{"article":{"id":19152,"heading":"Africa AIDS Crisis Worsening","author":"U.S. Dept of State","created":"2002-09-17 21:06:06","modified":"2013-11-10 23:45:33","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:45:33","article":"

12 September 2002

Zambian Society Devastated by HIV\/AIDS

By Lindsey Brooks

Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The HIV\/AIDS pandemic is playing a key role in the worsening

health crisis in Zambia and southern Africa, according to James Morris,

the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in

six southern African countries.

\"HIV\/AIDS is devastating Zambian society,\" said Morris on September 9

while visiting the country, where an estimated 20 percent of the adult

population is infected with HIV. \"Tens of thousands of people have

already died and many, many more are infected. One of the tragic

consequences is a very rapid rise in the number of orphans, as well as

households headed by children and elderly grandparents.\"

Morris, according to a U.N. press release made available in Washington, is

traveling on a two-week U.N. mission to six affected countries in southern

Africa: Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

\"In a home I visited today, I met 19 people, of all ages, living in two

small rooms. The grandmother had the entire burden of support on her

shoulders, and was doing everything possible to get the family through

each and every day,\" Morris said after a field visit on the outskirts of

Lusaka, on the last day of his three-day mission to Zambia.

In July, the release notes, the U.N. country team began an appeal for $71

million to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Zambia. However, the release

warned, only $23 million has been received for the 2.3 million people at

risk. The total U.N. appeal for the six affected countries is $611

million, of which $138 million has been pledged so far.

Crucial activities by the United Nations and its donor and nongovernmental

organization partners, in support of the government, include providing

adequate food relief as well as access to water and sanitation, heath,

nutrition, and agricultural and education support services.

Over the past year, the situation in Zambia -- one of the world's poorest

countries -- has become \"critical,\" according to the release. A complex

mix of climatic, economic, and social issues has left millions of people

without adequate food and water.

The press release says that over the past 15 years, millions of people in

Zambia have been affected by HIV\/AIDS. \"While it is obvious that erratic

weather has contributed to the current food crisis in Zambia, it is also

clear that one of the key underlying factors is the depletion of human

resources as a result of HIV\/AIDS,\" it says. The disease has eroded

agricultural productivity by eliminating the able-bodied men and women who

produce the nation's food.

People in both rural and urban areas are feeling the hardships of the

crisis. Many of the poorest people in urban areas cannot afford to buy

maize at current market prices and without food, they lack the strength to

fight HIV\/AIDS or other diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and

measles.

Morris also met with Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa during the

Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International

Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)



Unless we act, the global AIDS pandemic will claim the lives of 68 million people by 2020, devastating societies all over the globe, particularly in Africa. This holocaust must be stopped. The Global AIDS Alliance is committed to an aggressive campaign that says it’s time to: Donate the Dollars, Treat the People and Drop the Debt! Join Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy to HIV\/AIDS in Africa and honored guests at a fundraiser for the Global AIDS Alliance on Saturday, October 12, at The Century Plaza Hotel & Spa, 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067. Program and reception to begin at 7:30 pm. No tickets required. Please RSVP to LAOCJubilee@yahoo.com<\/a>



