Fwd: [GettingWell] The Yin and Yang of HIV

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THE YIN AND YANG OF HIV

A Great Future Behind It

By Valendar Turner & Andrew McIntyre

 

Jan. 1999

 

 

SUMMARY

 

The notion that HIV/AIDS is infectious and sexually transmitted is

based on a relationship between antibodies claimed specifically

induced by a retrovirus HIV and particular diseases in certain risk

groups. However, the HIV theory has been challenged for well over a

decade in many scientific publications, principally by Peter Duesberg

from the USA and Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and her colleagues in

Australia. Failure of HIV/AIDS to spread beyond the original risk

groups, and particularly to Western heterosexuals, especially non-

drug using prostitutes, signals that the HIV theory of AIDS is in

need of urgent reappraisal. This has serious implications for both

the way science has been conducted and public health policy and

planning. The HIV theory has cost billions of dollars and locked in

enormous amount of energy in research by thousands of scientists

worldwide. So far, it has yet to save a single life. There is an

urgent need to establish a truly independent, and distinguished

international committee to review the current theories and those

that challenge them. There needs to be a co-operative but urgent

reassessment of AIDS.

 

 

A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must

accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a

model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make

definite predictions about the results of future observations.

-- Stephen Hawking

 

 

A BRIEF HISTORY

 

A Nobel Laureate stirs the waters

 

In 1988 Dr. Kary Mullis, the 1993 Nobel prize winner for Chemistry

was employed by the US National Institutes for Health (NIH) to set up

analyses for HIV testing. When preparing his report he asked a

virologist colleague for a reference that HIV is " the probable cause

of AIDS " . He was told he did not need one. Mullis was surprised.(1)

" I disagreed. It was totally remarkable to me that the individual who

had discovered the cause of a deadly and as-yet-uncured disease would

not be continually referenced in the scientific papers until that

disease was cured and forgotten… There had to be a published paper,

or perhaps several of them, which taken together indicated that HIV

was the probable cause of AIDS " . Otherwise, as Mullis was forced to

conclude, " The entire campaign against a disease increasingly

regarded as the twentieth-century Black Death was based on a

hypothesis whose origins no one could recall. That defied both

scientific and common sense " .

A decade later Mullis was to write, " I finally understood why I was

having so much trouble finding the references that linked HIV to

AIDS. There weren't any " .(2) Indeed, an interested non-specialist

observer, armed with a few contacts and a good library, merely has to

scratch the surface to realise that the HIV theory of AIDS begs many

more questions than it answers.(1-63 *)

 

The beginnings of AIDS

 

The few years leading up to the AIDS era and the discovery of HIV are

illuminating. It was a time when a promiscuous minority of

young, " liberated " , gay men in a few large American cities were

increasingly developing previously uncommon diseases such as fatal

forms of the malignancy Kaposis' sarcoma and a fungal pneumonia known

as PCP. At the time, whilst it was reasonable to implicate an

infectious microbe transmitted by rampant, indiscriminant sexual

practices interspersed with needle sharing drug taking, the fact that

immune suppression had multiple causes was also known in 1981. Some

considered the diseases resulted from multiple assaults to bodily

functions caused by the many and varied diseases, toxins and

treatments that accompanied the gay and drug taking lifestyle that

had evolved during the late 1970s.

 

Just how extensive these multiple assaults were was indicated by the

English journalist Neville Hodgkinson documenting the range of

infections of just one homosexual, the late Michael Callen in his

book " AIDS The failure of contemporary science: How a virus that

never was deceived the world " .(29) " Non-specific urethritis,

hepatitis A, more NSU and gonorrhoea, amoebas [intestinal parasites]-

and hepatitis B, more NSU and gonorrhoea, more amoebas, shigella, non-

A, non-B hepatitis, giardia, anal fissures, syphilis, more gonorrhoea

[penile, anal and oral], gonorrhoea, shigella twice, more amoebas,

herpes simplex types I and II; venereal warts, salmonella; chlamydia;

cytomegalovirus (CMV); Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); mononucleosis and

cryptosporidiosis " , ( " a disease of cattle! " ). Indeed, an early US

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study confirmed that the first 100

men with AIDS had a median lifetime number of 1120 sex partners.(30)

As Callen himself put it, " I got some combination of

venereal diseases EACH AND EVERY TIME I had sex " . Not surprisingly,

given the widespread belief of a causal relationship between immunity

and the maintenance of health, in 1981 the " new " disease became known

as Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). In fact none of the diseases

was new. Some were known to occur in drug addicts and haemophiliacs

long before the AIDS era. What was " new " was their exponentially

escalating prevalence in gay men.

 

Technology and Virology

 

Coincidental with the beginning of the AIDS era a technique was

developed to classify and count the different types of lymphocyte

white blood cells. It was noticed that some AIDS patients had

diminished numbers of the so called T4 " helper " cell subtype and,

despite lack of proof, the cells were assumed to be dying at the

behest of an agent selectively targeting them. This became

the " hallmark " of AIDS as well forming a measure of the amount of

immune deficiency. In turn, this " immune deficiency " , (the " AID " in

AIDS) caused the diseases (the " S " in AIDS) that constitute the

clinical syndrome. The perceptions that T4 cells were dying and AIDS

was infectious led to the theory that AIDS is caused by a microbial

organism.

 

Five years prior to the AIDS era a few laboratories around the world

were drawing towards the end of a fruitless search to prove a viral

cause for human cancers. During the 1970s, Dr. Robert Gallo, the

central figure as " co-discoverer " of the AIDS virus, and his

colleagues, claimed to have discovered three human retroviruses. (The

name `retroviruses' arises because of the copying of the RNA which

forms the viral " genes " [the genome] " backwards " into DNA, a

direction contrary to that long considered universal, that is, from

DNA into RNA). In 1975 the first human retrovirus, HL23V, was

proposed to cause human leukaemia but by 1980 was considered an

embarrassing mistake, in fact not to have ever existed. Of the

remaining two, one was postulated to cause a specific though rare

form of adult leukaemia and the second is still without a disease.

What is significant is that the latter two retroviruses are said to

exhibit a liking for T4 lymphocytes. This led Donald Francis and

Gallo and

others to propose that an existing or closely related retrovirus was

the agent responsible for killing the T4 cells in AIDS patients. When

researchers actively sought and then discovered the same diseases in

individuals who were not gay, retroviruses, as well as

retrovirologists, received renewed interest and GRID became AIDS.

 

First proclamations

 

In May 1983 Professor Luc Montagnier and his colleagues at the

Pasteur Institute of Paris published a paper in Science

entitled, " Isolation of a T-Lymphotrophic Retrovirus from a patient

at Risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).(64) It is

important to note that the first word in this paper, `Isolation',

serves as a signal that the researcher is claiming proof for the

existence of a new virus. In the interests of science, on several

occasions, Montagnier sent samples of his tissue cultures to the

Gallo laboratory in America with the express understanding

these " could be used for biomedical, biological and molecular

biological studies " .(65) However, Montagnier did not claim to have

proven his virus was the cause of AIDS and the French discovery lay

on the table until May 1984 when Gallo and Popovic and their

colleagues (66-69) published four papers also in Science. On the 23rd

of April 1984, at a Washington press conference held two weeks before

the papers were published,

Margaret Heckler, Secretary for Health and Human Services, announced

that Gallo and his co-workers had discovered the " probable " cause of

AIDS and had developed a sensitive blood test to detect the virus in

the body. A curative vaccine was predicted within two years.

Inexplicably, causation was proclaimed merely by association and

despite " isolation " of HIV in only 26 of Gallo's 72 (36%) AIDS

patients, or barely a third. (The frequency of " isolation " is no

better today.(70)).

 

In 1985 the Pasteur Institute alleged that Gallo had misappropriated

their virus. The ensuing conflict, which eventually reached the

American courts, was settled by a negotiated agreement signed in 1987

by Gallo and Montagnier as " co-discoverers " , and US President Reagan

and French Premier Chirac. Nevertheless, the matter drew the

attention of John Crewdson, an investigative journalist, and US

Senator John Dingell. In November 1989, Crewdson published a lengthy

article in the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which provoked an internal

NIH enquiry into suspect data from Gallo's laboratory. A draft report

of the formal investigation written by NIH Office of Scientific

Integrity (OSI), was published in September 1991, in which the

principal author Mikulas Popovic was accused " of misconduct for

misstatements and inaccuracies " that appeared in the first Science

paper, and that Gallo, as laboratory chief, " created and fostered

conditions that give rise to falsified/ fabricated data and falsified

reports " . The final draft report of the OSI, completed in January

1992, was immediately criticised and was followed by a review of the

OSI report by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which found

Gallo guilty of scientific misconduct. However, despite the long and

costly investigation, the OSI concluded that Gallo's research " does

not negate the central findings of the [1984] Science paper " .

