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Rethinking AIDS   AidsMyth.com

Mother of HIV-Infected Boy Still Favors Ruling
Health: In 1998, a Maine court said the boy, now an active 6, did not have to be treated with powerful AIDS drugs. Valerie Emerson had been ready to disappear for days by the time the judge reached his decision. ...

HIV: the tough questions
Interview with CARL STRYGG from HEAL Toronto - complete text - with JOHN FORBES for INQ MAGAZINE. Aug/Sept. 2001

Undue Influence
Jennifer Washburn The American Prospect August 13, 2001.
The FDA is at risk of becoming the handmaiden of the pharmaceutical industry--at the expense of public safety. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has long been the target of both industry and ideological forces seeking to scale back regulation. With a Republican now in the White House, conservatives are once again sounding the call. On February 2, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial railing against the FDA's "costly and archaic system of drug regulation." Enabling consumers to access the "wonder drugs" of the twenty-first century, the Journal argued, requires eliminating "the last century's regulations."

Healthy skepticism
Fab Magazine - July 5 2001
Condom Country campaign rides a wave of controversy. If advertising campaigns are judged by the amount of attention and discussion they generate then the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) has a winner on its hands.

Do the HIV dissidents have a point?
"A growing group of so-called AIDS dissidents claim HIV is a myth promoted by the pharmaceutical industry to sell high-profit, highly toxic drugs. Are they provoking needed debate, or pushing a dangerous theory?" -- that's the teaser for a motherjones.com discussion forum. Take a look at this selection of postings and feel free to go there and add your views to keep the discussion lively.

GLAXO PLEADS FOR TIME IN AIDS DRUG LAW SUIT
Drug corporate GlaxoSmithKline has requested an extension of time until 31st July, 2001 to file their defence to a 1.4 million rand damages claim on behalf of the widow of the late James Hayman, a South African solicitor. The summons filed 4th June, 2001 by a legal team which includes barrister Anthony Brink, attributes Hayman's death to his treatment with Glaxo's AIDS drug AZT.

Mbeki named in AZT-related death suit
Sunday Independent (South Africa) July 1, 2001
President Thabo Mbeki has been drawn into a new HIV/Aids controversy involving his dissenting views on the disease. Mbeki has been cited in support of a R1 million damages claim a widow is bringing against Glaxo Wellcome SA, the South African subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugs giant.

Times of India scoff at 560,000 Aids Orphans claim
An Aids Rethinker group from India tipped off journalists that the official statistics to be presented to the UN AIDS Summit claim India had 560,000 Aids orphans but only 17,000 Aids deaths. Assuming 7,000 of those dead had been women of childbearing age, they must have had over 70 children each to make the figures add up.

HIV hype on the rise in Toronto. Read Carefully.

Condom Con Job

More details...

Stalking Dr. Steere Over Lyme Disease
By DAVID GRANN -- New York Times Magazine June 17, 2001
Twenty-five years ago he uncovered Lyme disease. Now he says that it is not the epidemic that many claim, and he's being threatened by people who insist that Lyme -- and Steere -- have ruined their lives. There are many parallels here with the HIV/AIDS controversy: In the late 1970's, Steere announced that his team had discovered a new disease in the United States. Transmitted in all likelihood by a tick, it was, as his later studies uncovered, one of the great impostors of medicine, taking on the form of other diseases depending on where the infection was in the body. As a result, the symptoms varied wildly: one person might suffer headaches or joint pain while others, with severe cases, might endure cardiac and neurological abnormalities, including memory loss and facial paralysis. In most cases, he and his team concluded after subsequent studies, the illness could be effectively treated with one or two courses of antibiotics. Though many in the medical establishment remained skeptical -- a researcher wouldn't find proof of the new bacterial agent for another five years -- the public already hailed Steere as a kind of Magellan of medicine. By the end of the 1980's, 15 years after Steere documented the first 39 known cases in a cluster of children, the disease had become the most common vector-borne infection in the United States. Between 1982 and 1992, there were nearly 50,000 cases reported nationwide, but because there was still no perfect test, diagnosis remained a notorious problem, and the disease stayed shrouded in mystery. Blood tests, especially in the early stages of the infection, frequently came back negative, even though the spirochete was present -- apparently requiring "biopsies and cultures and DNA probes" to prove that. As a result, patient advocacy groups put the real number of infected closer to one million. The explosion made Steere one of the most powerful forces in medicine. But then his "journey" took a nightmarish turn... full article

The Big City: In 80's, Fear Spread Faster Than AIDS
By JOHN TIERNEY -- The New York Times, June 15, 2001
In July of 1988, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the estimated number of cases in New York City suddenly plummeted. The city health commissioner soon needed police protection. Until that July, the city had estimated that 400,000 New Yorkers carried the AIDS virus. Then the commissioner, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, reviewed the evidence and reduced the estimate to 200,000. He was promptly denounced by leaders of AIDS organizations and gay-rights groups, who accused him of lying to minimize the crisis. [Note: The article confuses estimated rates of HIV infection with number of reported AID cases.]