<\/p>\n","contact":"LAOCJubilee@yahoo.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"The HIV\/AIDS pandemic is playing a key role in the worsening health crisis in Zambia and southern Africa, according to James Morris,\r\nthe U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in six southern African countries.\r\n","numcomment":14,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/09\/19152.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":108247,"heading":"Old diseases, new name","article":"Every epidemic disease is now renamed 'AIDS' under the Bangui Definition.\r\n\r\nMortalities (non natural) in S.A. remain at the same 2.2% P.A. that they were BEFORE AIDS. Either every other disease in the region vanished overnight or 'AIDS' is simply the old diseases with a new name. You decide.\r\n\r\n-------------\r\n\r\nIn Africa, the continent supposedly being decimated by\r\nHIV, HIV tests are rarely ever done, so there the idea\r\nthat all patients with AIDS are infected with HIV is\r\nbased entirely on supposition.\r\n\r\nAt a WHO conference in the Central African Republic in 1985, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced the "Bangui Definition" of AIDS in Africa.\r\n\r\nThe CDC officials later explained, "The definition was reached by consensus, based mostly on the delegates' experience in treating AIDS patients. It has proven a useful tool in determining the\r\nextent of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, especially in areas where no testing is available.\r\n\r\nIt's major components were prolonged fevers (for a month or more), weight loss of 10% or greater, and prolonged diarrhea..."(McCormick, 1996). Where AIDS is diagnosed clinically, large numbers of AIDS patients test negative for HIV. As no HIV testing is required in Africa we have no idea how many AIDS cases there are HIV positive (De ####, 1991; Gilks, 1991; Widy-Wirski, 1988).\r\n\r\n_______\r\n\r\nOther conditions common in underprivileged and\r\nimpoverished communities that are known to cause false\r\npositive results are tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and leprosy (Burke, 1993; Challakeree, 1993; Johnson, 1998; Kashala, 1994; MacKenzie,1992; Meyer, 1987). In fact, these are the primary health threats in Africa; several million cases of tuberculosis and malaria are reported in Africa each year - more than all the AIDS cases reported in Africa since 1982 (WHO, 1998)*. \r\n\r\n\r\n________\r\n\r\n\r\nSTRAIGHT AIDS MYTH SHATTERED\r\n\r\nNew York Post\r\nMarch 19, 2004 -- \r\n\r\nTHE public health experts - and their amen corner in the media - owe Helen Gurley Brown an apology.\r\n\r\nThe legendary Cosmopolitan editor was vilified in 1993 when she published a piece called "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS." But she was right.\r\n\r\nEleven years later, Details is asking: "Whatever Happened to AIDS and Straight Men?" The article states, "A disease-free man who has unprotected sex with a drug-free woman stands a one in 5 million chance of contracting HIV."\r\nThe story by Kevin Gray also cites a joke that made the rounds of the New York City Department of Health as statistics came in showing that the predicted spread of AIDS to heterosexuals wasn't happening:\r\n"What do you call a man who got HIV from his girlfriend? . . . A liar."\r\n"I feel somewhat vindicated," Brown told PAGE SIX.\r\n\r\nMichael Fumento, who wrote the original 1990 book titled "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS," said, "I'm not waiting for an apology. It's not going to happen."\r\nWhen Basic Books published Fumento's tome, "Distributors refused to handle it," he says. "Stores refused to carry it. And at many stores that did have it, clerks left it in the basement."\r\nCelia Farber, who wrote an AIDS column in Spin magazine, was routinely attacked because she refused to rehash the propaganda put out by AmFAR and other groups.\r\n"Everybody who was wrong got journalism awards. Everybody who was right got all but driven from the profession," Farber said.\r\n\r\nFarber exposed the conspiracy between profit-hungry drug companies, researchers who wanted more funding, homosexuals who didn't want the disease to be known as "the gay plague," and conservatives who wanted to turn back the sexual revolution.\r\n"They believed in what they were doing, not what they were saying," Fumento said. "They knew it was lies. They felt the end justified the means."\r\nAt a recent editorial meeting at Seed, the new science magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Laurie Garrett supposedly threatened to quit when a colleague suggested a story about Peter Duesberg, a leading retrovirologist.\r\n\r\nDuesberg lost his funding, his laboratory, and his students when he announced in 1987 that HIV doesn't cause AIDS. "He lost everything," said one insider. Duesberg switched to cancer research, and is now touted to win a Nobel Prize.\r\n\r\n\r\n_________\r\n\r\n\r\nExcerpted from United News of India:\r\n\r\nCIA Report on HIV\/AIDS Baseless\r\nby Annapurna Jha\r\nNovember 10, 2002\r\n\r\n\r\n''Mr Gates interest in HIV\/AIDS projects in India is not meant for charity,\r\nas it appears. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributing funds to\r\nfight AIDS is to protect his billions of dollars of investments in\r\npharmaceutical companies interested in conducting field trials in India,''\r\nMr Mulloli said.\r\n\r\nHealth Minister Shatrughan Sinha has already rejected the CIA report, and\r\nthe National Intelligence Council clearly stated the CIA estimates to be\r\n'highly exaggerated' and not based on surveillance data collected in India.\r\n\r\nMr Gates has reportedly funded the controversial report and also made huge\r\ninvestments in companies involved in AIDS drug research.\r\n\r\nCharging that the CIA's direct and unwarranted involvement in Indian public\r\nhealth issues amounted to direct intervention in its domestic affairs and a\r\nchallenge to its soverignity, Mr Mulloli questioned the basis on which the\r\nCIA said that 310,000 people had died in India due to AIDS in 1999 alone.\r\n\r\nThe Indian Parliament talked of a mere 114 AIDS related deaths in 1999.\r\n\r\n--------------------------------------------\r\n\r\nExcerpted from Pioneer News Service, New Delhi:\r\n\r\nSinha Rejects US Report on AIDS\r\nNovember 10, 2002\r\n\r\nIndia has rejected an US intelligence agency report which projects that the\r\ncountry will have over 25 million people suffering with AIDS by 2010 even as\r\nan NGO charged that the report was aimed at exploiting Indian market for\r\nAIDS drugs and vaccines.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n----------------------------------------\r\n\r\nExcerpted from the Daily Pioneer:\r\n\r\nMysterious Malaise\r\nby Purushottaman Mulloli of JackIndia\r\nNovember 17, 2002\r\n\r\n\r\nThe CIA says India will have 25 million infected people by 2010, the maximum\r\nin any country. But India has recorded only 287 AIDS deaths in 1997, 217 in\r\n1998, and 114 in 1999. In whose interest is it to push up these figures? ","author":"Paul King","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-04-20 19:41:17","modified":"2004-04-20 19:41:17","fileurl":""},{"id":112718,"heading":"NEW AIDS SITE TELLS THE TRUTH UNLIKE PAUL KING","article":"YOU ARE A BUNCH OF FREAKS AT THAT SITE PAUL KING!\r\n\r\nPlease visit pozfriends.net (forums, chat, dating, guestbook, member photos, anti dissident action group, etc) to learn the truths (AIDS EXISTS).","author":"TBBY","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-06-16 16:42:01","modified":"2004-06-16 16:42:01","fileurl":""},{"id":115652,"heading":"AIDS DISSIDENT LIES EXPOSED! HIV KILLERS!","article":"AIDS Apologists VS AIDS Dissidents - The Truth About AIDS Denialists<\/title>\r\n<p align="center">\r\n<b>AIDS Apologists VS AIDS Dissidents - Truths About AIDS Denialists<\/b><br><\/p>\r\n<center><a target="_blank" href="http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/aids-dissidents.htm"><img border="0" src="http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/antidissident.gif" width="88" target="_blank" height="31"><\/a><font size=1><br>\u00a9<a title="AIDS DissiDUNCE Blog, a place to post details about the AIDS denialists to help us expose them" target="_blank" href="http:\/\/www.aids-dissidents.tk">AIDS-Dissidents.tk<\/a><\/font><\/center><br>\r\n<font size=1><i>**Dear webmaster, we see your group\/forum is being attacked by AIDS dissidents (we have had the same problem from sites like dissidentaction and virusmyth or from paulking, so we are warning you). Please make sure you block domain names listed on <a href="http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/aids-dissidents.htm"> http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/aids-dissidents.htm <\/a>. You must do what you can to stop these web terroists\/trolls before they take over your web site and any rational conversations! It may be a good idea to remove this entire thread...<br><br><\/font><\/i>\r\n<a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=Apologists+site:aegis.com">AIDS apologists<\/a> are those who know HIV leads to AIDS (proven by science, so much scientific proof) and we are defending the scientifically known fact that viral pathogenesis and progression of 'HIV to AIDS' causes the eventual need for combination therapies to prolong life. Mixed "AIDS Apologist" links <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=AIDS+Apologists">here<\/a> or find <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?killers=groups.google.com\/groups?q=AIDS+Apologists">comments<\/a> here from both sides (dissidents and the scientific community), but still about AIDS Apologist activities...<br><br><a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=aids+dissident+site:thebody.com">AIDS dissidents<\/a><\/b> (better known as <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=AIDS+Denialists">AIDS Denialists<\/a> who are <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=aids+dissident+site:aegis.com">AIDS dissidence<\/a>, dissidence is anti-establishment like, against science and progression, argumentative) deny HIV causes AIDS and claim the medications kill the patients (AZT "over use" alone started this myth in the late 80s, but medicine combo\/therapies are working today in the year 2000+). Basically a group of non doctors and non scientists who challenge the conventional HIV\/AIDS model or hypothesis and do not accept the proven evidence. These dissident groups seem almost fanatical by them posting the same <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?killers=groups.msn.com\/Dissident-Action\/spreadtheword.msnw">message<\/a> multiple times to a targeted list of internet websites (non dissident sites of course, clogging up the normal flow of reading material with intentions of shutting the <a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?killers=groups.msn.com\/Dissident-Action\/actionboard.msnw">sites down<\/a>) and insulting\/bashing anyone who may not agree.