According to Eleopulos and her colleagues, regardless of the material

uncovered by the OSI, Gallo's data, which still remains the best of

its kind, does not prove the existence of HIV and even if it did,

nowhere in the papers is their proof that HIV causes AIDS.(16,21)

 

Peter Duesberg

 

In December 1987, three and a half years after the Washington press

conference, Professor Peter Duesberg, virologist and molecular

biologist at the University of Berkeley, California, published an

invited paper entitled " Retroviruses as Pathogens: Expectations and

Reality " .(3) Duesberg was a much fêted scientist, considered to

be " the golden boy of virology " and " the greatest living

retrovirologist " . He had developed many of the laboratory techniques

for studying retroviruses and their genetic make up, had discovered

cancer causing genes, and was recipient of a $US350,000 " outstanding

investigator " award from the NIH. But Duesberg dropped a bombshell.

He asserted that, apart from the relative few cancer causing

retroviruses, the majority are virtually harmless. Duesberg argued

that HIV is neutralised by antibodies shortly after infection and

thus antibodies signal its containment. He also pointed to data

proving that well, sick or dying from AIDS, HIV positive individuals

contain

insufficient amounts of HIV to do harm. Even if HIV were to kill all

the T4 cells it had infected every 1-2 days, the amount of T4 cells

needing replacing approximated the amount of blood shed by a man

cutting himself shaving.

 

For the protagonists, the low " viral burden " , that is, the amount

of " HIV DNA " in cells, was a fact that no one, not even Gallo, could

satisfactorily reconcile with an immune destroying pathogen killing

gay men within a year or two of diagnosis. However, rather than

addressing this as a scientific problem warranting dialogue with

someone known to have considerable knowledge of the subject,

Duesberg's questions antagonised Gallo to the point where he refused

to discuss the matter. Meetings convened to deal with the

uncomfortable implications of Duesberg's paper were suddenly

cancelled at the highest level.

 

In 1989 Duesberg presented further argument.(4) HIV does not fulfil

the postulates nineteenth century bacteriologist Robert Koch had

developed to prove a microbe causes a disease. These four postulates

are one, that the organism must be present in all cases of the

disease; two, that it must be grown and then isolated in pure culture

from the cells of individuals with the disease; three, that it must

reproduce the disease when introduced into a susceptible host or

experimental animals and four, that from whence it must once again be

recovered.

 

According to Duesberg " From every angle, HIV fails Koch's first

postulate " .(1) The second postulate was fulfilled but only by

subjecting cells to drastic chemical manipulation that did not

approach conditions in vivo. Eleopulos has argued how basic

retrovirology has long shown that oxidation which prevails in

HIV/AIDS patients and their cell cultures creates internal

(endogenous) retroviruses in cells whose DNA was not previously

infected from the outside (12,14,15,71,72) (One percent of human DNA,

that is, an amount 3000 times larger than " HIV " DNA, is made up of

endogenous retroviral DNA(73)). The third postulate failed

because, " During the past decade, more than four hundred thousand

AIDS patients have been treated and investigated by a system of five

million medical workers and AIDS researchers, none of whom have been

vaccinated against HIV… But ten years later there is not even one

case in the scientific literature of a health worker who ever

contracted presumably infectious

AIDS from a patient… AIDS is not infectious " . Similarly, " nine years

after the NIH first started infecting chimpanzees with HIV-over 150

so far at a cost of $40,000-50,000 apiece " , all " are still healthy " .

(5 **)

 

In 1992, Duesberg shifted focus from HIV to argue that " AIDS [is]

acquired by drug consumption and other noncontagious risk factors " .

(5) Apart from illicit and recreational drugs, Duesberg's list

included the first " anti-retroviral " compound zidovudine (AZT). In

other words, a specific treatment for HIV infection was a cause of

AIDS. Duesberg continued to regard HIV bona fide but an inert,

harmless " passenger " virus linked to AIDS only through the kinds of

activity associated with drug taking (including prescribed drugs).

Duesberg, like others before him, pointed to the epidemiological data

revealing a 50 fold difference in the AIDS " attack rate " between

various groups of HIV positive individuals, as well as the proclivity

of certain AIDS diseases for particular risk groups. Thus 50% of HIV

positive blood transfusion recipients develop AIDS within one year

(but so do 50% of HIV negatives) compared to 1% of haemophiliacs.

Kaposis' sarcoma was to all intents and purposes, confined to

gay men.(5,13,74)). Thus, even if HIV were necessary to cause AIDS,

it could not be the only factor. However, accretion of " co-factors "

to the HIV theory rendered the significance of any particular factor

problematic. It was possible to argue that HIV may be only a minor

factor or, at least in Eleopulos' and Duesberg's minds, not a factor.

Apparently the role of HIV was also a problem for Montagnier.

Although he wrote in Nature in December 1984, " all available data are

consistent with the virus being the causative agent of AIDS " ,(75) in

1985 he expressed an opinion impossible to reconcile with the HIV

theory. " This syndrome occurs in a minority of infected persons, who

generally have in common a past of antigenic stimulation and of

immune depression before LAV [HIV] infection " ,(76) that is, cause

after effect (italics ours). One must surmise that within a year, the

discoverer of HIV was already hedging his bets. His recent interview

with the investigative journalist Djamel Tahi (61)

(see below), fuels such speculation.

 

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and the Perth group

 

Eleopulos' AIDS research began in 1981. In May 1986 she submitted for

publication a paper which refuted every step in the HIV theory,

including HIV itself. She also proposed an alternative, non-viral

theory (of which " Duesberg's " " Drugs/AIDS hypothesis " is a subset),

and predicated non-toxic and relatively inexpensive treatments.

 

Her theory was based on a general theory of cellular functioning she

had formulated in the 1970s as a basis for unraveling the genesis and

improving the treatment of cancer, and to offer fresh insights into

the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and aging. Eleopulos

postulates that normal cellular functioning is determined by the

level and oscillations of cellular redox (23) (oxidation and its

chemical opposite, reduction). In her view, when oxidation is

prolonged or excessive, cells become abnormal, injured and

susceptible to diseases. Eleopulos had noticed a link between the

risk groups. Gay men, drug users and haemophiliacs are exposed to

chemical stressors in the form of semen, nitrites, illicit drugs and

factor VIII (the blood clotting protein missing from and administered

to haemophiliacs). There is abundant evidence that these substances

are potent cellular oxidants.(12) In Eleopulos' view, oxidative

stress produces low T4 cells and AIDS, as well as the phenomena

inferred

as proof for the existence of HIV.

 

The ready acceptance of the Montagnier/Gallo 1983/84 Science papers

posed enormous difficulties for Eleopulos having her work published.

Thus " Reappraisal of AIDS: Is the oxidation caused by the risk

factors the primary cause? " was twice rejected by Nature eventually

finding light of day in Medical Hypotheses twelve months after

Duesberg.(12) However, the editor of this journal also rejected the

paper, only recanting after Eleopulos worked for several months to

convince him that equatorial Africa was not in the grip of an

epidemic of sexually transmitted immunodeficiency and thus not in

breach of her theory.(11,24,63,77)

 

To paraphrase the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, wrong

predictions affirm bad theories, correct predictions make them

powerful. The HIV theory requires that HIV causes all the AIDS

defining diseases and predicts that HIV/AIDS will become a global

epidemic via the oldest and most unstoppable of all human activities.