The Trials And Tribulations of Christine Maggiore
By Kathleen F. Phalen -- Gadfly
Last summer I read of Christine Maggiore, the woman who questions HIV science. The woman who finds more doubt than answers in existing research and is still looking for sound evidence that drugs like AZT really equal life. The woman who is HIV-positive. I was struck by the intensity of her beliefs, her healthy distrust of conflicting evidence, hidden information and purveyors of establishment jargon.... Christine’s ideas are far from mainstream, far from those in power. So she’s getting lots of attention. Some good. Some not so good. There are those who want to shut her out, take her down, stop the discourse.

News summary of the controversy over HIV testing and treatments in India:

AIDS scare is misleading:NGO
Staff Reporter Times of India May 27, 2001

Anger Grows at UNICEF-funded HIV/AIDS Study
By Ranjit Devraj (IPS) May 28, 2001
NEW DELHI - The portrayal of an Indian caste as being inherently given to prostitution, in a government report on HIV/AIDS funded by the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF), has drawn condemnation from human rights and women's groups.

AIDS COCKTAIL
By Rupa Chinai Times of India Tue, 29 May 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.

For Govt agencies, Elisa test is the final word
By Radhika Srivastava The Times of India May 30, 2001
India's national newspaper with the highest circulation figures countrywide published a story on the unreliability of Elisa tests. This is a first for mainstream news here - and a good lead for other newspapers to pick up many other aspects of the issue. This information is bound to trigger immense interest in India. TOI plans to do a series on "AIDSCARE" Interesting how the 'care' can read as 'scare'...(The story is not to be found on the website though - hence the scanned version.)

Deadly legacy acquires epidemic proportions
By Radhika Srivastava The Times of India

`Healthcare'gives fresh lease of life to HIV-hit
By Rupa Chinai The Times of India June 6, 2001
Mumbai: Many HIV-positive persons have been living without developing symptoms of AIDS for over a decade now and have been enjoying good health. This has been possible even without the use of anti-retroviral drugs.

AIDS drug advertisement on TV shows only half the picture
By Sreelatha Menon The Indian Express June 9, 2001
CIPLA — after defying MNCs to go ahead and sell its generic drugs in South Africa for HIV-positive patients — is now promoting anti-retroviral drugs through an advertisement launched on STAR and ZEE last month. Though the advertisement claims that HIV-positive people need not lose hope because drugs are available, it is silent on the drugs’ toxic nature.

Background:
Pharma cos. bet on African market for their anti-AIDS drugs
By Ramnath Subbu The Hindu May 13, 2001
MUMBAI, MAY 13. Indian pharmaceutical companies have trained their sights on the African continent .. There is a huge opportunity in Africa following the withdrawal of the patent suit filed by 39 global pharma companies against the South African Government which allowed the sale of cheaper branded generic drugs.

Activism:
The Joint Action Council Kannur (JACK)
An umbrella organization for a group of NGOs in Kannur District of Kerala, India.

Death sentence lifted
Man's life put on hold for 16 years before learning he does not have HIV
By MICHELE MANDEL -- Toronto Sun May 27, 2001
After a decade of being treated for HIV, after years of believing that he would die an ugly death, after two serious suicide attempts and periods of devastating depression, he has been told that his original diagnosis appears to have been wrong. Incredibly, Castle is not HIV-positive at all.
Letter submitted to the Editor

Putting Your Faith in Science?
By GINA KOLATA
The New York Times May 27, 2001
The placebo effect, which for decades was believed to account for the fact that about a third of patients get better when given a dummy pill or a sham treatment, has been reduced to the status of urban legend.

Press Release: Media must admit culpability in entrenching HIV causes Aids hypothesis
The News Editors; We note that your papers have reported on the recently released report on AIDS/HIV - i.e. President Mbeki's Aids Advisory Panel Report. We also note that you have carried comments almost exclusively from those who support the hypothesis that HIV causes AIDS. We the undersigned, who are all members of the panel, would be most grateful if you would release our statement in one of your pages.