<\/i><p>What are AIDS dissidents? Find out who, what, where, when and why:<br><a href=http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=dissident+site:aegis.com> http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=dissident+site:aegis.com <\/a><\/p><p>What are AIDS denialists all about? See the myths exposed:<br><a href=http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=dissident+site:thebody.com> http:\/\/www.hivforum.com\/?dissident=dissident+site:thebody.com <\/a><br><br>Learn about how they are murdering HIV positive people:<br><a href=http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/aids-dissidents.htm> http:\/\/www.medchecker.com\/dissident\/aids-dissidents.htm <\/a><br><br>Thanks.<br><a href="http:\/\/www.hivsearch.com">h<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hivdate.com">t<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.poz.ca">t<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hivdate.com">p<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.13km.com">:<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hiv-aids-meds.com">\/<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hiv-aids-poz.com">\/<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hivaidssearch.com">w<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hiv-aids-chat.com">w<\/a><a href="http:\/\/hiv.aids.forum.poz.ca">w<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.pozitiveliving.com">.<\/a><a href="http:\/\/www.hivforum.com">HIVforum.com<\/a><\/p><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><BR><br><BR><br><BR>\r\n<br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><br>\r\n<br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><BR><br><br><br><font size=4><A HREF="http:\/\/aids-dissidents.blogspot.com"><i>AIDS <\/a><A HREF="http:\/\/www.aids-dissidents.tk">DissiDUNCE Exposed Blogs<\/i><\/A>\r\n<\/FONT>","author":"GOD (gaining on dissidents)","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/html","created":"2004-08-15 05:26:59","modified":"2013-11-11 00:30:37","fileurl":""},{"id":117755,"heading":"AID$ is a money making myth","article":"<img src="http:\/\/www.aimultimedia.com\/forums\/dagforum.jpg" border="0" usemap="#map"> \r\n<map name="map">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="191,610,459,640" href="http:\/\/www.aimultimedia.com\/daglinks\/links.html">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="530,474,647,568" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/AliveandWellsupportersgroup">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="399,475,514,569" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/THEINTERNATIONALDISSIDENT">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="266,473,384,570" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/RocktheBoat">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="134,473,255,570" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/Dissidents-WhosWho">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="9,474,126,571" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/AIDSHIV">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="527,352,650,452" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/DissidentScientists">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="396,352,516,457" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/LIDS-Latexallergiesandthedangersofcondoms">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="264,353,266,354">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="266,353,382,453" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/RobertGalloExposed">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="132,352,253,450" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/GlaxoWellcomeKleineexposed">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="3,352,123,449" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/EVERYTHINGABOUTT4CELLS">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="526,228,651,330" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/VirusmythSupportersForum">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="397,229,514,327" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/HIVPozitiveWomen">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="262,228,387,328" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/TheLatinoForum">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="133,230,257,328" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/AfricanAmericanAIDS">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="3,230,124,330" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/HAARTisHeartless">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="525,108,647,205" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/GlaxoWellcomeKleineexposed\/evilhome.msnw">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="394,105,513,208" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/TESTING-TESTING-TESTING">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="264,108,386,207" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/AIDSSTATISTICS">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="135,107,256,206" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/Condomfactsandfiction">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="8,108,127,207" href="http:\/\/groups.msn.com\/WorkingGirls-Therisk">\r\n <area shape="rect" coords="155,15,495,81" href="http:\/\/www.dissidentaction.com">\r\n<\/map>","author":"TRUTH","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/html","created":"2004-10-16 18:31:25","modified":"2004-10-16 18:31:25","fileurl":""},{"id":19158,"heading":"Zambia - a study in socialism","article":"According to the Fraser Institute's 2001 Economic Freedom of the World report (co-published by Cato), privatization has barely made a dent in state domination of the Zambian economy: State-owned enterprises remain prevalent and government investment tops 50 percent of total investment. Price controls are still widespread in manufacturing and agriculture. And inflation as of 1999 was 25 percent a year. \r\n\r\nMeanwhile, according to the latest survey by the anti-corruption watchdog group Transparency International, Zambia ranks 75th out of 91 countries for its appalling levels of corruption. \r\n\r\nThe country is saddled with the legacy of decades of egregious misrule. Kaunda was a disaster for his country. He ran a brutal one-party state and looted his country, skimming off billions to put in personal offshore bank accounts. The country's immense mineral wealth was squandered by the gross mismanagement of state-owned enterprises. A reckless runup of debt left Zambia in hock up to its eyeballs. And, worst of all, since 85 percent of the country is employed in agriculture, price controls caused a steady decline in food production since independence. \r\n\r\nAfter the copper boom ended, Zambia went into freefall: Per capita incomes declined nearly 5 percent annually between 1974 and 1990.\r\n\r\nThe current government is perhaps not as corrupt, but it will take time and FREE MARKET REFORMS for Zambia to ever grow to the point where it will be able to deal with its AIDS crisis.","author":"fred freedom","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2002-09-18 04:22:50","modified":"2002-09-18 04:22:50","fileurl":""},{"id":91797,"heading":"M'lud","article":""HIV\/AIDS is devastating Zambian society," said Morris on September 9 \r\nwhile visiting the country, where an estimated 20 percent of the adult \r\npopulation is infected with HIV. "Tens of thousands of people have \r\nalready died and many, many more are infected. One of the tragic \r\nconsequences is a very rapid rise in the number of orphans, as well as \r\nhouseholds headed by children and elderly grandparents." \r\n\r\n\r\nAs a person of partial Zambian descent, I would like to add a remark about the alleged "devastation" of Zambia, of for that matter South Africa, and Southern Africa in general. \r\n \r\nThe truth is, that the data that "estimate" that "20%" of Zambians are infected with HIV, is no better than the data that made the same estimation for South Africa. An estimate that has now been downwardly revised to "11.4%" after the HSRC executed a study that was superior to the previous WHO data. \r\n \r\nThe problem is, that because of cost restraints, surveys are based on a single ELISA test using the leftover blood of pregnant women at antenatal clinics (taken so they can be routinely scanned for syphilis). ELISA however, is extremely sensitive, which is why in the USA, it is not allowed or used to declare someone HIV positive on the basis of a single ELISA. ELISAs have 70 known factors that make them "spike" (turn positive), like the flu, certain African strains of malaria, antibodies to tuberculosis, exposure to DDT, "sticky blood", and most relevantly, multiple pregnancies. This alone should disqualify using the blood of women at antenatal clinics, but it doesn't, because these tests are cheap, and the blood is available. However, this is the origin of the "20%" number. \r\n \r\nHowever, this does explain why the South African HSRC, when it performed ELISAs on a large, statistically representative sample of the population, managed to revise downward national prevalence of HIV infection from 19%, to 11.4%.\r\n \r\nThe waiting is for a study that not only performs these ELISAs on a statistically representative sample of the population, but follows up the positive ELISA with confirmatory tests, like Western Blot, as is the norm for HIV diagnosis in the USA. \r\n\r\nWhat is very important to remember, is that *all* the positive tests this data is based on, *remain unconfirmed*.\r\n\r\nPerhaps the ultimate atrocity, is that there very well may be a higher number of people with ordinary illnesses, because of the atrocious demands placed on weak countries like Zambia by the World Bank and IMF. Zambian president Levi Mwanawasa has recently publicly complained, that the restraints put on his government has left him unable to improve services like healthcare, education and poverty relief.\r\n \r\nWouldn't it be ironic if the suffering of the poor people in Zambia, caused by the macro-economic targets set for their government by the World Bank and IMF (which already destroyed so many third world economies, including the economy of the Jamaican countryside) would be conveniently blamed on their alleged sexual promiscuity?\r\n \r\nKP\r\n\r\nOnline References: \r\n\r\nThe HSRC study that put HIV prevalence at 11.4 %, instead of 19%\r\nhttp:\/\/www.hsrc.ac.za\/about\/HSRCReview\/Vol1No1\/index.html?hiv_study.html~content\r\n\r\nA layman's description of the HSRC's study, from The Independent (South Africa) by Anso Thom\r\nhttp:\/\/www.independent.co.za\/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20021206063345189C308684\r\n\r\nThe mortality figure of all registered deaths in South Africa (362,400 for the 12 months leading up to 2000), which puts a huge question mark on the alleged 365,000 people who would be dying annually of AIDS in South Africa according to the WHO.