However, Kaposis' sarcoma, one of the two diseases for which the HIV

theory was proposed, is no longer attributed either directly or

indirectly (via AID), to HIV.(12,13,54,74,78 §) In the OECD countries

the prediction of a sexual pandemic fails completely. For example, as

of the beginning of 1998, 93% of the cumulative deaths from AIDS in

Australia occurred in the original risk groups, that is, gay/bisexual

men, drug addicts and haemophiliacs. This observation fits the

classic demographic profile of non-infectious diseases such as

pellagra, beriberi and scurvy which also remain confined to their

risk groups. All are caused by vitamin deficiencies but in the past

were regarded infectious and sufferers shunned and quarantined. The

HIV protagonists also predicted a curative vaccine by the end of 1986

and an animal model to prove the HIV theory beyond all doubt. Neither

prediction has been fulfilled. A vaccine is not envisaged before the

turn of the century and animals given " HIV " do not develop AIDS.

 

On the other hand, the Eleopulos oxidative stress theory predicts the

current demographic data, an apparent loss of T4 cells, the risk of

passive anal intercourse in both sexes, HIV positive and AIDS

patients being oxidised relative to normal individuals, the

ameriolation of HIV/AIDS by the use of antioxidants and a non-

infectious animal model. Everyone of these predictions has

materialised. Oxidative stress is well established by hundreds of

papers,(14,62,79-81) so much so that in the early 1990s the Pasteur

Institute was advertising international scholarships to study the

phenomenon. In fact this year Luc Montagnier is the principal editor

of a 558 page book devoted to oxidative stress in cancer, aging and

AIDS.(82)

 

The Eleopulos theory predicts that a decline in T4 cells can occur

without cellular death. In fact, according to the Perth group, there

is no evidence to support the notion that T4 cells are dead, or

that " HIV " kills such cells. In T4 cell cultures, the same number T4

cells " disappear " regardless of whether one adds " HIV " or merely the

chemical stimulants obligatory to " grow " the " HIV " .(83) Neither is

there proof that low numbers of T4 cells are either necessary or

sufficient to produce the clinical syndrome.(9,12,14) This is a view

recently expressed by leading HIV/AIDS scientists such as Dr. Arthur

Anderson from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious

Disease (84) and Dr. Zvi Grossman at the University of Tel Aviv.85

 

In other words, the central tenet of the HIV theory, virus induced

killing of immune cells leading to AIDS, is now being questioned by

HIV/AIDS experts themselves. Nonetheless, and despite so much

evidence to the contrary, the orthodox view remains entrenched. In

fact, since 1993 the low numbers of T4 cells has been enshrined in

the 1993 CDC AIDS definition whereby AIDS can be diagnosed without a

disease. Just as " co-factors " were proposed to rescue the HIV theory

in the mid 1980s, in July 1998 Chen and colleagues from the UCLA AIDS

Institute, School of Medicine, Los Angeles reported evidence

that " naturally noninfectious virus " or virus or " rendered defective "

by " anti-HIV " drugs, could still contribute to the loss of T4 cells

throughout the course of HIV disease.(86) In other words, " alive "

or " dead " , HIV causes immune deficiency. Such a proposal does not

auger well for the use or continued development of " anti-HIV " drugs.

 

Consistent also with the Eleopulos oxidatives stress theory is the

direct relationship between high frequencies of passive anal

intercourse and the development of AIDS, as well as the fact that the

only animal model of AIDS is non-infectious. Mice repeatedly injected

with foreign cellular proteins develop a dramatic depletion of T4

cells, Kaposi's sarcoma-like tumors and " abundant " retroviral-like

particles appear in their spleens.(87) Thus AIDS diseases are

followed by the production of retroviral-like particles and not the

other way around.

 

The demise of scientific democracy

 

The longevity of the HIV theory has been considerably boosted by the

virtual refusal of editors of leading medical journals to publish any

material which takes HIV to task. Without these data, and the stamp

of approval engendered by such publication, it is almost impossible

for the debate to reach the ears of those who matter the most,

clinicians and their patients. Like generals directing wars, the

remoteness of editors begets an objectivity which, while essential to

clear thinking, militates against an appreciation of the profound

responsibilities editors hold at the bedside. Ultimately, although

the HIV theory is manifoldly problematic, physicians, patients,

relatives, politicians, journalists and the tax paying public are

systematically denied knowledge of its existence and substance. Not

only is there is a total absence anywhere of a disinterested,

adjudicated debate, individuals whose only motivation is to

contribute to solving a disease claimed to afflict millions of people,

find themselves censored. For example, the editor of the world's

most prestigious journal, Nature, denied Duesberg the right of reply

on issues he raised because his views give " many infected people the

belief that HIV infection is not in itself the calamity it is likely

to prove " .(29) Yet, in a recent edition of the same journal, but in

another context, there is a claim that " the voice of sceptics may

grow tiresome, but the mainstream is in trouble if it cannot win a

public debate with them " . Officials at the Berlin 10th International

AIDS Conference confiscated Dutch AIDS analyst Robert Laarhoven's

press pass and threatened him with expulsion from Germany

for " criminal trespass " because he placed copies of the dissident

journal Rethinking AIDS on an " unauthorised " table. Nature has

repeatedly rejected every paper and letter submitted by Eleopulos and

her colleagues since 1986 without providing any scientific reasons

and invariably citing space constraints in the journal. Professor

John Kaldor, one of Australia's foremost " established experts " on

AIDS admits that dissidents " intersperse their cases with grains of

fact " .(88) However, because of Kaldor and colleagues' " strong

instinct not to dignify the sceptics' arguments by attempting to

refute them " , arguments based on these " grains of fact " and many

other data, remain unanswered and unresolved.

 

The rise and fall of the " anti-HIV " drugs

 

It would take a second article to discuss AZT and the many

other " anti-HIV " drugs. Suffice it to say there is no scientific

proof that such drugs kill " HIV " or cure AIDS but there is ample

evidence they are harmful.(1,53,56) In 1994, a double-blind

randomised comparison of two policies of AZT treatment (immediate and

deferred) was reported (the Concorde trial). This involved 1749

symptom-free, HIV-infected individuals from centres in the UK,

Ireland and France. The 347 clinical endpoints (AIDS and death)

outnumbered the total of those in all other published trials in

symptom-free and early symptomatic infection. The results

showed " there was no statistically significant difference in clinical

outcome between the two therapeutic policies " .(89) In 1995, extended

results of Concorde showed a significant increased risk of death

among the patients treated early. However, despite these data,

disclaimers that patients treated with AZT may continue to develop

the AIDS diseases, that the side

effects of AZT may mimic AIDS, and AZT given to non-HIV-infected

babies causes the AIDS defining pneumonia PCP,(90) AZT continues to

be the most commonly prescribed anti-HIV drug. Dr. Donald Abrams,

Professor of Medicine and Director of the AIDS program at San

Francisco General Hospital, said " I have a large population of people

who have chosen not to take any antiretrovirals... I've been

following them since the very beginning...They've watched all of

their friends go on the antiviral bandwagon and die " .(91) Indeed,

even an elementary study of the relevant pharmacologicaL literature

reveals that AZT cannot be an anti-HIV drug.(92)

 

In 1996, the latest drugs, the " protease inhibitors " (PI) were

introduced. These are prescribed as one of up to 200

possible " cocktails " with AZT or similar drugs. Detailed data on

these drugs of the kind usually reserved for medical practitioners,

appear regularly in glossy, multi-page advertisements in gay mens'

magazines. At the July 1996 XIth International AIDS conference Time

Magazine Man of the Year David Ho predicted that " scientists would

find new drugs to wipe HIV out of the body within three years

possibly within just one " .(93) At the July 1998 XIIth AIDS conference

Ho stated it will take at least ten years of intense combination drug

therapy to kill off all the HIV in an infected person's body but a

sizable percentage of HIV patients will never get close. Many

patients cannot tolerate the untoward effects of these " cocktails "

and measurements show that the DNA " viral " burden does not decrease.

(94-97) In the May 1998 Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences Dr.

William Paul, former Director of the National Institutes of Health's

Office of AIDS Research writes, " no matter how long a person is

treated with anti-HIV drugs, there will always be new viruses... you

will have to be treated forever... No one is getting cured... This

bodes extremely poorly for combination therapy as something curative " .

(85)

 

Given the toxicity of these drugs, it is unlikely anyone can tolerate

taking them for more than a few years. If this outlook is gloomy for

HIV/AIDS sufferers, it is even worse considering there is no

substantial, alternative therapeutic strategy anywhere on the

horizon. The futility of all " anti-HIV " drugs, past present and

future is best highlighted in a June 1998 interview by Dr. Harold

Varmus, Nobel Laureate retrovirologist and Director of the

NIH. " Trying to rid the body of a virus whose genome is incorporated

into the host genome may be impossible " .(98) Indeed, how can a drug

rid a body of material so intimately bound to the host DNA genetic

material?