DRUG TRIALS: HIV/AIDS, profit and fundamental human rights
ANC Today THE STORY OF NONOXYNOL-9, known as N-9, an active ingredient used in chemical barriers to HIV and STD transmission, raises disturbing questions about research ethics, drug company profits and the role in Africa of international development agencies.

South African Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel Report
The first comprehensive, independent review of Aids science in 17 years! A synthesis report of the deliberations by the panel of experts invited by the President of the Republic of South Africa, the Honourable Mr Thabo Mbeki.

Presidential Aids Advisory Report, March 2001 PDF  ||  MSWord   ||  PDF (zipped)  ||  MSWord (zipped)

HIV or Not HIV
By John Strausbaugh ~ New York Press
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s international panel convened twice in 2000, in Pretoria in May and again in Johannesburg in July. Between sessions there was supposed to be a period of Internet discussion. What made the group so highly controversial–and widely denounced as folly–was that the selection of panel members gave equal weight to traditional AIDS scientists (like the CDC’s Dr. Helene Gayle, HIV pioneer Luc Montagnier and South Africa’s Dr. Malegapuru Makgoba) and so-called AIDS "dissidents" like Rasnick, who’s an expert in enzyme inhibitors and has been questioning mainstream AIDS theories for two decades, and UC Berkeley retrovirologist Peter Duesberg, who’s long argued that HIV does not cause AIDS. That Mbeki was giving them for the first time ever an official government platform to air their arguments against standard HIV/AIDS theory elicited shrieks of dismay around the world.

David Rasnick's contributions to Mbeki's expert AIDS panel
How the mainstream refused to participate in Mbeki's internet discussions and other fascinating insights.

The Perth Group's presentation to Mbeki's expert AIDS panel
This is the presentation made to the Presidential Panel in Johannesberg on Monday July 3rd 2000 by the Perth Group. It addressed the topic “HIV Testing and Surveillance”. The presentation has been edited to include extra data pointing to a cellular origin for the “HIV” proteins.

AIDS and Mad Cow Disease: Two Epidemics That Are Alike
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. - The New York Times 4/02/2001
PARIS — STRICTLY speaking, there is no connection between AIDS and mad cow disease. The first is caused by a retrovirus, which overpowers the genetic material of cells, forcing them to create duplicates. The second is caused by a prion, an infectious protein that seems to "persuade" other proteins to imitate its abnormal folds. Whales and mosquitoes have more in common. So why even discuss it? Because, scientists say, the dis similarities end there, and there may be some lessons for politicians and public health officials in considering how the two epidemics are alike.

The AIDS Questions That Linger
By Lawrence K. Altman, MD - The New York Times 30/01/2001
News/Analysis: Following Imre Lakatos, philosophers of science describe a paradigm (research program) as either progressive or deteriorating. A progressive program generates new knowledge and successful experiments; a deteriorating program spins its wheels and necessitates continual ad hoc adjustments, hence inviting the thought that the paradigm itself is faulty. After the opening paragraphs, Altman describes a classic case of a deteriorating paradigm. The paradigm would deteriorate much more rapidly if unbiased research were funded to test the key assumptions. For our remarks on the key assumptions follow the red links in the text.

Gay rights, not gay righties
By Sky Gilbert, aka "The Pink Panther" from his regular column in EYE.

Update on the bogus San Francisco HIV stats
The San Francisco Department of Public Health has finally produced some of its alleged HIV transmission data for Andrew Sullivan, and instead of buying their voodoo epidemiology, he has interpreted the data with deep skepticism.

Despite Media Claims, AIDS Down in SF
From: Christine Maggiore
This telling excerpt from the San Francisco Department of Public Health's December 2000 Quarterly AIDS Surveillance Report shows declines, decreases and downturns in AIDS. Despite these facts, 60 Minutes and other news media are claiming AIDS is on the rise in San Francisco. AIDS pundits also warn that the alleged increases in this city predict AIDS increases across America.

And some related statistics:

Fewer, not more US blacks die from Aids
Letter to the Editor, The Star by Prof. Charles Geshekter

The AIDS Blunder
By David Rasnick, PhD -- Member of Thabo Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel
Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
The contagious, HIV hypothesis of AIDS is the biggest scientific, medical blunder of the 20th Century. The evidence is overwhelming that AIDS is not contagious, sexually transmitted, or caused by HIV. I have come to realize that embarrassment is the main obstacle to exposing this simple fact. ...