\r\nhttp:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/Archives\/Releases\/Vital%20statistics\/03091%2097-2000.pdf\r\n \r\nEven though South Africa is frequently mentioned as the hardest hit country *in the world*, it is relevant to note that during the highpoint this "devastating" epidemic, the population of South Africa grew 10.3%, namely from 40.6 million people in 1996, to 44.8 million people in 2001. (The population of South Africa was about 27 million in 1980.)\r\nhttp:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/SpecialProjects\/Census2001\/Census2001.htm","author":"KP","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-30 22:04:24","modified":"2003-10-30 22:04:24","fileurl":""},{"id":91921,"heading":"Question Aids","article":"1. Predictions of the spread of AIDS based on the HIV hypothesis are continually being readjusted.9 AIDS has not significantly spread beyond the original risk groups and there are many fewer cases of full-blown AIDS than anticipated. For this reason the 'latency period' has continuously been extended. It is now up to 10-15 years and still growing. This 'latency period' is a statistical product designed to reconcile the low incidence of AIDS with the relatively high level of HIV infection.6\r\n\r\n2. The number of HIV carriers has remained constant at about 1 million since 1985 when the antibody test was initiated.5\r\n\r\n3. There is not enough HIV in the bodies of PWAs to account for the billions of T-cells killed.7\r\n\r\n4. HIV can hardly ever be isolated from patients with AIDS, suggesting that the body's natural vaccination process has occurred.7\r\n\r\n5. Karposi's sarcoma has been found in many young male homosexuals who have never been infected by HIV. Even adherents of the HIV hypothesis now concede that KS is not caused by HIV. Nonetheless, this disease is diagnosed as 'AIDS' but only when the sufferer has antibodies to HIV.8\r\n\r\n6. Other AIDS indicator diseases with T-cell depletion are found in individuals who do not have antibodies to HIV. In fact, all AIDS diseases have occurred in all risk groups in the absence of HIV or its antibodies since the beginning of the epidemic. HIV infection is thus not a necessary prerequisite for the diagnosis of AIDS - were it not for biased definition.7,8\r\n\r\n7. Tests show that the number of HIV-infected T-cells remains the same no matter if you are asymptomatic or have full-blown AIDS. Any other viral infection would show a dramatic increase throughout the course of the disease.7\r\n\r\n8. Although sexually transmitted diseases infect males and females equally, more than 90% of American AIDS sufferers are male. This is true even of health care workers who develop AIDS, although two-thirds of all US health care workers are female.6\r\n\r\n9. The risk of getting AIDS for HIV-infected people varies tenfold with gender or country. In America, the annual AIDS risk of an HIV-infected person is currently 4%; in Africa it is 0.3%.6,7\r\n\r\n10. HIV is spread primarily through homosexuals in the US and primarily through heterosexuals in Africa.7 This would suggest that AIDS is possibly a non-infectious disease.\r\n\r\n11. So-called 'African AIDS' affects males and females equally, and also involves a different pattern of associated opportunistic infections. These differing patterns do not rescue the HIV hypothesis for American AIDS, but indicate that a single virus may not be responsible for the multitude of conditions diagnosed as AIDS in Africa and America.7\r\n\r\n12. About three-fourths of the 20,000 US haemophiliacs were infected with HIV almost 10 years ago. According to the HIV hypothesis, at least half of those infected should have died by now\u2014but the mortality rate among haemophiliacs has remained constant at 2% over the last 15 years.10\r\n\r\n13. HIV is said to be a sexually transmitted virus, yet it is barely detectable in the semen of AIDS ...[Message truncated\r\n","author":"Russell Purcell","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 15:01:50","modified":"2013-11-11 00:27:15","fileurl":""},{"id":91938,"heading":"What Epidemic?","article":"HIV DOES NOT CAUSE AIDS\r\n\r\nJUST A FEW FACTS:\r\n\r\n1. So-called \u201cHIV\u201d has NEVER been isolated according to the rules for viral isolation laid out by the Institut Pasteur in 1973. All claims of \u201cisolation\u201d are shoddy attempts to interpret cellular debris as a \u201cvirus\u201d. Electron micrographs of so-called \u201cHIV\u201d show cellular debris common in everyone\u2019s blood.\r\n\r\n2. The so-called \u201cHIV test\u201d does not detect the presence of so-called \u201cHIV\u201d. Even the test kits themselves have a disclaimer on them that states they are not to be used to detect the presence of absence of \u201cHIV\u201d or diagnose a person as having \u201cAIDS\u201d! These \u201ctests\u201d have never been standardized against the gold-standard of viral isolation. This is why the FDA has not approved ANY so-called \u201cHIV test\u201d! Furthermore, test results on the same blood sample can be and often are considered \u201cpositive\u201d in one country, city, or laboratory, while being considered \u201cnegative\u201d in another! Not even the criteria for what constitutes a so-called \u201cpositive\u201d test are standardized! You can be considered \u201cpositive\u201d in Africa and \u201cnegative\u201d in the U.S.! In addition, the Elisa \u201ctest\u201d is such a bogus scam that unless you dilute the blood sample 400 times, EVERYONE tests \u201cpositive\u201d on it! Go see for yourself! \r\n\r\n3. So-called \u201cHIV tests\u201d are known by their manufacturers to \u201ccross-react\u201d with other antibodies. You can get a \u201cfalse-positive\u201d on an \u201cHIV test\u201d from one of 60 different medical conditions. All of the \u201ctests\u201d for \u201cHIV\u201d are worthless, whether you use the ELISA, the Western Blot, or the PCR. In fact, since \u201cHIV\u201d has never been isolated, you could consider ALL \u201cpositives\u201d to be false positives\u2014i.e., cross-reactions. No wonder a certain percentage of DOGS test \u201cpositive\u201d on the so-called \u201cHIV test\u201d! Furthermore, since these bogus \u201ctests\u201d don\u2019t test for the actual virus, but rather for proteins that supposedly belong to antibodies to it, we could assume that for the first time in the history of science, an antibody reaction signified a failure to fight a microbe, rather than a successful resistance against it! You may have forgotten this, but antibodies are the sign that the body has successfully beaten an invading particle! And what would an \u201cHIV\u201d vaccine do? It would artificially induce antibodies that would be considered \u201cgood\u201d, while a person\u2019s natural antibodies would be considered \u201cbad\u201d? That\u2019s absurd! Talk about turning science on its head! One could then assume that a previously \u201cnegative\u201d person would be \u201cpositive\u201d after taking the vaccine, because now they\u2019d have antibodies to the supposed virus! No wonder the last vaccine test failed\u2014\u201cAIDS\u201d is not caused by a virus! Think it through!\r\n\r\n4. AZT, a popular \u201canti-HIV\u201d drug, was originally a chemotherapy drug that was shelved because it was deemed unsafe at ANY dose. AZT is a \u201cDNA chain terminator\u201d that indiscriminately kills cells. Drugs such as AZT are one of the causes of what mainstream scientists and the CDC have chosen to call \u201cAIDS\u201d. In other words, tens of thousands of people are being poisoned to death by illegal and prescription drugs.\r\n\r\n5. \u201cAIDS\u201d does not behave like any infectious disease known in history. In the U.S. and Europe, it DOES behave like a toxic disease. That is because in the U.S. and Europe, \u201cAIDS\u201d results from toxic causes, such as chronic drug abuse and toxic, experimental \u201canti-viral therapies\u201d given to \u201cAIDS\u201d patients. In Africa, \u201cAIDS\u201d is the ultimate disease of definition, being caused by old, endemic diseases and relabeled as \u201cAIDS\u201d. Hardly anyone in Africa is ever \u201ctested\u201d for \u201cHIV\u201d, anyway. (Not that an \u201cHIV test\u201d tests for \u201cHIV\u201d, however!) They present with the symptoms of endemic diseases and doctors count them as \u201cAIDS\u201d statistics. This is called a \u201cpresumptive diagnosis\u201d. Supposed death rates from \u201cAIDS\u201d in Africa are estimates by the WHO and other organizations. Strange that the population of Africa is still booming if they\u2019re in the midst of a so-called \u201cpandemic\u201d! Furthermore, since \u201cHIV\u201d has never been isolated, you absolutely cannot prove that ANYONE in the world has EVER died of \u201cAIDS\u201d as defined by the CDC.\r\n\r\n6. Eminent scientists from around the world, including Nobel Prize winners, have always argued that \u201cHIV\u201d not only doesn\u2019t cause \u201cAIDS\u201d, but that biologically speaking, it CAN\u2019T. Retroviruses do NOT cause disease, and in fact make up approximately 2% of the human genome, passed from mother to infant! But you never heard these facts, did you? Hundreds of highly respected scientists have been suppressed, censored, and marginalized since 1981, before \u201cHIV\u201d was even declared the supposed cause of \u201cAIDS\u201d. In fact, before the bogus idea of \u201cHIV\u201d was announced in 1984, the dominant hypothesis was that \u201cAIDS\u201d in the U.S. and Europe was caused by chronic drug abuse\u2014a hypothesis that has VASTLY greater evidence for it than the failed infectious \u201cHIV\u201d theory. No wonder after 20 YEARS of \u201cHIV\u201d nonsense, you have NO cure, NO vaccine, and NO workable therapy. The predictions of the \u201cHIV\u201d theory have failed miserably. It\u2019s time to rethink the cause of \u201cAIDS\u201d!\r\n\r\n7. Robert Gallo, the scientist who announced at a press conference that he found the \u201cprobable\u201d cause of \u201cAIDS\u201d (supposedly \u201cHIV\u201d), did not undergo a peer review process first, but chose to engage in \u201cscience by press conference.\u201d He also stole his sample from the real \u201cdiscoverer\u201d of \u201cHIV\u201d, Luc Montagnier of the Institut Pasteur, in Paris, and was later convicted of scientific misconduct! Perhaps Gallo wanted to be famous and to reclaim his dignity after his horrible error with HL23V. In 1981, Gallo announced to the scientific world that he had discovered a virus (HL23V) that caused leukemia. After five years of fanfare, it turned out that the antibody tests for this \u201cvirus\u201d were actually cross-reacting to contamination in the sample! I.e., there was no virus! This event deeply embarrassed Gallo in front of his peers. A similar thing has happened with \u201cHIV\u201d. Look it up!\r\n\r\n8. Luc Montagnier, the actual \u201cdiscoverer\u201d of so-called \u201cHIV\u201d has even admitted, on video, that he did not and could not purify and isolate the supposed virus! Look it up!\r\n\r\n9. There is no paper in existence that proves how or that \u201cHIV\u201d causes \u201cAIDS\u201d. There are many that claim or assume that \u201cHIV\u201d causes \u201cAIDS\u201d, but none that actually prove it scientifically. Try to find one!