen years old.
Because the possibility to determine our own future together, both black and white, is
such a fresh and vibrant reality, perhaps we often overestimate what can be achieved
within each passing day. Perhaps, in thinking that your Conference will help us to
overcome our problems as Africans, we overestimate what the 13th International AIDS
Conference can do. Nevertheless, that overestimation must also convey a message to you.
That message is that we are a country and a Continent driven by hope, and not despair
and resignation to a cruel fate.
Those who have nothing would perish if the forces that govern our universe deprived
them of the capacity to hope for a better tomorrow. Once more I welcome you all,
delegates at the 13th International AIDS Conference, to Durban, to South Africa and to
Africa, convinced that you would not have come here, unless you were to us, messengers
of hope, deployed against the specter of the death of millions from disease. You will
spend a few days among a people that has a deep understanding of human and
international solidarity.
I am certain that there are many among you who joined in the international struggle for
the destruction of the anti-human apartheid system. You are therefore as much midwives
of the new, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa as are the millions of our
people who fought for the emancipation of all humanity from the racist yoke of the
• <4-
apartheid crime against humanity. We welcome you warmly to South Africa also for this
reason.
Let me tell you a story that the World Health Organisation told the world in 1995. I will
tell this story in the words used by the World Health Organisation.
This is the story
" The world's biggest killer and the greatest cause of ill-health and suffering across the
globe is listed almost at the end of the International Classification of Diseases. It is given
the code Z59.5 - extreme poverty.
"Poverty is the main reason why babies are not vaccinated, why clean water and
sanitation are not provided, why curative drugs and other treatments are unavailable and
why mothers die in childbirth. It is the underlying cause of reduced life expectancy,
handicap, disability and starvation. Poverty is a major contributor to mental illness, stress,
suicide, family disintegration and substance abuse. Every year in the developing world
12.2 million children under 5 years die, most of them from causes, which could be
prevented for just a few US cents per child. They die largely because of world
indifference, but most of all they die because they are poor...
"Beneath the heartening facts about decreased mortality and increasing life expectancy,
and many other undoubted health advances, lie unacceptable disparities in wealth. The
gaps between rich and poor, between one population group and another, between ages
and between sexes, are widening. For most people in the world today every step of life,
from infancy to old age, is taken under the twin shadows of poverty and inequity, and
under the double burden of suffering and disease.
"For many, the prospect of longer life may seem more like a punishment than a gift. Yet
by the end of the century we could be living in a world without poliomyelitis, a world
without new cases of leprosy, a world without deaths from neonatal tetanus and measles.
But today the money that some developing countries have to spend per person on health
care over an entire year is just US $4 - less than the amount of small change carried in the
pockets and purses of many people in the developed countries.
"A person in one of the least developed countries in the world has a life expectancy of 43
years according to 1993 calculations. A person in one of the most developed countries
has a life expectancy of 78 - a difference of more than a third of a century. This means a
rich, healthy man can live twice as long as a poor, sick man.
"That inequity alone should stir the conscience of the world - but in some of the poorest
countries the life expectancy picture is getting worse. In five countries life expectancy at
birth is expected to decrease by the year 2000, whereas everywhere else it is increasing.
In the richest countries life expectancy in the year 2000 will reach 79 years. In some of
the poorest it will go backwards to 42 years. Thus the gap continues to widen between
rich and poor, and by the year 2000 at least 45 countries are expected to have a life
expectancy at birth of under 60 years.
"In the space of a day passengers flying from Japan to Uganda leave the country with the
world's highest life expectancy - almost 79 years - and land in one with the world's lowest
- barely 42 years. A day away by plane, but half a lifetime's difference on the ground. A
flight between France and Cote d'Ivoire takes only a few hours, but it spans almost 26
years of life expectancy. A short air trip between Florida in the USA and Haiti represents
a life expectancy gap of over 19 years...
"HIV and AIDS are having a devastating effect on young people. In many countries in
the developing world, up to two-thirds of all new infections are among people aged 1524. Overall it is estimated that half the global HIV infections have been in people under
25 years - with 60% of infections of females occurring by the age of 20. Thus the hopes
and lives of a generation, the breadwinners, providers and parents of the future, are in
jeopardy. Many of the most talented and industrious citizens, who could build a better
world and shape the destinies of the countries they live in, face tragically early death as a
result of HIV infection."
(World Health Report 1995: Executive Summary, WHO.)
This is part of the story that the World Health Organisation told in its World Health
Report in 1995. Five years later, the essential elements of this story have not changed. In
some cases, the situation will have become worse.
You will have noticed that when the WHO used air travel to illustrate the import of the
message of the story it told, it spoke of a journey from Japan to Uganda, another from
France to the Cote d'Ivoire and yet another from the United States to Haiti.
From developed Asia, Europe and North America, two of these journeys were to Africa
and the third to the African Diaspora.
Once again, I welcome you to Africa, recognizing the fact that the majority of the
delegates to the 13th International AIDS Conference come from outside our Continent.
Because of your heavy programme and the limited time you will spend with us, what you
will see of this city, and therefore of our country, is the more developed world of which
the WHO spoke when it told the story of world health in 1995. You will not see the South
African and African world of the poverty of which the WHO spoke, in which AIDS
thrives - a partner with poverty, suffering, social disadvantage and inequity.
