Nov. 29, 2001

Cause of AIDS disputed

By Tess Laidlaw
tlaidlaw@uwo.ca

Kang, a professor of microbiology and immunology with a warm handshake and a ready smile, belongs to the ranks of researchers, medical doctors, HIV-positive people, and the general public, who believe that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

But the opposing ranks are swelling with dissidents who reject mainstream beliefs, according to Rob Johnston, a founding member of the Toronto chapter of Health, Education, AIDS Liaison.

"I have a feeling that the people who are outspoken, willing to stick their necks out and say there's a problem with this whole hypothesis, are just the tip of the iceberg, because it's such a dangerous career move to challenge the HIV/AIDS dogma," said Johnston.

Copyright Russell Kightley Media

A computer-generated image of HIV

The move proved dangerous for Dr. Peter Duesberg, a virologist at the University of California at Berkeley, who was the first to present his reservations about the HIV/AIDS theory in 1987. Then, he was an esteemed researcher with many significant accomplishments including the discovery of the first cancer-causing gene. Duesberg's articles questioning HIV were published in peer-reviewed journals, but failed to bring his work any serious attention. He is now dependent upon the generosity of a few benefactors in order to fund his lab.

"He doesn't say anything anymore," said Kang from his office in the Siebens-Drake Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario.

Dr. Bill Thompson is unequivocal about how dangerous the unorthodox view of the HIV/AIDS connection is. "I would say that taking an alternate approach, without actually treating the HIV virus, kills people." Thompson directs the HIV clinic at St. Joseph's hospital in London, Ontario.

In countries where the HIV drug cocktail is used, the AIDS death toll has been steadily decreasing. In the U.S., it went down 68 per cent between 1995 and 1999, Thompson says.

"That's due to drugs that specifically attack the HIV virus. I've never seen a patient get up off their deathbed and go back to work with nutritional supplements, but I have with the anti-HIV drugs," said Thompson.

But Rev. Dr. Michael Ellner, president of HEAL New York City, believes that it's vital to get HEAL's message out. "The more people who raise this issue, the more likely we can reach someone who's (being misled), and maybe save their life," he said. "This is serious. These are crimes against our basic humanity."

Ellner says people need to get outside of what he calls the "aidzone," the realm of terrorism and fear surrounding AIDS. "People aren't making informed decisions; they're thinking about their health like they're going to be dead tomorrow."

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome began to attract attention in 1981. By 1983, the "HIV doctrine" had been born: the belief that AIDS was caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. The virus attacked fighters in the human immune system known as "T cells." When a powerful subset of these cells, the CD4 cells, was incapacitated, the body became unable to fight infection and was at risk for rare diseases and cancers. To date, more than 22 million people have died of AIDS, and Dec. 1 has been designated World AIDS Day.

Johnston, soft-spoken but deliberate, said the Toronto chapter of HEAL provides information on "everything the AIDS orthodoxy would prefer that you not hear," from controversy over whether the AIDS test is accurate, to whether the AIDS drugs hasten progression of the disease, to the very basic question of whether HIV indeed causes AIDS.

Photo courtesy of Rob Johnston

HEAL members rally in Toronto to support South African president Thabo Mbeki's efforts to have AIDS re-evaluated.

The orthodoxy accuses HEAL of confusing patients, clouding the issues and making mountains out of molehills in terms of small anomalies in the theory, said Johnston. "But I say it's essential-it's the right of people who have been labelled HIV-positive to know about this controversy."

The drugs being used to treat AIDS are one of HEAL's major concerns. "I was in the medical library and I pulled a paper on long-term survivors of AIDS," said Johnston. "In the abstract it said none of them had been on AZT (a common AIDS drug). And I guess some medical student had underlined that¾which of course is verboten in a library¾but they saw the significance of it. But of course the paper didn't talk about it, just like they were blinkered to the whole significance of that."

HEAL questions the use of combinations of AIDS drugs often prescribed as "cocktails." Johnston recounts a chance encounter with someone on the street who said, "My friend's just gotten on the cocktail and he's doing really well-his viral load has gone way down; his CD4 counts are up."

"How's he looking?" asked Johnston.

"Well, actually his complexion's not so good, his face looks really skinny now, he has diarrhea all the time...." Johnston says doctors cause patients to become so fixated on viral loads and CD4 counts, that they stop thinking about whether they're feeling good or not.

AZT is a common ingredient in the "cocktails." It works by preventing the cell from making DNA. Just like radiation for cancer treatment, it also works on other cells not involved in the disease.

"If the benefit is greater than the risk, we use the drug," said Kang. "A normal person should never touch that stuff because it will damage our cells. We don't get any benefits; we get only risks. But if the benefit, which is prolonging life, is greater than the risk that the patients take, then we use those drugs."

Adverse side effects are not a given. Eric Dow lives in London, Ontario, and is HIV-positive. He says he doesn't have a problem with the drugs. "Maybe I'm one of the fortunate people, but I don't have any needs that aren't being met."

Johnston, from the time of his diagnosis in 1985, has never taken AIDS drugs. He says there seems to be a lack of interest in studying long-term survivors who eschew traditional treatment. "Their first argument is that it would be unethical to withhold treatment that would be supposedly beneficial."

Johnston says that the studies that are done are based on "surrogate markers." The viral load of a patient on a particular treatment regimen is monitored and if drug treatment coincides with an increase in healthy T-cells and a decrease in the viral load (regardless of the patient's apparent physical health), the drug is called a success.

But Thompson takes a statistical approach in explaining why some drug-free people survive a long time.

"Let's say we take 100 people. One of those people will develop AIDS within the first year. Fifty of them will develop AIDS by year 10. At the outside end, two or three won't have developed AIDS by year 20. It looks like a bell curve."

The variations could be due to genetic differences affecting the interplay between the virus and the person's body, or they may relate to the type of virus they picked up, said Thompson.

Thompson says that HIV-positive people have many choices about their treatment. "I never treat a patient without giving them the choices, and if a patient were to go that route (alternative treatment), that's their decision to make. I can't endorse that as something that will be effective, and I warn them about it-but it's always the patient's choice."

HEAL New York City lets people choose from a wide range of non-toxic approaches, said Ellner. "Those systems view a person rather than a disease. Generally, we teach people how to become experts on their own health."

Ellner has been working for 18 years to have AIDS re-evaluated. "I don't do this as a hobby," he said. "It's only because I felt I had to. If you discover something is terribly wrong and you don't do anything, that makes the problem twice as big."

But there doesn't seem to be much doubt among members of the HIV-positive community. "I don't think anyone believes it, other than the people involved with HEAL," said Dow.