\r\n\r\n10. Sexually-transmitted diseases are always distributed equally between men and women. In the U.S., the so-called \u201cAIDS\u201d distribution is 90% male, 10% female. This reflects with stunning similarity the distribution of drug abusers in the U.S. In Africa, it\u2019s roughly 50\/50\u2014just like all of the old, endemic, African diseases such as tuberculosis! Sorry to disappoint you and burst your bubble, but \u201cAIDS\u201d is NOT sexually-transmitted! In fact, in the longest study of its kind (by Padian, et. al.) it was shown that \u201cHIV\u201d is clearly not transmitted through sexual contact (if \u201cHIV\u201d even exists, that is!) It looks like you\u2019ll have to find another pet cause.\r\n\r\nThis list could go on for a thousand pages. Hundreds of respected scientists and scholars from around the world have compiled powerful evidence that HIV does NOT cause AIDS! It may sound \u201ccrazy\u201d now, but it won\u2019t after you hear what they have to say\u2026 \r\n\r\nFor the REAL story visit virusmyth.net (the website of the Group For The Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV\/AIDS Hypothesis), or one of the following websites:\r\n\r\nquestionaids.com \r\naidsmyth.com\r\naidsrealitycheck.org\r\nhealtoronto.com\r\nactupsf.com \r\nduesberg.com \r\n\r\nRead: Inventing the AIDS Virus by Dr. Peter Duesberg and What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? by Christine Maggiore. In those two books, and on the websites mentioned above, you will find complete documentation for every fact listed above, and much more! \r\n\r\nThese facts are common knowledge to AIDS dissidents\u2014why aren\u2019t they to YOU!?\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"Mr. Smith","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 16:12:40","modified":"2013-11-11 00:27:15","fileurl":""},{"id":91953,"heading":"LOL","article":"I love the attempt to make it seem like there's more than one jackass who actually belives this nonsense, by the use of so many different handles.\r\n\r\nEspecially after recent posts have thoroughly refuted the inanity of this tripe.\r\n\r\nWhat possible motivation could someone have to spread this nonsense other than garden variety mental illness.\r\n\r\nOh well, it is entertaining.","author":"fresca","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 17:48:56","modified":"2003-10-31 17:48:56","fileurl":""},{"id":92055,"heading":"TROLL ALERT","article":"I just hope i didnt contract HIV\/ AIDS during those years when i was a junkie. the years of my IV drug use......its kinda scary...\r\nDont worry folks, even if i did contract this horrible disease\r\nI would never expect your sympathy and compassion.\r\nI even if i was so sick that i couldnt take care of myself and lost everything---give me no compassion or help.\r\nBut then again, if i was in that situtation, i would probally think alot differently.","author":"fresca","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 21:15:38","modified":"2003-10-31 21:15:38","fileurl":""},{"id":92082,"heading":"South Africa HIV rate 'falling'","article":"\r\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/world\/africa\/3210296.stm\r\n\r\nSouth Africa HIV rate 'falling'\r\n\r\nA new analysis of the Aids epidemic in South Africa suggests that fewer people are becoming infected with HIV than in previous years. The research also predicts that the total number of HIV-positive people in South Africa will remain constant for the foreseeable future.\r\n\r\nResearch from ante-natal clinics shows that the proportion of young women carrying the Aids virus has declined over the last five years.\r\n\r\nScientists have now combined that finding with information from a recent nationwide survey, and put the data into a computer programme which aims to model the epidemic.\r\n\r\n_____________\r\n\r\nEvery epidemic disease is now renamed 'AIDS' under the Bangui Definition.\r\n\r\nMortalities (non natural) in S.A. remain at the same 2.2% P.A. that they were BEFORE AIDS. Either every other disease in the region vanished overnight or 'AIDS' is simply the old diseases with a new name. You decide.\r\n\r\n-------------\r\n\r\nIn Africa, the continent supposedly being decimated by\r\nHIV, HIV tests are rarely ever done, so there the idea\r\nthat all patients with AIDS are infected with HIV is\r\nbased entirely on supposition.\r\n\r\nAt a WHO conference in the Central African Republic in 1985, U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) introduced the "Bangui Definition" of AIDS in Africa.\r\n\r\nThe CDC officials later explained, "The definition was reached by consensus, based mostly on the delegates' experience in treating AIDS patients. It has proven a useful tool in determining the\r\nextent of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, especially in areas where no testing is available.\r\n\r\nIt's major components were prolonged fevers (for a month or more), weight loss of 10% or greater, and prolonged diarrhea..."(McCormick, 1996). Where AIDS is diagnosed clinically, large numbers of AIDS patients test negative for HIV. As no HIV testing is required in Africa we have no idea how many AIDS cases there are HIV positive (De ####, 1991; Gilks, 1991; Widy-Wirski, 1988).\r\n\r\n_______\r\n\r\nOther conditions common in underprivileged and\r\nimpoverished communities that are known to cause false\r\npositive results are tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis and leprosy (Burke, 1993; Challakeree, 1993; Johnson, 1998; Kashala, 1994; MacKenzie,1992; Meyer, 1987). In fact, these are the primary health threats in Africa; several million cases of tuberculosis and malaria are reported in Africa each year - more than all the AIDS cases reported in Africa since 1982 (WHO, 1998)*.","author":"David Lane","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 21:55:50","modified":"2003-10-31 21:55:50","fileurl":""},{"id":92100,"heading":"Not an std - Sudy results","article":"\r\n\r\n Sex And HIV: Behaviour-Change Trial Shows No Link \r\n The East African (Nairobi) \r\n March 17, 2003 \r\n Posted to the web March 19, 2003 \r\n By Paul Redfern, Special Correspondent \r\n Nairobi \r\n\r\n A UK funded trial aimed at reducing the spread of Aids in Uganda by \r\n modifying sexual behaviour appears to have had little discernible \r\n effect. \r\n\r\n The trial, carried out on around 15,000 people in the Masaka region, \r\n involved distributing condoms, treating around 12,000 victims of \r\n sexually transmitted diseases and counselling. \r\n\r\n However, while the trial led to a marked change in sexual behavioural \r\n patterns, with the proportion reporting causal sexual partners falling \r\n from around 35 per cent to 15 per cent, there was no noticeable fall \r\n in the number of new cases of HIV infection, although there was a \r\n significant reduction in sexually transmitted diseases such as \r\n syphilis and gonorrhoea. \r\n\r\n The trial results, which were reported in the British medical journal \r\n The Lancet, have already aroused some controversy. \r\n\r\n The team leader of the trial, Dr Anatoli Kamalai, acknowledged that \r\n there was "no measurable reduction" in HIV incidence with "no hint of \r\n even a small effect." \r\n\r\n But the research team's view is that the spread of HIV was already \r\n declining in the area and the trial might not have been big enough to \r\n detect any additional change. \r\n\r\n There is, however, another view which has recently been put forward \r\n which claims that inadequately sterilised needles across Africa have \r\n led to a greater rate of HIV infection than sexual contact. \r\n\r\n It is a view put forward by a mainly American group of scientists, \r\n including Dr David Gisselquist, who told the Times of London that \r\n "Results from the Masaka study add to the already long list of \r\n findings from other studies that don't fit the hypothesis that most \r\n HIV in African adults is from sexual transmission. \r\n\r\n "These results from Masaka are similar to results published earlier \r\n from a similar study in Rakai, Uganda, where interventions that \r\n reduced STD prevalence had no impact on HIV incidence." However, such \r\n a view is by no means mainstream in the latest thinking on the spread \r\n of HIV in Africa. \r\n\r\n Most scientific research still believes that HIV is mainly spread by \r\n sexual transmission and that people suffering from STDs are \r\n particularly prone. \r\n\r\n The trial was the first systematic attempt on a large scale to assess \r\n whether modifying sexual behaviour and better management of other \r\n sexual diseases could cut the transmission of HIV in Africa. \r\n\r\n In a commentary in The Lancet, Judith Stephenson and Frances Cowan of \r\n the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London \r\n acknowledged that "many people will be disappointed by the lack of \r\n reduction in HIV incidence, despite an apparently appropriate \r\n intervention that reduced other STDs and was implemented on a huge \r\n scale with great care and commitment." \r\n\r\n The two researchers suggest that it might have been "the right trial \r\n and the wrong time" - when HIV incidence was falling and when there \r\n were already substantial reductions in risk behaviour. \r\n\r\n Copyright \u00ac\u00a9 2003 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed \r\n by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). \r\n http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/200303190482.html \r\n http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/printable\/200303190482.html ","author":"Aletta","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 22:17:52","modified":"2013-11-11 00:27:19","fileurl":""},{"id":92101,"heading":"ROFL","article":""I just hope i didnt contract HIV\/ AIDS during those years when i was a junkie. the years of my IV drug use......its kinda scary... \r\nDont worry folks, even if i did contract this horrible disease \r\nI would never expect your sympathy and compassion. \r\nI even if i was so sick that i couldnt take care of myself and lost everything---give me no compassion or help. \r\nBut then again, if i was in that situtation, i would probally think alot differently."\r\n\r\nI love it. Here I am defending those suffering from HIV\/AIDS from some half wit jackass who's saying that they aren't even sick, and my doppelganger is trying to insult me.\r\n\r\nI love it.\r\n\r\nTo even see my name is to send this ass into some fit of ninth grade rage.\r\n\r\nLOL!\r\n\r\nWhat an idiot!\r\n\r\nMade an ass of yourself on that one buddy.","author":"fresca","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-10-31 22:19:16","modified":"2003-10-31 22:19:16","fileurl":""},{"id":93482,"heading":"denialism","article":"Does HIV Exist?\r\n\r\nBy Michael Coon\r\n, who is an Immunologist currently working on mechanisms of T\r\neffector cell differentiation with respect to their role in complications\r\narising from bone marrow transplant. In the HIV\/AIDs arena, He worked for\r\nmany years on local AIDS community issues. and has worked professionally in\r\nthe HIV molecular epidemiology lab of Jim Mullins at Stanford U. and the\r\nUniversity of Washington.