HIV=AIDS: Fact or Fraud? -- A Summary

[First published on Google Knol on August 4th, 2008]

Summary

There are scientists who challenge the popular belief about the cause of the disease known as AIDS. They have identified ten reasons why the virus known as HIV cannot be the cause of AIDS. They believe that the real causes of AIDS are the use of recreational and clinical drugs in the United States and Europe, and malnutrition and poor sanitation in Africa.

Introduction

This is a summary of the documentary called HIV=AIDS: Fact or Fraud? (1996). The documentary asserts that the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is false. The hypothesis is that people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) develop a severely weakened immune system and then go on to develop one or more of about thirty long-established diseases, a condition known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Origin of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis

In 1981, in Los Angeles, USA, there were many cases of homosexual men suffering from diseases associated with suppression of the immune system. It was assumed that behaviors specific to homosexual men were causing the diseases, and thus the diseases became known collectively as Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). Later, after drug addicts and hemophiliacs had been found with similar diseases, GRID was renamed the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

The US Department of Health and Human Services provided research funding to solve the problem. Early research focused on known causes of immune suppression, such as malnutrition, repeated infections, overuse of antibiotics, and emotional distress. These causes, which are associated with human behavior, were abandoned after a political decision had been made to regard the problem as an infectious epidemic.

Two virologists at the forefront of the search for a viral cause of AIDS were Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute and Dr. Myron Essex of the Harvard AIDS Institute, who speculated in 1982 that AIDS could be caused by a retrovirus. Dr. Gallo had earlier carried out research to demonstrate that retroviruses cause cancer, but had been unsuccessful. On April 23, 1984, Dr. Gallo joined the Secretary of Human Health and Services, Margaret Heckler, in a press conference. Heckler announced "The probable cause of AIDS has been found, a variant of a known human cancer virus, called HTLV III". Heckler added that the government was going to fund research into HIV, aimed at developing a vaccine against the virus.

Gallo had announced the findings of his research at a press conference without submitting it to peer review. Gallo had thus breached scientific protocol because other virologists had not been given the opportunity to verify his claims. Gallo's findings were later published in Science on May 4th, 1984. Gallo had found the HIV virus in only 44 of the 93 AIDS patients that he had tested, which cast doubt on the validity of his claim. However, the publication of the results had come eleven days after the press conference at which the government had publicly supported Gallo's work and offered funding to others on the basis of it.

More controversy arose when the Institute Pasteur in Paris revealed that Gallo's HTLV III virus was identical to the LAV virus that Dr. Luc Montagnier had discovered and had sent to Gallo six months before his press conference. The ensuing dispute was settled by politicians in 1987 when US President Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France agreed to split the profits on the blood test for the virus that had been developed. They also agreed that the credit for the discovery of the virus would be shared and the virus would be renamed the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The HIV/AIDS hypothesis challenged

The first published rejection of the link between AIDS and HIV came on March 1st, 1987, when Cancer Research published a review by Dr. Peter Duesberg, a retro-virologist at the University of California at Berkeley, in which Duesberg stated that HIV could not cause AIDS.

Though Duesberg's claims were widely rejected or ignored, other top scientists supported his position, including:

• Dr. Richard Strohman, former Professor of Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley
• Dr. Walter Gilbert, of the Biochemistry Department at Harvard University, and a Nobel Prize winner in 1980
• Dr. Kary Mullis, who invented the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and was a Nobel Prize winner in 1993

Dr. Charles Thomas Jnr., a former Harvard professor, organized a consortium of twelve signatories under the banner of The Group for Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis. The group made several attempts to have a letter published in a journal. The letter read:

"It is widely believed by the general public that a retrovirus called HIV causes a group of diseases called AIDS. Many biomedical scientists now question this hypothesis. We propose a thorough reappraisal of the existing evidence for and against this hypothesis to be conducted by a suitable independent group. We further propose that critical epidemiological studies be devised and undertaken."

After several refusals to publish, the group were inspired to expand their activities and the list of signatories. By 1994, the list had grown to 600 signatories, 188 of whom had advanced degrees.

The organization later became known as Rethinking AIDS.