 

SOME SCIENTIFIC PROBLEMS WITH THE HIV THEORY

 

The theory versus the definition

 

The central premise of the HIV theory of AIDS is that there exists a

unique retrovirus, transmissible via blood and sexual secretions,

which induces specific antibodies, kills T4 cells whose relative

absence then causes the appearance of approximately 30 diseases which

constitute the clinical syndrome. The theory however is rendered

completely contradictory by the official AIDS definition used

clinically. In Australia an individual is diagnosed AIDS if he or she

fulfills the criteria set out in the latest (1993) revision of the

US " CDC surveillance case definition for AIDS " .(99) (Other

definitions in use around the world make scientific comparisons

almost impossible. In Africa AIDS is diagnosed on symptoms and

without blood tests (100)). Since from 1985 the CDC " accepts " HIV as

the cause of AIDS, it should not be possible to diagnose AIDS by any

means inconsistent with the HIV theory. However, even a cursory

reading of the 1993 definition reveals AIDS can be diagnosed with the

imprimatur of the CDC: with Kaposis' sarcoma which even Gallo (54)

accepts is not caused by HIV, in the absence of immune

deficiency, " without laboratory evidence of HIV infection " and,

extraordinarily, " in the presence of negative results for HIV

infection " (101) (italics ours).

 

Sexual transmission

 

HIV/AIDS is claimed to be bidirectionally sexually transmitted. Data

to support this claim is based not upon microbial isolation and

contact tracing as is the orthodox practice for proving diseases are

infectious and sexually transmitted (STD), but on mostly

retrospective studies of highly selected groups of individuals

including gay and bisexual men, heterosexual men and women including

prostitutes, for antibodies in blood which react certain proteins

deemed " HIV specific " . Included in these studies are estimations of

risk factors for the specific sexual practices of penile insertive,

vaginal, anal receptive and oral receptive intercourse.

 

Gay men

 

In 1984 Gallo and his colleagues showed that " Of eight different

sexual acts, a positive HIV antibody test correlated only with

receptive anal intercourse " (102). They also found the more often a

gay man has insertive anal intercourse the less likely he was to

become HIV positive. This is incompatible with an infectious cause.

In 1986 Gallo and his colleagues reported they " found no evidence

that other forms of sexual activity, contribute to the risk " of HIV

seroconversion in gay men.(103) In an extensive review of 25 studies

of gay men reported in 1994 by Caceres and van Griensven, the authors

concluded that " no or no consistent risk of the acquisition of HIV-1

infection has been reported regarding insertive intercourse " .(104) In

the West, the largest and most judiciously conducted prospective

epidemiological studies such as the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study

(MACS) of 4955 gay men (105) have proven beyond all reasonable doubt

that in gay men the only significant sexual act related

to becoming HIV antibody positive is receptive anal intercourse.

Thus in gay men, AIDS may be likened to the non-infectious condition,

pregnancy. It is acquired by the passive partner but is not

transmitted to the active partner.

 

Significantly, the MACS also showed that once a gay man becomes HIV

positive, progression to AIDS is further determined by the amount of

passive anal intercourse sustained after " infection " . This is

contrary to all that is known about infectious diseases. Infection,

not repeated infections, causes disease. Indeed, although the Royal

Australasian College of Surgeons considers HIV positive surgeons " to

be infectious and should not perform invasive procedures or

operations. However, " (t)hey may provide these services to patients

who have the same infection " .(106)

 

Heterosexuals

 

The largest and best conducted studies in heterosexuals including the

European Study Group (107) show that for women, the only sexual

practice leading to an increased risk of becoming HIV antibody

positive is anal intercourse. The unidirectional transmission

of " HIV " observed in OECD countries is supported by Nancy Padian's

ten year study of heterosexual couples (1986-1996).(108) There were

two parts to this study, one cross-sectional, the other prospective.

In the former " The constant per-contact infectivity for male-to-

female transmission was estimated to be 0.0009 [1/1111] " . The risk

factors for the women were: (i) anal intercourse;. (ii) having

partners who acquired this infection through drug use (Padian says

that this means the women may also be IV drug users); (iii) the

presence of STDs. (antibodies to their causative agents may react in

an " HIV " antibody test (15,20) Of the HIV negative male partners of

82 positive female cases only 2 became HIV positive but under

circumstances considered ambiguous by Padian. In the prospective

study, starting in 1990, 175 HIV-discordant couples were followed for

approximately 282 couple-years. At entry, one third used condoms

consistently and in the six months prior their last follow up visit,

26% of couples consistently failed to use condoms. There were no

seroconversions after entry including the 47 couples not using

condoms consistently. Based on the 2/86 men who became HIV positive

in the early study, the risk to a non-infected male from his HIV

positive female partner was reported to be in the order of 1/9000 per

contact. From this statistic one can calculate that on average, a

male would need to have 6000 sexual contacts with an infected female

to achieve a 50% chance of becoming HIV positive. At three contacts

per week this would take 56 years, or a life time.

 

Prostitutes

 

The notion that HIV is a virus which " does not discriminate " is also

markedly inconsistent with the data obtained from studies of female

prostitutes. Even if, as it is widely accepted, by some unknown means

a sexually transmitted infectious agent found its way into the

promiscuous portion of the gay male population in certain large

cities in the United States in the late 1970s, given the facts that

prostitutes are frequented by bisexual men and, at the very

earliest, " safe " sexual practices date from 1985, one would have

expected HIV/AIDS to have spread rapidly through prostitutes and

thence to the general community. However, the prevalence of " HIV "

antibodies amongst prostitutes is almost entirely confined to those

who are drug users. Virtually all other prostitutes have not been,

and are not becoming, HIV positive.

 

In September 1985, 56 non-intravenous drug using (IVDU) prostitutes

were tested " In the rue Saint-Denis, the most notorious street in

Paris for prostitution. More than a thousand prostitutes work in this

area…These women, aged 18-60, have sexual intercourse 15-25 times

daily and do not routinely use protection " . None were positive.(109)

 

In Copenhagen, 101 non-IVDU prostitutes, a quarter of whom " suspected

that up to one fifth of their clients were homosexual or bisexual " ,

were tested during August/October 1985. The median numbers of sexual

encounters per week was 20. None were positive.(110)

 

In 1985, 132 prostitutes (and 55 non-prostitutes) who attended a

Sydney STD clinic were tested for HIV antibodies. The average numbers

of sexual partners (clients and lovers) in the previous month was

24.5. When an estimate was made to separate clients and lovers, the

median number of sexual contacts per year rose from 175 to 450. The

partners of only 14 (11%) of prostitutes used condoms at all and 49%

of their partners used condoms in fewer than 20% of encounters. No

women were positive.(111)

 

The same Australian Clinic repeatedly tested an additional 491

prostitutes who attended between 1986 and 1988. Of 231 out of the 491

prostitutes surveyed, 19% " had bisexual non-paying partners and 21%

had partners who injected drugs. Sixty-nine percent always used

condoms for vaginal intercourse with paying clients, but they were

rarely used with non-paying partners. Condoms were rarely used by

those clients and/or partners for the 18% of prostitutes practising

anal intercourse " . No women were positive.

 

At the time of this report, a decade into the AIDS era, the authors

also commented, " there has been no documented case of a female

prostitute in Australia becoming infected with HIV through sexual

intercourse " (italics ours). Yet, these investigators from the Sydney

Sexual Health Centre concluded " there are still many women working as

prostitutes in Sydney who remain seriously at risk of HIV infection " .

(112) In Spain, of 519 non-IVDU prostitutes tested between May 1989

and December 1990, only 12 (2.3 per cent) had positive test, which

was " only slightly higher than that reported 5 years ago in similar

surveys " . Some prostitutes had as many as 600 partners a month and

the development of a positive antibody test was directly related to

the practice of anal intercourse. The authors also noted, " a more

striking and disappointing finding was the low proportion of

prostitutes who used condoms at all times, despite the several mass-

media AIDS prevention campaigns that have been carried out

in Spain " .(113)

 

Similar data from two Scottish studies,(114) the 1993 " European

working group on HIV infection in female prostitutes study " ,(115) and

a 1994 report of 53,903 Filipino prostitutes tested between 1985 to

1992, confirm that non-IVDU prostitutes remain virtually devoid of

HIV infection. For example, in the latter study, only 72 (0.01%)

women were found to be HIV positive.