\r\n\r\nIt may come as a surprise to some people but there is a group of people who\r\nmaintain that HIV, the etiologic cause for AIDS, does not even exist. You\r\nread that right; there is a group that includes Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos,\r\nValendar Turner, John Papadimitriou, David Causer and Stefan Lanka, commonly\r\nreferred to as the "Perth Group" because they are based in Perth, Australia,\r\nwho, incredible as it may seem, claim that there is no proof for the\r\nexistence of HIV. They have a web site called Virusmyth.com,\r\n(http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com ) where their arguments, such as they are, are\r\nlaid out. While their views have long ago been refuted by a mountain of\r\nevidence, they cling to their belief that HIV doesn't exist, and so it\r\ncannot be the cause of the AIDS pandemic that is now ravaging the African\r\nsubcontinent. They have even issued a $25,000 challenge to the research\r\ncommunity to prove the existence of the virus\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/award.htm ).\r\n We see these kinds of devious challenges from time to time; there is for\r\nexample, Kent Hovind's $250,000 reward for "empirical evidence of evolution"\r\n(http:\/\/www.drdino.com\/). Challenges such as this are not intrinsically\r\ndaft, they can be quite effective when the arguments are sound, the\r\nchallenge is simple and the conditions are not otherwise strawmen. A good\r\nexample of this type is James Randi's well constructed challenge for\r\nevidence of the paranormal\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.randi.org\/research\/challenge\/index.html ). On the face\r\nof it, the Virusmyth.com challenge seems scientifically rigorous yet simple;\r\nthe hallmarks of a good challenge. Unfortunately for the folks at Perth, it\r\nmerely seems so.\r\n\r\nOne thing is clear from the response to the researcher who's claimed the\r\nprize; the folks over at Virusmyth.com have no intention of allowing the\r\ncontest to be won. The researcher who has claimed the prize, by the way, is\r\nPeter Duesberg, an iconoclastic Berkeley retrovirologist who claims that\r\nalthough HIV does indeed exist, it is not the cause of AIDS. The Perth Group\r\nhas taken steps to ensure that their challenge will remain unanswered. They\r\ndo this partly by setting unreasonable rules, partly by constructing\r\nstrawmen, and partly by moving the goalposts.\r\n\r\n\r\nUnreasonable Rules\r\nThe challenge itself, is carefully crafted to ensure that no-one is likely\r\nto take them up. This ensures that they can continue to claim that as the\r\nchallenge has not been satisfied, their arguments must be devastating to the\r\nresearch and medical establishment. The reason for this is simply that the\r\nPerth Group insists that the proof for the existence of HIV can arise from\r\ntheir method alone. No other evidence is acceptable. Basically they have\r\nseven steps (below) that they claim are required to prove that HIV is real.\r\nImagine a reward for proof that the earth is round. But then requiring for\r\nproof that claimants to the prize must travel to the moon and take a\r\npicture. No other methods, from any other source at any other time would be\r\nacceptable.\r\nWhile flying to the moon and taking pictures of the earth would indeed prove\r\nthat we live on a round ball of mud, it is expensive, dangerous and wholly\r\nunnecessary for that purpose. We could, for example, ask someone to walk\r\nseveral hundred miles, look down a well and measure the angle of the sun at\r\nnoon and compare it to a well near us. Or we could sit by a bay on a calm\r\nclear day and watch boats sail away. Or we could plot our path through the\r\nheavens. Or we could observe the shadow of the earth ON the moon. Or we\r\ncould circumnavigate the earth in sailing ships and plot our latitude. Or we\r\ncould ascend in a balloon, or in an airplane, or launch a satellite. All of\r\nthese methods have been used, some since ancient times, to demonstrate that\r\nthe earth is round.\r\nWe do not need to isolate HIV by the techniques cited by the Perth Group to\r\nprove its existence. To insist upon their method to establish the reality of\r\nHIV is to unequivocally demonstrate one's credulity before charlatans.\r\n\r\nA Classic Strawman Argument\r\nA strawman argument is an argument that uses a contrived and false premise\r\nthat is used expressly to deconstruct another argument. The people at\r\nVirusmyth.com claim that since HIV researchers have not used guidelines\r\nestablished in 1973 at the Institute Pasteur to purify HIV, then the very\r\nexistence of the virus is questionable. Unfortunately for the Perth Group,\r\nno such guidelines were established at Pasteur or anywhere else.\r\n\r\nDespite what it says at their site, the whole challenge is based upon the\r\nbiggest hairiest strawman I've ever seen. The challenge first appeared in a\r\nmagazine called Continuum. The folks at Virusmyth publish Continuum, and the\r\nchallenge is reprinted at the Virusmyth.com web site\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/award.htm ).\r\n"The rules for isolation of a retrovirus were thoroughly discussed at the\r\nPasteur Institute, Paris, in 1973, and are the logical minimum requirements\r\nfor establishing the independent existence of HIV. They are:\r\nCulture of putatively infected tissue.\r\n\r\nPurification of specimens by density gradient ultracentrifugation.\r\n\r\nElectron micrographs of particles exhibiting the morfological (sic)\r\ncharacteristics and dimensions (100-120nm) of retroviral particles at the\r\nsucrose (or percoll) density of 1.16 gm\/ml and containing nothing else, not\r\neven particles of other morphologies or dimensions.\r\n\r\nProof that the particles contain reverse transcriptase.\r\n\r\nAnalysis of the particles' proteins and RNA and proof that these are unique.\r\n\r\nProof that 1-5 are a property only of putatively infected tissues and can\r\nnot be induced in control cultures. These are identical cultures, that is,\r\ntissues obtained from matched, unhealthy subjects and cultured under\r\nidentical conditions differing only in that they are not putatively infected\r\nwith a retrovirus.\r\n\r\nProof that the particles are infectious, that is when PURE particles are\r\nintroduced into an uninfected culture or animal, the identical particle is\r\nobtained as shown by repeating steps 1-5."\r\nEdward King\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.users.dircon.co.uk\/~eking\/index.htm ) published a\r\nrebuttal to the Virusmyth challenge in AIDS Treatment Update\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/news\/ekisolation.htm ). From that\r\nessay;\r\n\r\n"Contrary to the implication by Continuum, the Pasteur Institute did not\r\ndraw up such guidelines in 1973. When we asked Continuum to provide the\r\nreference for a published account of the Pasteur Institute's guidelines,\r\nthey could only supply two papers which did describe research into\r\nretroviruses, but did not themselves meet the seven steps Continuum was now\r\nrequesting for HIV. Ironically, the authors of the papers cited by Continuum\r\nwere also the first to describe the isolation of HIV in 1983."\r\n\r\nIndeed, those two papers cited by the Perth Group are;\r\n\r\nSinoussi F, Mendiola L, Chermann JC. (1973). Purification and partial\r\ndifferentiation of the particles of murine sarcoma virus (M. MSV) according\r\nto their sedimentation rates in sucrose density gradients. Spectra\r\n4:237-243. Toplin I. (1973). Tumor Virus Purification using Zonal Rotors.\r\nSpectra 4:225-235.\r\n\r\nSpectra is an obscure French-Canadian journal and is blastedly hard to get\r\nhold of. The journal is available in the U.S. only at large university\r\nlibraries with comprehensive journal collections. Still, the papers ARE\r\navailable. They DO NOT use guidelines from the Pasteur Institute. Further,\r\ntake a gander at that first author's name on the first paper cited. She was\r\na member of the group who first isolated HIV in 1983. Her paper is cited\r\nbelow.\r\nVirusmyth responds to the Dr. King's point about the absurdity of basing a\r\nchallenge to purify the virus on non-existent "guidelines" by agreeing that\r\nthe papers they site for evidence for these guidelines do not, in fact,\r\nfollow them\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/data\/epreplyek.htm ). One is left to\r\nwonder, then, why they are surprised that few people take them seriously.\r\nEven if these guidelines had been promulgated as the Perth Group asserts,\r\nthey would today be considered obsolete and unduly restrictive. HIV happens\r\nto be somewhat sensitive to gradient centrifugation and undergoes minor\r\nstructural changes (discussed in detail below) so that electron micrographs\r\n(photographs of the virus under an electron microscope) do not have all the\r\ncharacteristics of the virus viewed without gradient ultracentrifugation.\r\nUsing current methods of molecular biology it has been possible to\r\nsynthesize the entire genetic structure of HIV, introduce it into cells\r\n("transfection") and observed that the transfected cells produce HIV viral\r\nparticles which can, in turn, infect other cells. This is the strongest\r\npossible proof of the existance of HIV and the one that is pointed to by\r\nDuesberg in his claim for the prize.\r\n\r\nAmphiboly\r\nThe dead give away for intellectual dishonesty is the practice of amphiboly;\r\nthe use of equivocal, poorly worded or murkily-stated premises to further an\r\nargument. Back in school when faced with an assignment from a challenging\r\nprofessor that we were unable to meet, we used to refer to this strategy\r\nthis way; "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with\r\n####". The folks at Virusmyth use a form of amphiboly known as moving\r\nthe goalposts, wherein the premise of an argument is changed when the\r\nargument is specifically refuted.\r\nFor example, when Ed King refuted their claim that the Pasteur Institute did\r\nnot establish the so-called guidelines for proving the existence of a\r\nretrovirus and when Virusmyth was forced to admit that the papers they claim\r\nsupported their position did not in fact do so, they suddenly switched\r\ntactics. They claimed that although the Spectra authors did not use the\r\nnon-existent Pasteur guidelines, they did not need to because those authors\r\nwere purifying RNA tumor viruses\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/data\/epreplyek.htm ).\r\n\r\nWhen challenged by Peter Duesberg to explain why 19 full length clones of\r\nHIV does not constitute proof that the viral genome exists, they claim that\r\nit is because the viral genomes are not all of the same size or sequence\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/data\/epreplypd2.htm ). Here they\r\nconveniently ignore the very well known fact that retroviral reverse\r\ntranscriptase (RT) is highly error prone. More convenient for Virusmyth, is\r\nthat by changing the subject they believe they have rebutted Duesberg's\r\nargument.