Health Education AIDS Liaison, Toronto
Mothering & HIV Issues
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Mothering Issue
#108
September/October
2001
Available
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Mothers Opposing Mandatory Medicine
MOMM provides information and peer support to current and expectant mothers with concerns about
HIV testing and pharmaceutical AIDS treatments, and offers facts on healthy childbirth, breastfeeding, and non-toxic immune therapy with the goal of enabling mothers to make truly informed choices about these important issues.
Flight from the AIDS police
By Marnie Ko
Court-ordered drug treatment turns a family of three into
fugitives. Just the sort of thing MOMM is concerned about.
My Bout of So-Called AIDS
By Christine Maggiore
This past March, I had the unsettling experience of being diagnosed with an
AIDS defining condition. The news arrived with cruel precision on the
10-year anniversary of my testing HIV positive, coinciding perfectly with
the orthodox axiom that we get a decade of normal health before our AIDS
kicks in.
Breastfeeding and HIV/AIDS
Infectious HIV in Breastmilk: Fact or Fantasy?
La Leche League International Conference Session 205: Perspectives on HIV/AIDS and Breastfeeding: Research, Recommendations, Realities, and Reason
David Crowe, President of the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society was invited to speak at the annual La Leche League International conference. His presentation on July 9, 2001 describes weaknesses in all the methods of testing for infectious HIV in breastmilk, and in the epidemiologic evidence as well. (For a related article see: Infectious HIV in Breastmilk: True or False?.) It calls on breastfeeding advocates to investigate the science behind HIV and AIDS themselves and not rely on the pronouncements of AIDS researchers that breastfeeding is now dangerous in HIV-positive women. Modern medicine has a long history of hostility to breastfeeding and other natural practices.
Breast is still best even when HIV prevalence is high, experts say
Roger Dobson, Abergavenny
BMJ 2002;324:1474 ( 22 June ) News
Child health specialists have urged governments and agencies not to provide free formula milk in programmes aimed at
preventing mother to child HIV transmission. They say that although formula may seem to be a good idea, the
consequences can be damaging.
"Free formula milk may appear to be a blessing, but while potentially decreasing the rate of postnatal transmission, it is
very likely to increase morbidity and mortality from other infectious diseases, thus decreasing overall child survival," say
the specialists from the University of Natal and the Child Health Group of the Africa Centre for Population Studies and
Reproductive Health in a report (Health Policy and Planning 2002;17:154-60)
AnotherLook
at breastfeeding and hiv/aids
http://www.anotherlook.org/
AnotherLook is a nonprofit organization dedicated to gathering information, raising critical questions,
and stimulating needed research about breastfeeding in the context of HIV/AIDS.
We look for scientific proof to determine whether or not infectious HIV virus is present in breast milk
and is transmitted from mother to baby through breastfeeding. We question recommendations that
are based solely on the possibility of virus transmission instead of on maximizing the probabilities for
good infant health. We call for clear, published scientific evidence as to the type and manner of
feeding which will minimize infant morbidity and mortality.
At present we are working with researchers at the University of Texas on a pilot project to isolate HIV
virus in human milk and to determine if it is capable of being infectious.
Nevirapine*
[*also known as Viramune]
Nevirapine has been associated with severe liver, skin and hypersensitivity disorders, with fatalities in
some cases. The CDC warned, in the January 2001 MMWR about the use of this drug for healthcare workers with
needle-stick injuries. An application for its use for pregnant women in the United States has recently been withdrawn by
the manufacturer because of disputes over the definition of ‘serious adverse reaction’ in the only trial of this protocol in
Uganda, HIVNET 012. This study, even though it was for only a single dose of
Nevirapine to the mother and a single dose to the baby, showed a significant level of adverse effects (20% in both
mothers and babies), and 6% of the babies died. 80% of the mothers had clinical or laboratory abnormalities. The trial
was declared a success because these rates were not significantly different from the other treatment arm (AZT). But,
without a placebo, we cannot tell if these mothers were already very sick, or if two very toxic drugs were being
compared. Furthermore, the dispute over the definition of adverse reactions in this trial have never been clarified. However, based on this trial it is being heavily promoted in Africa, and had recently been declared an
essential medicine by the World Health Organization. In fact, the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa has taken
its government to court to force it to provide this drug.