 

In studies where there appear to be a high incidence of HIV amongst

prostitutes there are uncertainties that defy explanation. For

example, although " HIV has been present in the commercial sex work

networks in the Philippines and Indonesia for almost as long as it

has been in Thailand and Cambodia " , the prevalence of HIV in the

former is 0.13% and 0.02% respectively and 18.8% and 40% in the

latter.(116) If these are accurate data, the discrepancy defies

epidemiological explanation and has indeed baffled the experts

although the latter postulate " behavioural factors " such as one

country's prostitutes and clients being considerably more or less

sexually active than another. However, one could also pose another

question. What are the " HIV " antibody tests actually measuring? Be

that as it may, since 5674 (44%) and 4360 (34%) of the 12785

Cambodian " HIV and AIDS Case Reports " till 31/12/97 are listed

as " Unknown " gender and age respectively,(117) data collection, at

least by the WHO in

Cambodia, must be regarded as problematic.

 

Contradictions

 

Why should HIV avoid non-drug using prostitutes? If female

prostitutes who do not use drugs do not become HIV infected despite

being " seriously at risk of HIV infection " , what is the risk of

infection to the majority of Australian women who are neither drug

users nor prostitutes? According to data from the National Centre in

HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, vanishingly little. A 1989

study testing 10, 217 blood samples of newborn babies (unambiguous

evidence of heterosexual activity without condoms), found that no

babies or mothers were HIV positive.(118) If such women remain non-

infected, how do their non-drug using, male heterosexual partners

become infected with HIV?

 

According to Simon Wain-Hobson, a leading HIV expert from the Pasteur

Institute, " a virus's job " is to spread. " If you don't spread, you're

dead " . (Weiss, 1998 #1179) The " overwhelming " evidence from studies

both in gay men and heterosexuals is that HIV/AIDS is not

bidirectionally sexually transmitted. In the whole history of

Medicine there has never been such a phenomenon. Since microbes rely

on person to person spread for their survival, it is impossible to

claim from epidemiological data that HIV/AIDS is an infectious,

sexually transmitted disease. Indeed, Professor Stuart Brody, from

the University of Tubingen, has argued that physicians ignore the

actual heterosexual data and instead promote the politically correct

idea that everyone is at risk. " Ideological knowledge about AIDS is

far more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge " .

(37)

 

THE DIAGNOSIS OF " HIV " INFECTION

 

The HIV antibody tests

 

There are two " HIV " antibody tests in common use, the ELISA and

Western blot (WB). The ELISA causes a colour change when a mixture

of " HIV " proteins reacts with antibodies in serum from a patient. In

the Western blot, " HIV " proteins are first separated along the length

of a nitrocellulose strip. This enables individual reactions to the

ten or so " HIV " proteins to be visualised as a series of

darkened " bands " . The Western blot test is used to " confirm "

repeatedly positive ELISAs because experts agree that the

ELISA " overreacts " , that is, it is insufficiently specific.(¥) Prior

to 1987, one " HIV specific " WB band was considered proof of HIV

infection. However, since 15%-25% of healthy, no risk individuals

have " HIV specific " WB bands,(119,120) it became necessary to

redefine a positive WB by adding extra and selecting particular

bands, otherwise at least one in every seven people would be

diagnosed infected with HIV. (Notwithstanding, in the MACS, one band

remained proof of HIV

infection in gay men until 1990 (121)). On the other hand, although

AIDS began to decline in 1987,(122,123) this trend was countered by

the addition of more and more diseases and, most recently, mere

laboratory abnormalities to each revision (1985, 1987 and 1993) of

the first, 1982 CDC definition. The net effect of these changes was

to maintain the correlation between " HIV " antibodies and " AIDS "

amongst the " risk " groups while the risk of an HIV/AIDS diagnosis

outside these groups remained slight. This was further accentuated by

avoiding testing outside the risk groups. However, when such studies

were performed, for example, (a) amongst 89,547 anonymously tested

blood specimens from 26 US hospital patients at no risk of AIDS,

between 0.7% to 21.7% of men and 0-7.8% of women aged 25-44 years

were found to be HIV WB positive.(124) (It is estimated that

approximately 1% of men are gay. Also, at the five hospitals with the

highest rates of HIV antibodies, one third of positive tests

were in women. Yet men vastly outnumber women as AIDS patients). (b)

the US Consortium for Retrovirus Serology Standardization reported

that 127/1306 (10%) of individuals at " low risk " for AIDS

including " specimens from blood donor centers " had a positive HIV

antibody test by the " most stringent " US WB criteria (119) (see

below). Thus the correlation between " HIV " antibodies and AIDS, which

experts accept as the only proof that HIV causes AIDS, could not be a

statistic related to the natural, unbridled activity of a virus but

is instead a contrivance of mankind. Not only does correlation never

prove causation, the artificiality of this particular " correlation "

disqualifies it from meaningful scientific analysis.

 

One of the most bizarre aspects of the HIV/AIDS theory is that

different laboratories, institutions and countries define different

sets of WB bands as a positive test (Figure 1). The global variation

in interpretive criteria means for example, that in Australia a

positive test requires particular sets of four bands. In the USA,

different sets of two or three suffice, which may or may not include

the bands required in Australia. In Africa only one designated set of

two is required. Put simply, this means that the same person tested

in three cities on the same day may or may not be HIV infected. If

the diagnosis of HIV infection were a game of poker, a flush would

require five cards the same suit in one country but only one or two

elswhere. A virus cannot behave in this manner, but, according to the

HIV test, which is claimed to have a specificity of 99.999%,(125) it

does.

 

As incomprehensible as this appears, further difficulties remain. For

example, an Australian tested in Australia with one or two " HIV

specific " bands would not be reported HIV infected.(101). Clearly

however, there must be a reason why an uninfected individual, such as

a healthy blood donor or military recruit can possess any, even

one, " HIV specific " band. According to the experts, these bands are

caused by cross-reacting, that is, " false " , " non-HIV " antibodies

which react with the " HIV " proteins. Thus it is axiomatic that an

antibody which reacts with a particular protein is not necessarily an

antibody the immune system has generated specifically in response to

that protein. The Australian National HIV Reference Laboratory (NRL)

concedes that " False reactivity may be to one or more protein bands

and is common " (120) (20-25%). However Eleopulos argues, if " non-HIV "

antibodies cause " one or more protein bands " , then why are they not

able to cause four or five? Or all ten? On what

basis do experts assert which antibodies are " false " and which

are " true " ? Or, how the same three bands, caused by " false " non- " HIV "

antibodies, become " true " when accompanied by one extra? On what

basis do experts assert there are any " true " HIV antibodies? If the

Australian traveller were to be tested in the USA, where two or three

bands are sufficient to diagnose HIV infection, are his

antibodies " false " in Australia but " true " as his aeroplane touches

down in Los Angeles?