As an African, speaking at a Conference such as this, convened to discuss a grave human
problem such as the acquired human deficiency syndrome, I believe that we should speak
to one another honestly and frankly, with sufficient tolerance to respect everybody's point
of view, with sufficient tolerance to allow all voices to be heard. Had we, as a people,
turned our backs on these basic civilised precepts, we would never have achieved the
much-acclaimed South African miracle of which all humanity is justly proud
Some in our common world consider the questions I and the rest of our government have
raised around the HIV-AIDS issue, the subject of the Conference you are attending, as
akin to grave criminal and genocidal misconduct. What I hear being said repeatedly,
stridently, angrily, is - do not ask any questions!
The particular twists of South African history and the will of the great majority of our
people, freely expressed, have placed me in the situation in which I carry the title of
President of the Republic of South Africa. As I sat in this position, I listened attentively
to the story that was told by the World Health Organisation. What I heard as that story
was told, was that extreme poverty is the world's biggest killer and the greatest cause of
ill health and suffering across the globe. As I listened longer, I heard stories being told
about malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, HIV-AIDS and other diseases.
I heard also about micro-nutrient malnutrition, iodine and vitamin A deficiency. I heard
of syphilis, gonorrhoea, genital herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as
teenage pregnancies.,. I also heard of cholera, respiratory infections, anaemia, bilharzia,
river blindness, guinea worms and other illnesses with complicated Latin names.
As I listened even longer to this tale of human woe, I heard the name recur with
frightening frequency - Africa, Africa, Africa! And so, in the end, I came to the
conclusion that as Africans we are confronted by a health crisis of enormous proportions.
One of the consequences of this crisis is the deeply disturbing phenomenon of the
collapse of immune systems among millions of our people, such that their bodies have no
natural defence against attack by many viruses and bacteria. Clearly, if we, as African
countries, had the level of development to enable us to gather accurate statistics about our
own countries, our morbidity and mortality figures would tell a story that would truly be
too frightening to contemplate.
As I listened and heard the whole story told about our own country, it seemed to me that
we could not blame everything on a single virus. It seemed to me also that every living
African, whether in good or ill health, is prey to many enemies of health that would
interact one upon the other in many ways, within one human body. And thus 1 came to
conclude that we have a desperate and pressing need to wage a war on all fronts to
guarantee and realise the human right of all our people to good health. And so, being
insufficiently educated, and therefore ill prepared to answer this question, I started to ask
the question, expecting an answer from others - what is to be done, particularly about
HIV-A1DS!
One of the questions I have asked is - are safe sex, condoms and anti-retroviral drugs a
sufficient response to the health catastrophe we face! I am pleased to inform you that
some eminent scientists decided to respond to our humble request to use their expertise to
provide us with answers to certain questions. Some of these have specialised on the issue
of HIV-AIDS for many years and differed bitterly among themselves about various
matters. Yet, they graciously agreed to join together to help us find answers to some
outstanding questions. 1 thank them most sincerely for their positive response, inspired by
a common resolve more effectively to confront the AIDS epidemic.
They have agreed to report back by the end of this year having worked together, among
other things, on the reliability of and the information communicated by our current HIV
tests and the improvement of our disease surveillance system. We look forward to the
results of this important work, which will help us to ensure that we achieve better results
in terms of saving the lives of our people and improving the lives of millions. In the
meantime, we will continue to intensify our own campaign against AIDS, including:
A sustained public awareness campaign encouraging safe sex and the use of condoms;
A better-focused programme targeted at the reduction and elimination of poverty and the
improvement of the nutritional standards of our people;
A concerted fight against the so-called opportunistic diseases, including TB and all
sexually transmitted diseases;
A humane response to people living with HIV and AIDS as well as the orphans in our
society;
Contributing to the international effort to develop an AIDS vaccine; and, further research
on anti-retroviral drugs.
You will find all of this in our country's AIDS action plan, which I hope has been or will
be distributed among you. You will see from that plan, together with the work that has
been going on, that there is no substance to the allegation that there is any hesitation on
the part of our government to confront the challenge of HIV-A1DS.
However, we remain convinced of the need for us better to understand the essence of
what would constitute a comprehensive response in a context such as ours which is
characterized by the high levels of poverty and disease to which 1 have referred. As 1 visit
the areas of this city and country that most of you will not see because of your heavy
programme and your time limitations, areas that are representative of the conditions of
life of the overwhelming majority of the people of our common world, the story told by
the World Health Organisation always forces itself back into my consciousness. The
world's biggest killer and the greatest cause of ill health and suffering across the globe,
including South Africa, is extreme poverty.
Is there more that all of us should do together, assuming that in a world driven by a value
system based on financial profit and individual material reward, the notion of human
solidarity remains a valid precept governing human behaviour! On behalf of our
government and people, I wish the 13th International AIDS Conference success,
confident that you have come to these African shores as messengers of hope and hopeful
that when you conclude your important work, we, as Africans, will be able to say that
you who came to this city, which occupies a fond place in our hearts, came here because
you care. Thank you for your attention.
Issued by the Office of the Presidency, 9 July 2000
Enquiries: Tasneem Carrim 083 650 7119
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