Could we be risking a potential drug-induced tragedy of the scale of Thalidomide (or,
with the number of people involved, perhaps significantly greater)?
(courtesy David Crowe, ARAS)
THE TROUBLE WITH NEVIRAPINE
By Anthony Brink
Advocate of the High Court of South Africa
This article is divided into four parts:
Part One relates the history and licensing of nevirapine in the US and Europe, and outlines
its pharmacology and its toxicities;
Part Two reveals the extraordinary circumstances in which the drug was licensed in
Canada;
Part Three looks at a South African clinical drug trial involving nevirapine and other drugs,
aborted by order of the Medicines Control Council in April 2001 after a spate of severe
toxic reactions, several fatal;
Part Four provides a critique for non-expert readers of HIVNET 012, the Ugandan study of
the effect of administering nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women conducted by Guay
et al, on the basis of which the Treatment Action Campaign won an order from the High
Court on 15 December 2001 compelling the South African government to supply the drug
to such women and their newborn children.
PERTH GROUP PRESENTATION ON NEVIRAPINE
By Val Turner
View the 83 slides, and listen to the audio stream (Real audio, 65 min.), or read the transcript.
This presentation has been prepared by Eleni Papadopulos and the Perth Group and several other colleagues.
The subject is an analysis of the data claimed to prove nevirapine an effective agent for the prevention of mother
to child transmission of HIV. The presenter is Dr. Val Turner from the Department of Emergency Medicine,
Royal Perth Hospital.
Drug firm withdraws nevirapine
Business Day (South Africa)
March 23, 2002
Problems which US officials said were "potentially quite serious" prompted the withdrawal of an application for approval to allow
pregnant women and newborn babies to take an existing AIDS drug.
Africa govt must provide AIDS drug - court
JOHANNESBURG, March 25 (Reuters) - A high court judge ruled on Monday that
South Africa must provide women with an anti-AIDS drug that cuts the risk
they will pass the deadly virus to their babies, an anti-AIDS group said.
Aids drug could be banned
Secret meeting leads to fears that nevirapine may be withdrawn.
MAWANDE JUBASI Sunday Times (South Africa): 04 Aug 2002
THE fate of the controversial Aids drug nevirapine hangs in the balance, with the Medicines Control Council set to take a final decision next month on whether HIV-positive pregnant women in South Africa should continue using it.
The council confirmed this week that it was reviewing its approval of the drug because it had "serious concerns" about its effectiveness and toxicity.
ISSUES CONCERNING PERINATAL NEVIRAPINE TREATMENT
This document presenting a 100 points case against nevirapine was kindly provided by Dr.
Sam Mhlongo. He as given his permission for its release.
Dr. Mhlongo has presented this 100 points document to Dr. Eagles of the Medicines
Control Council of South Africa. It's equivalent to the US FDA.
Mothering Magazine
Reappraises AIDS Again
The September/October 1998 issue of Mothering
again calls into question the idea that HIV causes AIDS. RA
board member and former Spin
writer (now with Gear
) Celia Farber contributed four articles, and editor Peggy O'Mara devoted her editorial
to supporting the AIDS reappraisal movement. One of Celia's articles, "HIV and Breastfeeding,"
included one of the most defiant and startling statements yet in favor of the AIDS reappraisal perspective: a full page,
color photograph of HIV-positive Christine
Maggiore -- founder and director of HEAL-Los Angeles and RA
board member -- breastfeeding her infant son Charlie.
That article tells the story of an HIV-positive woman in LA who was banned by a judge's
order from breastfeeding her infant daughter, and forced first to test the daughter
for HIV and then, when the test returned positive, to administer her AZT. The woman secretly breastfeeds and throws
out the AZT, while she and her baby flourish. The
secrecy extends even to an older daughter, whom officials occasionally question about
her mother's activities. Meanwhile, the estranged, HIV-positive father has died while
consuming AZT.