 

In 1994, Dr. Elizabeth Dax, the head of the NRL was asked to justify

both the Australian criteria for a positive Western blot and the

global variability.(28) Her response (126) avoided answering either

question and subsequent correspondence failed to pass the editorial

staff at the Medical Journal of Australia. When the same questions

were later put via the Offices of Senator Chris Ellison, Minister for

Schools, Vocational Education and Training, the first question was

again unanswered and the widely different criteria between Australia

and Africa were justified on the basis that in

Africa, " comparatively, false reactivity is far less common [than in

Australia] so that interpretation criteria to define [true]

positivity may be less strict " .(120)

 

However, no scientist can make such a claim without data. All

antibody tests are subject to the vagaries of cross-reactions and the

only way to calculate the incidences of " true " and " false " antibodies

is to scrutinise reactions against what the test is purportedly meant

to measure, that is, against HIV itself. HIV isolation is the only

gold standard by which the specificity of the antibodies can be

determined and this must be evaluated before the test is introduced

into clinical practice. However, despite the WB being in widespread

use and " a stalwart " (126) of HIV testing, these data have never been

reported. This is an issue the NRL chronically and negligently fails

to address. Even without such evidence since, (a) the NRL concedes

that cross-reacting antibodies cause misleading reactions in the WB

in one quarter of healthy Australians; (b) unlike Australians,

Africans, (similar to the AIDS risk groups), are exposed to a

multitude of infectious agents producing a myriad of

antibodies each capable of cross-reactions; " false reactivity " will

be much higher in Africa where the WB criteria should be the most

stringent. Indeed, if it is true that " HIV " antibodies prove one

third of heterosexual adults in certain central and east African

countries are infected with HIV, " life in these countries must be one

endless orgy " .(39)

 

If the proteins used in the HIV ELISA and WB are unique constituents

of an exogenous retrovirus, and if such a virus induces specific

antibodies, we would never expect to find " HIV " antibodies in the

absence of HIV. Yet, in addition to the circumstances above, there

are numerous others where antibodies to the " HIV specific " proteins

arise where HIV/AIDS experts concede there is no HIV. These include

healthy mice injected with lymphocytes of similar mice (127) or

bacterial extracts;(V. Colizzi et al., personal communication),

following transfusions of HIV free blood (128) or a person's own

irradiated blood,(129) and in 72/144 dogs tested at a Veterinary

clinic in Davis USA.(130) In addition, antibodies to the microbes

which cause the fungal and mycobacterial diseases affecting 90% of

AIDS patients react with the " HIV specific " proteins.(20,131) This

year it was reported that 35% of patients with primary biliary

cirrhosis, 39% of patients with other biliary disorders, 29% of those

with

lupus, 60% of patients with hepatitis B, 35% of hepatitis C, all non-

HIV, non-AIDS diseases, have antibodies to the " HIV " p24 " core "

protein;(132)

 

Until 1990, an unknown number of the 4955 gay men in the MACS were

diagnosed HIV infected on the basis of an antibody to the " HIV

specific " , p24 protein, that is, with one WB band. Why do not all

similar tests prove infection with HIV? Why are gay men with a

single, p24 band infected with a deadly virus while biliary and liver

disease patients with the same band are not? Why were the criteria

for diagnosing HIV infection set less rigorous in gay men? Although

all HIV experts accept cross-reactivity in HIV antibody testing, in

1993 the New South Wales Department of Health interpreted the

discovery of " HIV " antibodies in four woman as " compelling evidence "

for transmission of HIV from a gay man during the course of minor,

office surgery in 1989.(133) However, there was no proof that the gay

man was HIV infected at the time of surgery, or that any of the four

women were operated on after the man. This report remains the only

one of its kind in the world and immediately led to the

establishment of a special committee of the Royal Australasian

College of Surgeons which wrote to all College Fellows inviting

submissions upon the matter. However, rather than seizing upon the

rarity of the event and following advice urging a formal, scientific

enquiry into whether " HIV " antibodies are caused by infection with a

retrovirus,(134) the College accepted these data as proof of cross-

infection but concluded " The mode of transmission is unknown " .(106 §§)

 

What proof is there for the existence of HIV?

 

Scientific evidence for the existence of a retrovirus must be

consistent with the definition of a retrovirus as a particular kind

of replicating, microscopic particle. Thus researchers must

demonstrate the correct size, shape and construction of particles;

that these particles have been purified and analysed and contain RNA

as well as an enzyme that makes DNA from RNA (reverse transcription);

and that the particles are infectious, that is, when pure particles

are introduced into fresh cell cultures, identical progeny appear.

The latter necessitates a second round of purification and analysis.

Indeed, although this method is entirely logical and was deemed

essential at a meeting held at the Pasteur Institute in 1973,

(135,136) it has been ignored by all HIV researchers.

 

Although there are electron microscope (EM) pictures from unpurified

cell cultures of particles purported to be " HIV " , it was not until

March 1997 that EMs of " purified HIV " were published.(137,138) Yet

such data is the first, most essential step in attempts to prove

particles are a virus, and for subsequent extraction of constituents

for analysis and use as diagnostic reagents. These long awaited

pictures reveal " purified HIV " to be a tangle of cellular debris.

Scattered amongst this are scant particles which, without evidence,

the authors claim are the HIV particles which " copurify " (sic) with

the cellular material. Close examination of these particles as well

as other evidence in the papers show they are too large, wrongly

shaped, have too high a mass and are devoid of knobs HIV experts

unanimously assert are absolutely essential for the " HIV " particle to

cause infection. It is from this material, HIV/AIDS experts and

biotechnology companies obtain proteins and RNA to use in tests

to pronounce humans infected with a unique, exogenous AIDS causing

microbe.

 

On July 17th 1997, the French investigative television journalist

Djamel Tahi interviewed Professor Luc Montagnier in camera at the

Pasteur Institute in Paris. Montagnier was asked, " Why do the EM

photographs published by you [in 1983] come from the culture and not

the purification? " . His reply was, " There was so little production of

virus it was impossible to see what might be in a concentrate of the

virus from the gradient [ " pure virus " ]. There was not enough virus to

do that. Of course one looked for it, one looked for it in the

tissues at the start, likewise the biopsy. We saw some particles but

they did not have the morphology typical of retroviruses. They were

very different. Relatively different. So with the [unpurified]

cultures it took many hours to find the first pictures. It was a

Roman effort!… Charles Dauget [an EM expert] looked at the plasma,

the concentrate, etc… he saw nothing major " (61) ( italics ours).

Questioned about the Gallo group he replied, " Gallo? I don't

know if he really purified. I don't believe so " . This should have

been both the beginning and the end of HIV.

 

Retroviral-like particles are virtually ubiquitous in biological

material (139,140) including for example cell cultures and " in the

majority if not all, human placentas " .(141) (One should note that

Montagnier's " Roman effort " refers to EMs obtained from umilical cord

blood lymphocytes). However, as Gallo confirms, because they do not

replicate, the majority of retroviral-like particles are not

retroviruses.(139,142) The " HIV " particle has been " classified " into

two subfamilies and three genera of retroviruses. This is analogous

to describing a new species of mammal as human, a gorilla and an

orang-utan. Besides the " HIV " particle, cell cultures contain other

particles of numerous morphologies whose origin and role are unknown.

(18,143,144) A detailed study from Harvard (145) revealed the

identical " HIV " particle in 18/20 (90%) of AIDS as well as in 13/15

(88%) of non-AIDS related lymph node enlargements.

 

HIV experts claim to detect and even " isolate " HIV merely by

demonstrating " reverse transcription " in cultures. However, although

present in retroviruses, reverse transcription is not, as many

HIV/AIDS experts claim, unique to retroviruses or even viruses.

(146,147) Well before the AIDS era Gallo himself showed that

chemically stimulated (absolutely essential to " isolate HIV " from

cultures) lymphocytes, possess this function.(148,149)

 

The " HIV " proteins and antibodies

 

Although both Montagnier and Gallo have never published EMs to prove

the presence of retroviral-like particles in their " pure virus " , and

Montagnier now concedes there were none, both groups and all others

since claim such material is " pure HIV " . This claim is based on the

fact that such material contains proteins which react with antibodies

present in AIDS patients. However, this reasoning is untenable.

Imagine a scientist who mixes two solutions together, obtains a

precipitate and then proclaims the identity and source of several

reactants. One does not need a degree in chemistry to realise this is

an impossibility. Nonetheless, because cultures and antibodies

derived from AIDS patients react together, the proteins are declared

to belong to " HIV " and the antibodies the " HIV " specific antibodies.

In fact, Gallo admits that for him, an antibody test is the

quintessence of " HIV isolation " . During an interview at the Geneva

AIDS conference he said, " Sometimes we had Western blot

positive but we couldn't isolate the virus. So we got worried and

felt we were getting false positives sometimes so we added the

Western blot. That's all I can tell you. It was an experimental tool

when we added it and for us it worked well, `cos we could isolate the

virus when we did it " .(150) However, HIV isolation is not an antibody

test and " HIV " proteins can only be defined by extracting them from

particles purified and proven to be a retrovirus. Such material has

never been shown to exist and such extraction never reported.