Why the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is wrong

There are ten key reasons why the HIV/AIDS hypothesis is wrong:

Viruses are harmless after antibody immunity

A microbe reproduces rapidly after infecting the body, which causes the symptoms of a disease. The immune system then counters the infection. CD4 T-cells detect the microbes and then alert the B-Lymphocyte blood cells (white blood cells) to produce antibodies that kill the microbes or render then dormant. This results in recovery from the disease and immunity from further disease.

Retroviruses do not kill the T-cells they infect

Retroviruses multiply by infecting CD4 T-cells, but only in rare laboratory conditions do retroviruses actually kill T-cells. Indeed, AIDS researchers exploit this fact by using T-cells to grow the HIV virus. Retroviruses were once considered to be a plausible cause of cancer, specifically because they do not kill the cells they infect -- if the cells were killed there could be no cancer.

HIV does not infect enough T-cells to cause AIDS

Following infection by HIV and the response to it by the immune system, very few infected cells remain (typically 1 in 1000) because the body has produced antibodies which have killed the virus particles or made them dormant. T-cells are capable of reproducing at a rate of about 5 % per day, which would result in the quick replacement of any T-cells lost as a result of infection.

Retroviruses have no AIDS-causing gene

Retroviruses have a simple genetic structure. There are three major genes and six minor genes, and all are needed for replication. The retrovirus thus has no gene to cause diseases such as AIDS. There are typically 50 -- 100 retroviruses present in every healthy human body and each is kept under control by the immune system. The HIV retrovirus behaves no differently from other retroviruses and has a very similar genetic structure.

There is no such thing as a slow virus

Viruses cause disease in a matter of weeks after infection, which is a result of the generation time of a virus. Whatever the virus does to the body has to occur during this period. All viruses, including retroviruses such as HIV, behave this way.

HIV is not a new virus

A new epidemic must be the result of a new virus because an old virus would have caused an epidemic long ago. A new virus soon produces an exponential growth in infection and disease. The growth peaks at a high level then falls rapidly near to the original low levels as opportunities for new infections diminish. Antibodies from the virus may persist in the population long after the epidemic has passed because of transfer from mother to child. AIDS cases have increased rapidly since 1980, but HIV infection rates have remained stable and at a low level. Farr's Law indicates that HIV must very old -- in the order of centuries -- and thus cannot be the cause of AIDS.

HIV fails Koch's Postulates

Koch's Postulates states that for a microbe to be responsible for a disease, the following conditions must be met:

1. The virus is found in all cases of the disease
2. The virus can be isolated from an infected host and grown in a pure culture
3. The virus causes the same disease when injected into a new healthy host
4. The virus is found growing again in the newly-diseased host

HIV is not present in 10 - 20% of persons with AIDS. In the cases where HIV is present, there are only small amounts of virus detected and this is usually dormant. HIV can be isolated from an infected host but it requires a large amount of cell tissue and is difficult to reactivate. HIV injected in chimpanzees has not caused AIDS. HIV thus passes postulate number 2 marginally, but fails postulates 1, 3 and 4.

AIDS has remained in its original risk groups

A new epidemic starts in clusters or risk groups but soon spreads exponentially throughout the population. Data from the US indicates that AIDS has remained in its original risk groups. Of the total of AIDS cases, 97 % fall into one of four risk groups: homosexual males (62 %), intravenous drug users (32 %), hemophiliacs (1 %) and blood transfusion patients (2 %).

An epidemic should also have an even distribution amongst the sexes. The male to female ratio for HIV infection is indeed 50:50, but only 10 % of AIDS cases are female.

AIDS is not the same throughout the world

A microbe-related disease should have similar effects throughout the world. This is not the case for AIDS. AIDS in the US is very different from AIDS in Africa:

• The male to female ratio for AIDS cases is 90:10 in the US, but 50:50 in Africa.
• The proportion of AIDS cases in special risk groups is 97 % in the US, but 0 % in Africa - there are no special risk groups in Africa, i.e. the occurrence of the disease is random.
• Of the diseases that constitute AIDS, the proportion caused by microbes is 62 % in the US, but 90 % in Africa.
• In the US, there are 1 million people infected with HIV and about half-a-million have AIDS. In Africa, 14 million people are infected with HIV, but the number with AIDS is also about half-a-million.