Farber in this article also critiques the new push to discourage breastfeeding and
distribute AZT in the Third World. Farber's take: "A drug (AZT), which can actually
impair immunity, will be given to combat a virus (HIV) that has never been proven
to destroy immunity, and then finally, the very source of immunity that nature has provided
(breast milk) will be discouraged."
She quotes physician Naomi Baumslag as saying, "It is impossible to be certain if
transmission of AIDS is prenatal, in utero, postpartum, or via breast milk. While
there are a very few reported cases of HIV transmission through breast milk, it has
never been absolutely proven. Studies may eventually even show that exclusive breastfeeding
is protective against AIDS. Formula feeding has terrible consequences for most children.
Many more infants worldwide die of diarrheal dehydration than of AIDS."
Farber juxtaposes the official claims that 1,500 children each day become infected
with HIV against other data showing that every day 33,000 children under the age
of five die from diseases "against which breastfeeding can provide an essential defense."
A second article, "AZT Roulette," critiques the push to administer AZT to pregnant
HIV-positive women and to their infants as a means of preventing maternal transmission
and treating HIV infections. Farber describes the story of Kris Chmiel, a Denver
woman profiled in the July 1998 issue of RA
. Chmiel was tested for the first time while pregnant in 1995. Doctors traced her
positive result to a blood transfusion 21 years earlier. Chmiel, who never had before
experienced AIDS conditions, developed several while following doctors' orders to
consume AZT. When her prescription ran out, so did her AIDS. She's now been free of AZT
and AIDS for two years, and her daughter is HIV-negative and healthy.
Farber facilitates a debate between a doctor who says "I've never seen any kid who's
done well without the medications" and a social worker who says she's "seen perhaps
the greatest treatment success among HIV-positive children who have done nothing,
meaning no medications. Mothers will never tell their doctors, but they'll tell me. They
feel like they are poisoning their kids."
A third Farber article, "How Accurate Is the HIV Test?," describes many standard criticisms
of the antibody tests, and "Does HIV Cause AIDS?" presents the view of UC-Berkeley
virologist Peter Duesberg, who maintains that HIV is harmless and that factors like narcotics, AZT, and poverty are the
causes of AIDS.
O'Mara devotes over two pages to her editorial, "Life, Liberty, and Informed Consent."
She compares the AIDS reappraisal perspective to others that initially seemed outrageous,
but which eventually became mainstream. She describes the "standard treatment for HIV" as putting the
lives of mothers and their babies at risk, and mentions the
"hysteria over HIV and AIDS." Mothering
has consistently opened its pages to the AIDS reappraisal perspective and is now
the only major publication to afford it regular coverage. For comments and subscriptions,
contact: PO Box 1690, Santa Fe, NM 87504, or peggyo@mothering.com. -PP
REAPPRAISING AIDS HOMEPAGE
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UNCOMMON QUESTIONS
A Feminist Exploration of AIDS by Women's Health Interaction
UNCOMMON QUESTIONS is a discussion paper which explores, from a feminist
perspective, dominant HIV/AIDS theory ('Common Knowledge'), and reveals
(through 'Uncommon Questions') alternative theories, facts and analyses
on the relationship between HIV and AIDS. It reflects on the
construction of knowledge about AIDS, vested interests in the AIDS
'paradigm', and challenges readers to re-think, from a human rights and
social justice perspective, the nature and implications of chronic
acquired immune deficiency, and whether toxic treatments are appropriate
for pregnant women and children. It poses the question, "What if
conventional thinking about AIDS is wrong?" UNCOMMON QUESTIONS includes
an extensive Bibliography, as well as an annotated appendix on
Alternative Activists, Theories and Organizations.
The Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society maintains two lists of quotes and journal citations critical of so-called anti-HIV drugs:
AZT: Unsafe at Any Dose?
Concerns about HAART
(Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy)
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