Notwithstanding, since the mid 1980s, HIV researchers claim that the

reaction between cell cultures and an antibody to merely one, the p24

protein, is " HIV isolation " . Since " to isolate a virus " is to obtain

infectious particles separate from everything else, it is

particularly difficult to see how scientists can refer to a chemical

reaction in this manner.

 

The origin of the " HIV " proteins

 

According to Eleopulos and her colleagues, all data presented to date

is consistent with the " HIV " proteins being cellular. Using " HIV "

antibodies as probes, " HIV " proteins have been identified in the

tissues of persistently HIV negative, healthy individuals including

blood platelet and skin cells, thymus, tonsil and brain.(15) As a

mark of the bewildering status of the HIV theory, while HIV proteins

could not be found in the placentas of 75 HIV positive pregnant women,

(151) they could be found in the placentas of 25 healthy, HIV

negative women.(152) That the HIV proteins are cellular is further

strengthened by a recent, two-part experiment. Human lymphocytes,

cultured in the absence of material from AIDS patients, is " purified "

as it would be to obtain the " HIV " proteins. This " uninfected "

material serves as a " mock virus " in experiments involving both " HIV "

and " SIV " (simian [monkey] immunodeficiency virus, claimed similar

to " HIV " ). Analysis of " mock virus " reveals qualitatively a

series of proteins bearing the same molecular weights as the

proteins of " real " virus, strongly suggesting that the " HIV " proteins

are cellular because the existence of HIV proteins demands they

appear exclusively in cultures derived from AIDS patients.(137) In

the second experiment, monkeys are immunised on several occasions

with " mock virus " , a procedure which subsequently protects them from

a " challenge " with " real " SIV.(153,154) However, immunisation is

specific. Immunisation with hepatitis vaccine does not protect

against poliomyelitis. It relies on exposure of the animal to

material specific to the organism against which protection is sought

resulting in the production of specific antibodies by the immune

system. Since proteins from the cells in which " SIV " is " grown "

( " mock " virus), protects against " real " SIV, these must be

exceedingly similar if not identical. That is, the " SIV " , and by

inference the " HIV " proteins, are all cellular.

 

The " HIV genome "

 

As is the case with the " HIV " proteins, the RNA purported to be the

HIV genome has not been obtained from particles purified and proven

infectious but from the conglomerate material described above.

Molecular biologists have produced possibly more information about

the " HIV " genome than any other object in the universe. Nonetheless,

there are no reports of even one individual possessing a complete,

full-length " HIV " genome and there is no agreement as to how many

genes HIV possesses. Opinions have varied from four through to eight,

nine or ten. Man and chimpanzee DNA differ by less than 2% but

variation in the composition of the " HIV genome " (derived from

analysis of " pieces " measuring 2% to 30% of the presumed total)

measures between 3-40%. By comparison, two RNA containing viruses

(polio and influenza, the latter after 27 years of dormancy,) vary by

less than 1% as do RNA molecules self-assembled in test tubes denied

the organising influence of living cells.(155,156)

 

Given that the DNA sequence determines the composition of a virus's

proteins, and the latter the physical, biochemical and biological

properties of a virus, how is it possible for such variation to

represent one and the same agent? For example, how is it possible

that HIV can induce the same antibodies and which can be recognised

in a universal antibody test containing the identical proteins?

Since, as the molecular biologist Duesberg reminds us, " there is a

range, a small range, in which you can mutate around without too much

penalty, but as soon as you exceed it you are gone, and you are not

HIV any longer, or a human any longer...then you are either dead or

you are a monkey, or what have you " ,(8) it is evident that whatever

the " HIV DNA genome " represents, it cannot be a virus.

 

Lessons from the past?

 

The evidence for the existence of Gallo's " first human " retrovirus

(HL23V) was much stronger than that for HIV.(20,25,157) However, in

1980 the antibodies to the HL23V proteins were shown to occur

following a large variety of common non-infectious factors and in far

more humans than could have ever developed leukaemia.(158,159) Thus,

from signifying that an " infectious mode of transmission [of

leukaemia] remains a real possibility in humans " and " infection with

an oncovirus [retrovirus] may be extremely widespread " ,(160)

the " first " human retrovirus abruptly disappeared from the annals of

science. At present no one, not even Gallo, believes it existed. In

the AIDS era experts recognise that antibodies to the " HIV specific "

proteins occur where there is no HIV and in many more individuals

than will ever develop AIDS. On what basis then does HIV still exist?

 

THE DISSIDENT CASE, POLITICS AND PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY

 

The failures of the past fifteen years are fairly and squarely

affixed to the five Montagnier and Gallo 1983/84 Science papers. That

the titles of three of these papers contain the word " isolation " and

yet no such evidence was presented, must stand as a memorial to the

demise of editorial integrity. The dissident cases, that HIV does not

exist (Eleopulos), or if it does exist does not cause AIDS (Eleopulos

and Duesberg), ultimately implies there will be devastating outcomes

in terms of scientific credibility including the failure of peer

review, the reputations of many experts and non-experts, a challenge

to the trust the citizen places in the hands of government,

scientific and medical leaders as well as an uncertain period of

ignominy for the medical profession as a whole. Weaving a just

resolution through this maze of socio-medico-legal bedlam will

require the utmost perspicacity and tenacity from political leaders.

 

Perhaps there are already signs of quiet beginnings with the 1994

return of the discovery of HIV to the French by the Americans

followed by the most recent admissions of Montagnier in his 1997

interview. Perhaps it is also written in the faces of the Nobel

Committee and the stubborn absence of a Nobel prize awarded for any

of the 100,000 scientific papers representing HIV/AIDS research.

 

Exceptionalism

 

Over and above all the uncertainties surrounding the HIV/AIDS debate,

AIDS science and medicine must stand as the most remarkable case

of " exceptionalism " in history. The funding it attracts far outstrips

that justified by its prevalence and economic impact.(161) For

example, over the past 17 years Australia has a cumulative total of

7,766 cases of AIDS including 5575 deaths.(162 ¥§) The big spenders

are (in order) the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany

and Italy. Their combined annual HIV/AIDS research budget amounts to

US$1.8 billion for a cumulative total of 761,572 AIDS patients (many

of whom are dead). Of an additional $US20 million spent by the

European Union in 1994-98, most " money goes to support travel and

meeting costs rather than laboratory research " .(163) While thousands

of dollars per patient are spent on HIV/AIDS research, only a few

dollars are spent on heart disease, cancer, mental illness, suicide

prevention or road trauma. The funding paradox reaches

epidemic, almost farcical proportions in developing countries where

Western AIDS workers spend their days dispensing advice and condoms

to a population dying for want of potable water, adequate sanitation

and nutrition, antibacterial, antitubercular and antimalarial

medicines. In a word, dying of poverty.

 

Currently, the annual cost of anti-HIV drugs for one person costs

about $US15,000 (which is greater than the entire health budget for

many a third world village). With 650,000 to 900,000 HIV positive

patients in the US as of July 1996, it would take $10 billion to pay

for drugs alone. This must be viewed against the World Health

Organisation's estimate that by the year 2000 there will be 30-40

million HIV infected people. Without HIV, AIDS patients, specialist

AIDS units and their employees can rationally be absorbed into

existing infrastructure of clinics and hospitals. The pursuit of

expensive drugs designed to kill HIV will be irrelevant as will be

the travail of the legions of HIV researchers. The same applies to

AIDS councils, the armies of AIDS educators, AIDS fund raisers,

volunteers and AIDS organisations. In the US alone there are 93,000

of the latter, one for every four persons ever diagnosed with AIDS.

(34)

 

Clear thinking

 

Homo sapiens (thinking man), was not named in vain. An honourable

society provides unfettered information and encourages its members to

make rational choices. Epidemiology shows that the development of a

positive " HIV " antibody test and AIDS is not so much related to a

given sexual practice but rather to the frequency of passive anal

intercourse in both men and women. It follows that AIDS is not a

disease of sexual orientation. As far as women are concerned, it is

prudent to note that in absolute terms, innumerably more women than

men engage in anal intercourse. Thus AIDS is not unlike the case of

the recently appended AIDS defining disease cervical cancer which,

long before the AIDS era, was known to be related to the frequency of

vaginal intercourse. Even so, it is not the act itself but the very

high frequencies of the act which is pathogenic.

 

As serious as public reaction to an ill conceived retrovirus may

prove, it will not be anywhere as serious as the legal backlash.