AIDS without HIV infection, HIV without AIDS

There are people with AIDS who are not infected with HIV. The diseases that occur in people with AIDS differ according to the risk group. Intravenous drug users get diseases such as Tuberculosis, Wasting Syndrome and Pneumonia. Homosexual males get diseases such as Kaposi's Sarcoma and Cytomegalovirus. However, people in these risk groups who are not infected with HIV also get the same diseases.

There are people who are infected with HIV but are healthy and do not have AIDS. In the US, there are 1 million people infected with HIV, but only about half-a-million people with AIDS. In Africa, 97 % of those infected with HIV do not have AIDS. World-wide, 95 % of those infected with HIV do not have AIDS.

The real causes of AIDS

It is normal scientific protocol that critics of a hypothesis are not required to provide an alternative hypothesis. The onus is on the proponents of a hypothesis to respond to the problems that critics have identified with it. Nevertheless, critics of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis have supplied explanations for the condition known as AIDS.

Recreational drugs

Intravenous drug users and homosexual men account for 94 % of all AIDS cases in the US.

Intravenous drug users inject themselves with recreational drugs such as heroin and cocaine. The damaging effects on the human body from the use of these drugs have been known for many decades. Effects such as Wasting Syndrome occur in drug users whether or not they are infected with HIV. Recreational drugs are known to suppress the immune system by depleting CD4 T-cells. There is a strong correlation between the incidence of AIDS and drug use.

Some homosexual men are intravenous drug users and will get the same damaging effects as other drug users. Other drugs, more specifically used by homosexual men, are nitrite inhalants ("poppers") which are used as an aphrodisiac. These drugs also have known damaging effects on the body, such as Kaposi's Sarcoma. Amyl and butyl nitrite (the active ingredients of the inhalants) are known to suppress the immune system.

About 3 % of AIDS cases in the US are from two other risk groups, blood transfusion patients and hemophiliacs, which are not associated with the use of recreational drugs. Blood transfusions are given to patients with life-threatening conditions and approximately 50 % of patients die within the first year after the transfusion. Blood transfusion is known to suppress the immune system, whether or not the patients are infected with HIV. Hemophiliacs are given of injections of Factor VIII, a blood-clotting agent. Factor VIII is produced from the blood donations of thousands of people. Factor VIII contains foreign proteins that are known to cause suppression of the immune system, and can contain viruses such as HIV. Many hemophiliacs became infected with HIV before the routine testing of blood donations began. Almost 75 % of hemophiliacs have become infected with HIV since the AIDS epidemic began. Despite this, the life span of hemophiliacs has increased by 15 years over the same period. Hemophiliacs infected with HIV had a low death rate until HIV testing began in 1985, which led to them taking anti-viral drugs.

Clinical drugs

The use of anti-viral drugs to treat people infected with HIV began in 1987 after AZT was approved for use. AZT was originally designed for the treatment of leukemia. AZT was not approved for this purpose after animal trials revealed very severe damage to non-cancerous cells. AZT is a DNA chain terminator class of drug which is designed to prevent DNA synthesis and thus kill reproducing cells. It randomly attacks cells throughout the body, including those in the bone marrow, which is where white blood cells are produced. Thus, suppression of the immune system is an inevitable consequence of taking AZT. The case for the use of AZT for AIDS patients was supported by an observation that the T-cell count in patients increased after receiving AZT. However, an initial increase in the T-cell count is observed when any toxin is introduced into the body. After AZT, other DNA chain terminator drugs were produced, such as ddI, ddC, D4T and 3TC.

Another class of drugs later used to treated people infected with HIV was the protease inhibitor. Examples of this class are Saquinavir, Ritonavir and Indinavir. Protease inhibitors are designed to prevent a virus detaching itself from a cell, thus preventing it from reproducing. Protease inhibitors are extremely effective at preventing the production of infectious virus in the laboratory. However, there is no evidence that AIDS patients have benefited from protease inhibitors, which further supports the view that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. In high doses these drugs have damaging effects on body tissue, affecting liver function and digestion, and causing blood clotting and kidney stones. Protease inhibitors will thus contribute to the mortality of AIDS patients.

Malnutrition and poor sanitation

Of the people infected with HIV in Africa, only 3% have AIDS. There are no special risk groups for infection and men and women are affected equally. About 90 % of the diseases are caused by microbes. The diseases that are caught, such as dysentery, have known causes such as malnutrition and poor sanitation, and were present in Africa long before the AIDS epidemic began.