Does HIV actually cause dreaded Aids disease?
East African Standard - Friday, January 26, 2001
What causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids)? This may sound like a stupid question but, according to an emerging or “dissident” new school of thought, it is not. This dissident view holds that we actually do not know what causes Aids. We do not know whether the condition known as Aids is caused by a virus or some other agent. There is no proof that the “virus” known as HIV causes Aids. The implications of this so-called dissident view are enormous. If HIV does not cause the condition known as Aids, then the millions of shillings being spent everyday around the world to fight HIV are being thrown down the drain. The Aids “industry” which has grown into a billion dollar business is founded upon a fundamental error, an illusion. ...

INDIA: Village Still to Recover from AIDS 'Stigma'
This short news item encapsulates the devastation inflicted worldwide by AIDS hysteria and the invalid "HIV test".

Cocktail Time
SF Weekly, January 3, 2001
New U.S. guidelines suggest that powerful anti-viral drug combinations should be used later, rather than earlier, in treating AIDS.

U.S. Warns on Some Use of a Fighter Against H.I.V.
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Federal health officials advised doctors not to prescribe a standard H.I.V. prevention drug to healthy health care workers stuck by needles.
Date: January 05, 2001
Source: The New York Times | Section: Science

Serious Adverse Events Attributed to Nevirapine Regimens for Postexposure Prophylaxis After HIV Exposures --- Worldwide, 1997--2000"
CDC MMWR January 05, 2001 / 49(51);1153-6

Below is a summary of the article:

Risks of Nevirapine Likely Outweigh Benefits for Occupational HIV Post-Exposure Use: In September, 2000, CDC received two reports of life-threatening hepatotoxicity (liver damage) among health care workers taking nevirapine for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) after occupational exposure to HIV. Nevirapine has not been recommended for PEP use and has previously been associated with instances of serious skin conditions, liver damage, and death when used for treating HIV-infected individuals. The recent reports prompted a review of FDA's registry of serious adverse events, which identified 20 other reports of serious side effects among people who had taken nevirapine for PEP. These 22 cases, in healthy, uninfected individuals who took the drug for a relatively short period of time (2 weeks, on average, before onset of symptoms) are cause for serious concern. Anyone considering PEP should consult with their physician to carefully weigh the risks of HIV infection related to their exposure, the potential benefits of post-exposure therapy, and the possible side effects of any PEP regimen. Recommended regimens are outlined in Public Health Service Guidelines for the Management of Health-Care Worker Exposures to HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis" (MMWR, Vol. 47, RR-7, May 15,1998; available online at www.cdc.gov/hiv/treatment.htm.) In most circumstances, the risks associated with nevirapine as part of an occupational PEP regimen might outweigh the anticipated benefits.

December 2000
'Eight years ago, I went through the same experience as Mbeki'
An eyewitness account by Neville Hodgkinson, former science correspondent of The Sunday Times (London)

No more cocktails
New Scientist magazine, 16 December 2000.
Four years of "hit hard, hit early" HIV treatment may be on the way out in the US, as evidence mounts of the drugs' serious side effects. AIDS experts in the US are about to complete a humiliating U-turn when the Department of Health and Human Services launches its revised HIV treatment guidelines in January.

Smart HIV test is dumb after all
By Steven Ransom Credence Publications
World Diagnostics Inc. concedes weaknesses in its latest HIV ‘smart test’. Dr Muy, the Technical Affairs Vice President of WDI, admitted the possibility of false positives, stating “…the disclaimer "false positive" means that this rapid device - as any other rapid device in the market - might show a positive result on certain samples coming from patients with other diseases, i.e, auto-immune diseases, or with high amounts of non-specific antibodies as happens in some diseases.” When asked how anyone could accurately and with full peace of mind pronounce a HIV positive status upon anybody. Dr Muy replied: “Regarding your question, I personally would not be satisfied with a rapid test nor with an ELISA test; that comes to a matter of ethics.”

HIV and Aids: The myth, the virus, and the burden of proof
By Kevin Hopkins and Kim Wyness
De Rebus - The South African Attorney's Journal
Until President Thabo Mbeki gave attention to reports that drug treatments were ineffective in forestalling the progress of HIV, we had never heard that there was any doubt that HIV causes Aids. Now, after various conferences and talk-shops, a legal question still resonates unresolved, and possibly waiting to erupt: 'Is it possible for one so burdened, to discharge the onus of proving that HIV does in fact cause Aids?'