There are countless individuals alive who believe they are infected

with a deadly microbe, many of whom are currently treated with

potentially toxic drugs with no proven benefit. They avoid intimacy,

avoid having children and sometimes even casual contact with others.

It would take a flotilla of poet laureates to voice the collective

pain and suffering engendered by such a mistake. It would take an

army of mathematically gifted lawyers to quantify, and the nation's

coffers to compensate, those who lives have been ruined by what

Neville Hodgkinson has called " the greatest scientific blunder of the

20th century " .(29) This is not to mention patients and relatives who

have died at their own hands. In 1987 former US Senator Lawton Chiles

of Florida told an AIDS conference of a tragic case where twenty two

blood donors were informed they were HIV infected on the

basis of an ELISA test. Seven then committed suicide.(164)

 

In June this year the Swiss AIDS analyst Michael Baumgartner

persuaded United Nations officials to include a dissident session at

the XIIth International AIDS Conference held in Geneva. Speakers

included Huw Christie, the editor of Continuum magazine, AIDS analyst

and documentary film maker Joan Shenton, epidemiologist Professor

Gordon Stewart, retrovirologist and electron microscopist Professor

Etienne de Harven, virologist Dr. Stefan Lanka and, by satellite from

Perth, Eleni Eleopulos and her group from the Royal Perth Hospital.

In the audience were observers from the Pasteur Institute and the US

National Institutes for Health. The topic of the session was a

scientific critique of the HIV antibody tests and the evidence for

the existence of HIV. At the official press conference held after the

meeting, Professor Bernhard Hirschel, chairman of the Organising

Committee, accused the speakers of " using outdated and untrustworthy

scientific data " . However, the " outdated " data is that of

Montagnier and Gallo which led to the 1984 proclamation that HIV is

the cause of AIDS. That considered " untrustworthy " is the HIV

experts' own data.

 

Notwithstanding these and many other challenges to the current dogma,

HIV/AIDS experts are not in the least disquieted by sceptical

patients, relatives or scientists and inveigh heavily against

inquisitive journalists alleging great harm to public health. Thus it

appears the only hope for an immediate resolution of this troubled

issue is lawyers appearing for plaintiffs desiring judgements that

they are or are not infected with an AIDS causing virus. However,

even if an examination of " HIV science " is destined to be scrutinised

by courts of law, at present one must be realistic that in the short

term the status quo is extremely unlikely to change.

 

A real debate?

 

Nonetheless, it is inexorably drawing nearer to the time when world

governments will convene an international, adjudicated debate on this

subject. In contrast to the 13,775 participants from 177 countries

who attended the June Geneva AIDS Conference, this should be a small

gathering where a dozen or so experts from each side put their

respective cases to a disinterested group of scientists of the utmost

stature, for example, another dozen made up largely of Nobel

laureates. There is a precedent for such a `consensus conference'

or `conference de citoyens' in common sense and " along the lines of a

model invented in Scandinavia and since applied in the United Kingdom

and elsewhere " . A " jury " of 14 people " screened for independence from

interested parties " have issues " debated in front of them by

scientists, non-governmental organizations, industrialists and other

bodies…The power of public research bodies is probably the best

guarantee of independence with respect to private sector

research and the influence of multinationals " .(165) By AIDS

standards, funding for such a meeting would be trivial. Indeed, such

would be its significance it would make money for the organisers.

 

Perhaps a disinterested observer could be forgiven for concluding

that, although we are approaching the eighteenth year of the AIDS

era, and have spent many billions of dollars on treatments and

research, the words of Duesberg continue to taunt us: " By any

measure, the war on AIDS has been a colossal failure...our leading

scientists and policymakers cannot demonstrate that their efforts

have saved a single life " .(1) Perhaps those of Eleopulos group are of

even greater portent: " The single most important obstacle in finding

the explanation for AIDS is the belief in HIV.(19,26) In his recent

book, " Dancing Naked in the Mind Field " , Dr. Kary Mullis

writes, " Years from now, people will find our acceptance of the HIV

theory of AIDS as silly as we find those who excommunicated Galileo " .

(2) Indeed, it was Galileo who counseled, " In Science the authority

embodied in the opinion of thousands is not worth a spark of reason

on one man " . Perhaps, seventeen years in, we should all pause, look

around, and then take a long look back.

 

Dr. Valendar F. Turner, Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth

Hospital, Perth, West Australia. Andrew McIntyre, Freelance

Journalist, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Voice 08 92242662

Fax 08 92247045

Email vturner@c...

Website www.virusmyth.com/aids/perthgroup/

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

 

The authors gratfully acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Peter Bloch

of General Media International and Penthouse Magazine New York City

for making available excerpts of Dr. Mullis' forthcoming book.

 

ENDNOTES

 

*US journalist Christine Johnson's interview (now available in six

languages) with the leader of the Perth group, was reviewed by

scholar and international gay media personality Professor Camille

Paglia, in her column in the US Salon magazine October 28th

1997: " For a superb critique of the scandalously overpoliticized

scientific research on AIDS, see Christine Johnson's long interview

with Australian biophysicist Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos in the new

issue of the British AIDS magazine Continuum. The American major

media have effectively suppressed long-standing questions about

whether the AIDS test is reliable or whether an HIV virus in fact

exists at all " .

 

**On May 5th 1998, two US Republicans said they were exploring ways

to give a comfortable retirement to 1,500 chimpanzees that were bred

for AIDS research. Accompanied by primate expert Jane Goodall, House

Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Penn. said they were

working on a bill to set up sanctuaries for the chimps. The chimps,

bred in the United States specifically for AIDS research, did not

turn out to be the effective models that scientists had anticipated.

With no research use, the primates that are man's closest cousins are

languishing in cages at an annual cost of $US7.3 million.

 

§ In 1988, Eleopulos' paper that HIV does not cause Kaposis' sarcoma

was thrice rejected by the Medical Journal of Australia on the advice

of an " established expert " . The reviewer stated, " The author tries to

argue that Kaposis' sarcoma cannot be caused by HIV infection, and

that therefore AIDS is not due to HIV infection. The arguments put

forward by the author are quite unsatisfactory, and are not supported

by even a desultory reading of the literature quoted. In addition,

the author fails to examine the body of epidemiological,

immunological and cellular literature concerning the pathology,

pathogenesis and clinical associations of this fascinating

manifestation of HIV infection " . Yet this is the

very " epidemiological, immunological and cellular literature " which

eventually led the " established experts " to accept that " this

fascinating manifestation of HIV infection " , is not caused by HIV

infection.

 

¥ Asked to comment at the Geneva conference on the fact that England

and Wales have dropped the use of the WB to " confirm " positive HIV

ELISAs, Gallo commented, " Well, the bulk of the world uses it. If

some technology comes across better I'd be the first to say do it. I

mean obviously. The Western blot's a valuable test as defining the

proteins that you have antibodies to. Everybody uses it

experimentally and most people use it around the world. Not in

Eng…,Britain doesn't use it, maybe there are two countries that have

found a better way. God bless them. OK? "

 

§§ In 1997 the Perth group attempted a second time to engage the

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in debating the HIV/AIDS

controversy by submitting a paper entitled " A critical analysis of

the evidence for the isolation of HIV "

(www.virusmyth.com/aids/data/epappraisal.htm). It is editorial policy

to " welcome personal views of surgeons on a variety of topics " , and

to publish papers on " current and controversial issues " . Although

both reviewers accepted the bulk of the scientific arguments and

found the paper " interesting reading " , they advised against

publication because, in their view, an analysis of evidence for the

isolation of HIV was of " no real relevance…to a surgical audience "

or " would be of little interest or use to the majority of readers of

the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery " .

 

¥§ Of the 7766 Australian AIDS cases, 387 (5%) are reported in

the " heterosexual contact " exposure category. However, 22 of these

qualify on the basis of " Sex with injecting drug user " , 35 " Sex with

bisexual male " , 56 " From high prevalence country " (where heterosexual

spread is deemed dominant), 47 " Sex with HIV-infected person,

exposure not specified " , 170 " Not further specified " . Thus injecting

drug use, anal intercourse in women, the presumption of any form of

sexual intercourse and lack of sufficient data question the mode of

acquiring HIV infection in at least 330 (85%) of individuals listed

in this exposure category.

 

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