\r\n\r\nThe reader will also note the vague and undefined nature of some of their\r\ndemands in the challenge. For example they require that tissue from\r\n"matched, unhealthy subjects" be used to isolate highly purified virions\r\nwhich are then used to infect reputedly uninfected tissue. As they leave the\r\nterm "unhealthy" undefined, they retain the ability to claim that studies\r\nwhich, in fact demonstrate just this, are not valid because the subjects\r\nwere not either properly matched or unhealthy\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/aids\/data\/epcomreplypd.htm ).\r\n(Note; The text hyperlinked in the previous sentence is touted at the\r\nVirusmyth web site as a rebuttal to Duesberg's claim. I leave it to the\r\nreader to decide if, in fact, Virusmyth addressed Duesberg).\r\n\r\nAddressing The Challenge\r\nOne of the main reasons why few researchers have, or would, take the\r\nchallenge is because there simply is no percentage in it; it is clear that\r\nany claims to the reward will be dodged, the challenge while technically\r\nfeasible is costly, and the language of the challenge is so inexact as to be\r\nnearly meaningless. But the most important reason why few people would claim\r\nthe prize is that all the conditions as outlined in the challenge to prove\r\nthe existence of HIV have already been met.\r\n\r\nThis challenge is in some ways akin to the absurd comment by Kary Mullis who\r\nhas said that HIV cannot be the cause of AIDS because there isn't one paper\r\nthat demonstrates that it does\r\n(http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/200110\r\n27021329\/http:\/\/www.valleyadvocate.com\/hiv-aids\/a960530.html#foreward ). The\r\nabsurdity of this claim has been pointed out to Dr. Mullis over and over\r\nagain to no avail; the man still believes that the lack of proof for the\r\ncause of AIDS by HIV in a single paper is sufficient for him to reject the\r\nHIV\/AIDS causality. The people at Virumyth have taken this kind of\r\nsophomoric thinking to heart. They insist that HIV cannot be proven to even\r\nexist unless the seven steps that they (wrongly) claim are required to prove\r\nthe existence of the virus are done in a single study. Of course all of the\r\nsteps listed by them have been done, several of them concurrently in a\r\nsingle study. But they continue to insist that because no one has done the\r\nexperiments in the way they deem necessary, then the virus has not been\r\nproven to exist.\r\n\r\nBefore getting into a technically dense discussion of the evidence one might\r\nask a simple question; is there anything a layman might accept as proof for\r\nthe existence of the virus? Usually photographs are considered good proof,\r\nwith the obvious fakery caveats. There are literally hundreds of papers in\r\nthe primary literature with excellent images of the virus in various stages\r\nincluding within an infected cell, budding from a cell or free from any\r\ncells. There are even numerous such photos published on the web that you can\r\nlook at right now. Here are a few.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=medstat.med.utah.edu]\/jump\/http:\/\/medstat.med.utah.edu\/WebPath\/TUTORIAL\/AIDS\/AIDS.html#1\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.mcl.tulane.edu\/departments\/pathology\/fermin\/HIVFIGSTable.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.arte-tv.com\/special\/AIDS\/dtext\/sida2.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=wwwpp.uwrf.edu]\/jump\/http:\/\/wwwpp.uwrf.edu\/~kk00\/hivvector\/hivvector.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=www.iapac.org]\/jump\/http:\/\/www.iapac.org\/clinmgt\/avtherapies\/saq6.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=www.unsw.edu.au]\/jump\/http:\/\/www.unsw.edu.au\/clients\/microbiology\/maureen\/fig5.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=wwwpp.uwrf.edu]\/jump\/http:\/\/wwwpp.uwrf.edu\/~kk00\/poster\/HIV\/HIV.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=bioinformatik.biochemtech.uni-halle.de]\/jump\/http:\/\/bioinformatik.biochemtech.uni-halle.de\/uli\/genetherapy\/hiv.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=www.cmsp.com]\/jump\/http:\/\/www.cmsp.com\/data2\/im101.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=www.sci-imagemakers.com]\/jump\/http:\/\/www.sci-imagemakers.com\/markus.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/www.deja.com\/[ST_artlink=life.anu.edu.au]\/jump\/http:\/\/life.anu.edu.au\/viruses\/ICTVdB\/61065001.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20011027021329\/http:\/\/telpath2.med.utah.edu\/WebPath\/HISTHTML\/EM\/EM017.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.avert.org\/virus.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.thebody.com\/niaid\/hiv_lifecycle\/virbud.html\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cmsp.com\/data2\/tng100.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cmsp.com\/data2\/fx100003.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.micro.unsw.edu.au\/maureen\/gen-info.htm\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.tulane.edu\/~dmsander\/Big_Virology\/BVretro.html\r\n\r\n\r\nBelow I present some of the relevant literature that meets the demands of\r\nthe challenge. Note that I give a restricted, limited citation list. In most\r\ncases there are many more papers (and probably some that make the point\r\nbetter than the ones I cite here) that could be cited but are not. I have\r\ncited only those papers that use density ultracentrifugation for virus\r\npurification, as that is one of the requirements set forth by the challenge.\r\nThere are other much more powerful methods, but this is the one that\r\nVirusmyth requires so for sake of brevity, I have stuck with it. For the\r\nreader unfamiliar with scientific papers, it should be noted that in none of\r\nthe citations in this FAQ do the authors address the challenge directly.\r\nThat is, while the authors use the methods that the Perth Group insists upon\r\nthey do not specifically address the challenge. I indicate the conditions\r\nfor the challenge laid forth by the Perth Group with a (PP) before the\r\nnumber.\r\n\r\n(PP)1.Culture of putatively infected tissue.\r\n\r\nThis one is easy. In fact culture of "putatively" infected tissue was first\r\ndone way back in 1983 by Robert Gallo's group at the NIH in the US and Luc\r\nMontaigner's crew at the Institute Pasteur in Paris (this is in fact, how\r\nthe virus was first identified) see; Gallo, RC et al. Science. 1983 May\r\n20;220 (4599):865-7 and Barre-Sinoussi F, et al. Science 1983 May\r\n20;220(4599):868-871.\r\n\r\nLater, following the acrimony about just who isolated the first virus, the\r\nissue was revisited. "Two of the first human immunodeficiency virus type-1\r\n(HIV- 1) strains isolated were authenticated by reanalyzing original\r\ncultured samples stored at the Collection Nationale de Culture des\r\nMicroorganismes as well as uncultured primary material". From; Wain- Hobson\r\nS, et al. Science 1991 May 17;252(5008):961-5.\r\n\r\nHIV can grow in chimpanzees (though it rarely causes disease) and in primary\r\ncell cultures. See; Castro BA, et al. J Med Primatol 198918(3- 4):337-42\r\n\r\nHIV-1 culture isolates were obtained from the lymph nodes and peripheral\r\nblood mononuclear cells from 11 HIV-infected patients. See; AIDS 1994\r\nAug;8(8):1083-8 Tamalet C et al.\r\n\r\nTypically, patient tissue culture isolates are derived from initial primary\r\ncultures and clones of the virus are isolated by subsequent passage through\r\nother cell types. See, for example; Saag MS, et al. Nature 1988 Aug 4;334\r\n(6181):440-4, and Cheng-Mayer C, et al. Virology 1991 Mar;181(1):288-94.\r\n\r\nIntrinsic biological properties, such as syncytia formation, cell tropism\r\nand cytopathogenicity of different strains of HIV have been assessed by\r\ngrowing primary and secondary cultures. See; von Briesen H, et al. J Med\r\nVirol 1987 Sep;23(1):51-66.\r\n\r\nIn fact, even defective HIV, that is HIV that grows very poorly and had an\r\natypical Western blot and ELISA profile, has been cultured from tissue\r\nderived from patients. See; Huet T, et al. AIDS 1989 Nov;3 (11):707-15.\r\n\r\nThere are a great many more reports of primary tissue culture isolates of\r\nHIV. Most workers, however, use the far easier, more sensitive and cheaper\r\nmethod of PCR. Even so, some researchers used tissue culture of primary HIV\r\nisolates from patients infected with HIV to evaluate the cytopathogenicity,\r\ncell tropism, replication capacities of different viral strains and the\r\ncorrelation to clinical status. See; Lu W, Andrieu JM J Virol 1992\r\nJan;66(1):334-40.\r\n\r\n(PP) 2. Purification of specimens by density gradient ultracentrifugation.\r\n\r\nThe Perth Group seems to have a fixation on this method, so let's take a\r\nquick look at it, shall we? Density gradient ultracentrifugation is a method\r\nof separating thingies based on their relative densities. The technique\r\nrequires that suspensions containing the virus are made up in a buffered\r\nsucrose solution. The samples are then spun at high speed in order to\r\ngreatly enhance the effects of gravity resulting in the suspension of all\r\nthings of similar density in a single band. Most (but not all) retroviruses\r\nhave a density of 1.16 g\/ml (~35% w\/v sucrose), thus retroviruses should\r\nform a band on top of a solution containing 1.16 gms of sucrose per ml of\r\nbuffer. Here's the thing; that density is NOT a unique characteristic of HIV\r\nor even retroviruses. That is; it is an extrinsic quality. Here's an\r\nanalogy; I know that anyone who has seen the Monty Python movie the Holy\r\nGrail will remember that scene where Sir Bedevere is trying to get those\r\nEnglish peasants to figure out what floats on water. They came up with (I\r\nthink) wood, ducks and very small rocks. Same thing here; lots of stuff\r\ncould sediment at 1.16 g\/ml. In fact, everything that has a density of..1.16\r\ng\/ml.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, real scientists use the technique to isolate and purify HIV.\r\nIn one paper, by Yamamoto S, et al.( J. Virol. Methods 1996 Sep; 61\r\n(1-2):135-43) the authors used density banding to isolate viral particles\r\nand compared the qualitative and quantitative detection of reverse\r\ntranscriptase (see below for the significance of this).\r\n\r\nIt IS true, as noted by the Perth people, that standard HIV-1 particle\r\npreparations created with sucrose density-equilibrium gradients are\r\ncontaminated with cell-derived microvesicles, see; Bess JW Jr Virology. 1997\r\nMar 31;230(1):134-44 and Gluschankof P, et al. Virology 1997 Mar\r\n31;230(1):125- 33. This does not, of course, mean that HIV banding at 1.16\r\ng\/ml is non- existent, nor does it mean that the virions cannot be separated\r\nfrom the microvesicles, see; Ott DE, et al. J Virol 1996 Nov;70(11):7734-43\r\nand, for a more recent report; Dettenhofer M, Yu XF J Virol 1999\r\nFeb;73(2):1460-7\r\n\r\n(PP) 3. Electron micrographs of particles exhibiting the morfological (sic)\r\ncharacteristics and dimensions (100-120nm) of retroviral particles at the\r\nsucrose (or percoll) density of 1.16 gm\/ml and containing nothing else, not\r\neven particles of other morphologies or dimensions.