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Durban Declaration Rebuttal

A rebuttal to the "Durban Declaration"
published in Nature on July 6 2000.

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Compiled by Robert Johnston¹, Matthew Irwin, MD² and David Crowe³

The views of "dissident" scientists challenging the mainstream HIV/AIDS hypothesis have been receiving increased attention recently. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa caused a controversy by convening a panel of "AIDS experts" among them many prominent "dissidents". This event along with Mbeki's skepticism of orthodox AIDS theory and treatments generated a great deal of media coverage. Apparently some AIDS researchers invested in HIV orthodoxy now feel compelled to circulate a petition to academics of any discipline asking them to pledge allegiance to a declaration that HIV is unquestionably the cause of AIDS. This document implies that all dissent "costs lives" and that dissenting voices should be suppressed. What follows is a rebuttal in the form of a review of scientific evidence that challenges every substantial point in the "Durban Declaration".

INDEX * FULL TEXT

THE DURBAN DECLARATION

[1] ...an estimated 34.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS...
[2] AIDS spreads by infection, like many other diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, that cause illness and death ....
Like other viruses, HIV recognizes no social, political or geographic boundaries.
[3] The evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1 or HIV-2 is clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous....

[4] * Patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, regardless of where they live, are infected with HIV.
[5] * If not treated, most people with HIV infection show signs of AIDS within 5-10 years. ... viral isolation. ... tests are as reliable...
[6] * People who received HIV-contaminated blood or blood products develop AIDS...
[7] * Most children who develop AIDS are born to HIV infected mothers. ...viral load ...
[8] * In the laboratory HIV infects the exact type of white blood cell (CD4 lymphocytes) that becomes depleted in persons with AIDS.
[9] * Drugs ... Where available, treatment has reduced AIDS mortality by more than 80%.
[10] * Monkeys inoculated with cloned SIV DNA ... develop AIDS

Why question HIV and AIDS? By Robert Johnston Problems with HIV Science By Matthew Irwin, MD Can AZT & other anti-HIV drugs cause AIDS? By Matthew Irwin, MD Myths and Mysteries of HIV and AIDS Compiled by David Crowe Selected Web Sites Rethinking AIDS  A veritable warehouse of data contradicting a single-virus etiology of AIDS. Rethinking AIDS Newsletter  The monthly publication of The Group for the Reappraisal of AIDS. The Perth Group of HIV/AIDS dissidents  was formed in 1981 at the Royal Perth Hospital, teaching hospital for the University of Western Australia. The original members are the leader, biophysicist Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, emergency physician Valendar (Val) Turner and Professor of Pathology John Papadimitriou. Duesberg on AIDS  Prof. Peter Duesberg's findings have been a thorn in the side of the medical establishment and drug companies since 1987. Instead of engaging in scientific debate, however, the only response has been to cut-off funding to further test Professor's Duesberg's hypothesis. Harvard Teach-In  on AIDS and Alternative Theories The Memory Hole  All is not necessarily lost. Sumeria: The Immune System  A collection of resources form exploring alternative ideas in health, science, and spirituality. Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society Features over 20 pages of referenced quotes on the underplayed toxicities of AZT as well quotes regarding concerns about the safety and efficacy of other "anti-viral" AIDS drugs Alive & Well  A non-profit education, action and support network founded by a group of HIV positive diagnosed people who live in wellness without AIDS drugs and without fear of AIDS. Women's Health Interaction Presents a feminist exploration of AIDS. Syphilis & AIDS  Déja vu: AIDS in historical perspective. The AIDS Cult  Focuses on the psychological and social aspects of AIDS. Free News: Índice del SIDA Recopilación de publicaciones y documentos científicos que aportan nuevos datos y otras visiones sobre el SIDA, que cuestionan su origen vírico. Dissident News 24  The Daily Dissident Newspaper ESSENTIAL READING DUESBERG P.H. Inventing the AIDS Virus. Foreword by Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc. 1996: 722. DUESBERG P.H. & RASNICK D. The Drug-AIDS Hypothesis Continuum (London) February/March 1997;vol.4, no5 (Supplement) GIRALDO, Roberto A. AIDS and Stressors Medellín, Columbia: Fundación Arte y Ciencia, 1997: 205. HODGKINSON N. AIDS: The Failure of Contemporary Science: How A Virus that Never Was Deceived the World. London: Fourth Estate, 1996: 420. LAURITSEN J. The AIDS War: Propaganda, Profiteering and Genocide from the Medical-Industrial Complex. New York: Asklepios, 1993: 479. MAGGIORE C. What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? Alive & Well, 4th printing, 1999: 126. PAPADOPULOS-ELEOPULOS E, TURNER VF & PAPADIMITRIOU JM. Is a Positive Western Blot Proof of HIV Infection? Bio/Technology 1993 (June 11); 11:696-707. PAPADOPULOS-ELEOPULOS E, TURNER VF, PAPADIMITRIOU JM and CAUSER D. The Isolation of HIV: Has It Really Been Achieved? The Case Against. Continuum (London) September/October 1996; 4 (Supplement): 1-24. SCHMIDT C. The Group Fantasy Origin of AIDS. J Psychohistory Summer 1984. (Also republished in LAURITSEN J & YOUNG I. The AIDS Cult: Essays on the Gay Health Crisis. Provincetown: Asklepios, 1997: 11-74). SHENTON J. Positively False: Exposing the Myths Around HIV and AIDS London * New York: I.B. Taurus, 1998: 277.