Drug Marketing
Marketplace - CBC TV
Drug companies lobby hard to get their drugs covered by provincial health plans. They spend almost a billion dollars a year to influence governments and doctors. Now, drug companies are trying a new strategy - using patient's groups.
For more on this issue:
WAR ON TRUTH, The Secret Battle for the American Mind
Public relations-- multi-billion-dollar transnational industry's propaganda campaigns affect our private and public lives every day.

CHOMSKY DISMISSES AIDS DISSENT
Noam Chomsky has been discussing the related subjects of AIDS, medical research, and the controversy surrounding President Mbeki of South Africa on the Z magazine website. Mike Chappelle has written to him twice, arguing against his position only to be treated like a dangerous heretic.

AIDS an unlikely threat
Letter by David Crowe in The Globe and Mail November 9, 2000 responding R. D. Newman's article To give aid to others, or not to give aid (Facts & Arguments -- Nov. 8). Newman's article is a prime example of how AIDS myths fuel HIV phobia which science does not support.

Author claims use of poppers led to AIDS
Poppers - not HIV - are the cause of AIDS in North America, according to Marvin R. Kitzerow, author of The AIDS Indictment.

AIDS drug researchers say firm pressured them
It's just what traditionalists warned about as private investors took on an ever-growing role in US medical research: the company that pays for a drug study has the power to pressure scientists to make results look better than they are.

AIDS vaccine fends off virus in monkeys
A Boston-based study, which will appear in Friday's issue of Science, marks the first time a DNA-based vaccine has protected against the disease's progression in monkeys.

Monkey AIDS?
David Rasnick, PhD, a member of Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel, questions the relevance to humans of this vaccine trial with monkeys and a genetically engineered virus.

Islands in Uproar over AIDS Vaccine Trial
PORT OF SPAIN (IPS) - It was supposed to be their moment of glory. After years of campaigning, the Trinidad and Tobago government this week finally gave the green light for local researchers to be part of an international campaign against the deadly HIV virus that causes AIDS. But instead, the researchers and their supporters have been taking to the radio, television and other medium in a bid to assure the public that the HIV vaccine trials are safe and that participants will not end up contracting the deadly disease.

Pick 'n Pay to dish out AZT to its staff
This South African supermarket chain has announced that they intend to provide their employees (both 'HIV positive' and rape victims) free AZT along with 'counselling and advice on the use of the drug.' No mention is made of any medical follow-up or laboratory monitoring for the development of anemia or other potentially life-threatening toxicities. Providing AZT to rape victims for 'prophylactic use' remains illegal in South Africa, and in either case ('HIV positive' or rape victim), this supermarket chain's misguided offer would create an extremely dangerous 'timebomb' situation.

How Mbeki won the great AZT and rape debate
Ask any ordinary South African if the drug AZT prevents HIV in rape victims, and the answer most likely would be yes. Some of the better-informed may add that the government refuses to provide AZT to rape victims, and that President Thabo Mbeki had turned down an offer from the manufacturer of cut-price AZT for that purpose. They would be wrong. In fact, there is no scientific evidence that AZT prevents transmission of HIV to rape victims; and Glaxo Wellcome, the manufacturer of the drug, has never offered the government low-price AZT for the purpose of treating rape victims.

Mbeki accuses CIA over Aids
BBC News - Friday, 6 October, 2000
President Thabo Mbeki has accused the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of working with drugs manufacturers to promote the link between the HIV virus and Aids to boost profits.

• What the president said about the CIA ...

S. Africa's ruling ANC backs Mbeki's criticised AIDS stance
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 4 (AFP) -
South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has backed President Thabo Mbeki's controversial stance on AIDS, in which he asserts that the disease may have causes apart from a single virus.

A virus cannot cause a syndrome
Smuts Ngonyama
Business Day 1st Edition (South Africa) Oct 04 2000
MANY people in our country do not understand the issues that President Thabo Mbeki has been raising about AIDS. Part of the reason for this is that the general level of knowledge about AIDS is abysmally low. This is clearly illustrated by the viewsof your correspondent Wyndham Hartley. ... Ngonyama is head of the African National Congress president's office.

FDA advisers tied to industry
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
More than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicine have financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies that will be helped or hurt by their decisions, a USA TODAY study found.