\r\n\r\nNote here the devious nature of their challenge and one of the reasons why\r\nthey will never accept a claim to the reward. As noted by Edward King;\r\n"Scientists have highlighted the irrelevance of this insistence on purity if\r\nthe HIV particles themselves are clearly present; for example, it's like\r\nsaying that it is impossible to identify a German Shepherd dog by its unique\r\nappearance, if it happens to be surrounded by a pack of poodles."\r\n\r\nBut what evidence do real scientists have? Well here's a bit;\r\n\r\nViral particle size is usually measured either directly by electron\r\nmicroscopy (EM), see; Gentile M, et al. J Virol Methods 1994\r\nJun;48(1):43-52, and Garnier, L, et al. J. Virol. 1999 Mar;73(3):2309-20 or\r\nit is determined by rate zonal sedimentation, see; Garnier, L, et al J Virol\r\n1998 Jun;72(6):4667- 77. By the way HIV, like many other retroviruses is\r\nabout 80-120 nm in diameter.\r\n\r\nResearchers use EM and gradient ultracentrifugation to demonstrate the\r\npresence of the virus even while acknowledging the presence of microvesicles\r\nthat are clearly not viruses. "Electron microscopy of gradient-enriched\r\npreparations from supernatants of virus-infected cells revealed an excess of\r\nvesicles with a size range of about 50-500 nm, as opposed to a minor\r\npopulation of virus particles of about 100 nm. Electron micrographs of\r\ninfected cells showed polarized vesiculation of the cell membrane, and virus\r\nbudding was frequently colocalized with nonviral membrane vesiculation."\r\nFrom; Gluschankof P, et al. Virology 1997 Mar 31;230 (1):125-33. See also;\r\nMeerloo T, et al. J Gen Virol. 1993 Jan;74:129-35.\r\n\r\nFortunately for the rest of the world, very few people take the Perth Group\r\nseriously. There is a great deal of effort underway to generate a vaccine.\r\nOne of the things that is likely to be required for an effective modified\r\nvirus vaccine is a highly pure, homogenous batch of HIV that is inactive (so\r\nthat people do not get infected from the vaccine). This has been\r\naccomplished, see; Richieri SP, et al. Vaccine 1998 Jan-Feb;16 (2-3):119-29.\r\nThese folks even have very nice thin section electron microscopy evidence\r\nshowing a homogenous field of intact viral particles. They purified the HIV\r\nparticles by both anion-exchange chromatography and by sucrose density\r\ngradient ultracentrifugation.\r\n\r\nSome workers have even isolated viral cores. After first purifying and\r\nconcentrating the virions themselves, the viral capsules are then removed by\r\ndetergent and the cores containing the viral genome and associated proteins\r\nis visualized by EM (Welker R. et al. J Virol 2000 Feb;74(3):1168-77).\r\n\r\n(PP)4. Proof that the particles contain reverse transcriptase.\r\n\r\nDone. In intact virions the process is called natural endogenous reverse\r\ntranscription (NERT) and has been demonstrated, see; Zhang H, et al. J Virol\r\n1996 May;70(5):2809-24, Zhang H, et al. AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses 1998\r\nApr;14 Suppl 1:S93-5, and Busso M, Resnick L J Virol Methods 1994\r\nApr;47(1-2):129-39 (also shown in SIV; see Dornadula G, et al. Virology\r\n1997 Jan 6;227(1):260-7). Yamamoto S, et al.( J. Virol. Methods 1996 Sep;\r\n61(1-2):135- 43) used density banding to isolate viral particles and\r\ncompared the qualitative and quantitative detection of reverse transcriptase\r\nassays. In fact, one can even measure intraviral RT activity in the blood of\r\npatients who are positive for HIV; Zhang H, et al. J Virol 1996 Jan;70\r\n(1):628-34.\r\nIn the course of looking for a vpr gene protein in HIV, HIV particles were\r\nbanded on a sucrose density gradient and reverse transcriptase activity was\r\ndetected in just the fractions expected for a retrovirus (Cohen et al J.\r\nVirology 64:3097-3099, 1990). RT activity can be detected in the (cell free)\r\nsera of infected people but not in the sera of uninfected people (Heneine W\r\net al J Infect Dis 1995 May;171(5):1210-6, Pyra H., et al. Proc Natl Acad\r\nSci U S A 1994 Feb 15;91(4):1544-8, Boni J., et al. J Med Virol 1996\r\nMay;49(1):23-8\r\n\r\nOne report demonstrates that antiretroviral drugs work even on highly\r\npurified virions. The RT activity of HIV occurs primarily in the cytoplasm\r\nof the infected cell, but there is evidence that sometimes the virions can\r\ninitiate reverse transcription prior to infection (Lori et al. J Virol 1992\r\nAug;66(8):5067-74) RT inhibitors inhibited transcription of RT activity\r\nassociated with highly purified virions (see; Ventura, M., et al, Arch\r\nVirol 1999;144(3):513-23\r\n\r\nAs noted above, HIV virions have even been shown to contain HIV DNA (Lori F,\r\net al. J Virol 1992 Aug; 66(8):5067-74). As HIV is a retrovirus, I will\r\nleave it to the reader to consider the problem for Virusmyth in explaining\r\nwhere, exactly, retroviral DNA found in the virions comes from.\r\n\r\n\r\n(PP)5. Analysis of the particles' proteins and RNA and proof that these are\r\nunique.\r\n\r\nWell, apart from the RT examples above, I'll just give some of the evidence\r\nfor the viral protein, gag. There is, of course, a lot of the same evidence\r\navailable for other viral proteins. The acronym gag is derived from\r\ngroup-specific antigen because it was found that a single antiserum from an\r\ninfected person was capable of cross-reacting with related retroviruses. The\r\ngag gene encodes four proteins in the mature virus, the capsid (p24), matrix\r\n(p17), nucleocapsid (p7) and p6 proteins. These processed gag proteins play\r\ndifferent roles in the HIV lifecycle including (but not limited to) budding\r\n(p6), core structure (capsid), genome RNA architecture (nucleocapsid) and\r\nviral capsule structure (matrix). The gag precursor protein plays an\r\nimportant role in the structure of the immature viral capsule.\r\n\r\nThere is, of course, a huge amount of evidence based on the more powerful,\r\nspecific and sensitive PCR techniques, but I'll stick to the Perth Group's\r\nneed for this particular methodology. The following papers used\r\nultracentrifugation to purify HIV virions. Evidence for sequence\r\ndeterminants of HIV genome encoded gag genes that control the size, shape,\r\nmorphogenesis and budding of viral particles purified by\r\nultracentrifugation; Garnier, L, et al J Virol 1998 Jun;72(6):4667-77, Wang\r\nCT, et al. J Virol. 1998 Oct;72(10):7950-9, Dawson L & Yu, XF Virology 1998\r\nNov 10;251(1):141-57 and Reicin AS, et al. J Virol 1996 Dec;70(12):8645-52.\r\n\r\n(PP)6. Proof that 1-5 are a property only of putatively infected tissues and\r\ncan not be induced in control cultures. These are identical cultures, that\r\nis, tissues obtained from matched, unhealthy subjects and cultured under\r\nidentical conditions differing only in that they are not putatively infected\r\nwith a retrovirus.\r\n\r\nAh, well. We now come across another canard of the Perth Group; "unhealthy\r\nsubjects". Weasel room, if I've ever seen it. You see; no matter how many\r\ntimes the experiment is done, they can dodge claims to the prize by saying\r\nsomething to the effect of; "ah, but since your controls did not have\r\n(insert lacking illness here), they are not proper controls. Therefore HIV\r\ndoesn't exist."\r\n\r\n**Sigh** What can anyone say to this? Well not much. However, controls like\r\nthis have been done since the very earliest days of the epidemic. For\r\nexample, in a very early report patients with AIDS had serum that contained\r\nanti-HTLV antibodies while serum from 25 patients who did not have AIDS did\r\nnot react to HTLV (early on in the epidemic when it was clear that it was\r\ncaused by an infectious agent, most likely a virus and prior to the\r\nidentification of HIV, it was thought that the virus was actually HTLV).\r\nKarpas A, et al. Mol Biol Med 1983 Nov;1(4):457-459.\r\n\r\nSee Gallo, RC et al. Science. 1983 May 20;220(4599):865-7 and Barre-\r\nSinoussi F, et al. Science 1983 May 20;220(4599):868-871 for the original\r\npapers on the identification of HIV (called HTLV-III by Gallo and LAV by\r\nMontagnier). They used non-infected tissue controls. Also; Gelmann EP, et\r\nal. Science 1983 May 20;220(4599):862-865\r\n\r\n(PP)7. Proof that the particles are infectious, that is when PURE particles\r\nare introduced into an uninfected culture or animal, the identical particle\r\nis obtained as shown by repeating steps 1-5.\r\n\r\nLeaving aside the Perth Group's required degree of purity, infecting cells\r\nwith virus derived from infected people has been done since very early on in\r\nthe epidemic. It is a routine way to derive patient isolates or to obtain\r\nviral clones (see, for example; Saag MS, et al. Nature 1988 Aug\r\n4;334(6181):440- 4, and Cheng-Mayer C, et al. Virology 1991\r\nMar;181(1):288-94. As noted above).\r\n\r\n\r\nConclusion\r\nPerhaps the best evidence for the existence of the virus was outlined by\r\nPeter Duesberg when he claimed Virusmyth's prize. He pointed out that by use\r\nof modern molecular biology techniques scientists have been able to\r\nreconstruct intact viruses that are infectious (see for example, Page et al,\r\nJ. Virol. 64:5270-5276, 1990). Of course there is no ethical way that the\r\nvirus, reconstructed or not, can be used to demonstrate the pathology of the\r\nvirus, but we can prove that the virus exists. Fore example, it has been\r\nshown by PCR that cells from infected persons contain HIV DNA but cells from\r\nuninfected people do not (see; Bagasra O, et al. N Engl J Med 326:1385-1391,\r\n1992, Ho DD, et al. N Engl J Med 321:1621-5, 1989, Rouzioux C, et al. AIDS\r\n6:373- 377, 1992, Alimenti A, et al. AIDS 8:895-900, 1994).\r\n\r\nDuesberg in claiming the prize, noted that "The existence of the retrovirus\r\nHIV predicts that HIV DNA can be isolated from the chromosomal DNA of\r\ninfected cells. This prediction has been confirmed as follows: Full-length\r\nHIV-1 and HIV-2 DNAs have been prepared from virus-infected cells and cloned\r\nin bacterial plasmids (Fisher AG et al, Nature (London) 316:262-265 1985,\r\nLevy, JA et al. Science 232:998-1001 1986 and Barnett, SW et al. J Virol.\r\n67:1006-1014 1993). Such clones are totally free of all viral and cellular\r\nproteins, and cellular contaminants that co-purify with virus. These clones\r\nproduce infectious virus that is neutralized by specific antisera from AIDS\r\npatients. For example, virus produced by infectious HIV-2 DNA is neutralized\r\nby antiserum from HIV-2 but not from HIV-1-infected people (Barnett, SW et\r\nal. J Virol. 67:1006-1014 1993)."\r\n\r\nThe evidence for the existence of HIV presented in the papers cited in this\r\nFAQ is not comprehensive. It is not meant to be. Instead the point here has\r\nbeen to show that despite the fact that there has been no one who has taken\r\nup Virusmyth's challenge, there is indisputable evidence that HIV exists\r\neven when using the Perth Group's favored methods. They have constructed a\r\nstrawman challenge that has led them to a claim that would be laughable if\r\nit weren't for the fact that there are some groups out there who use\r\narguments like Virusmyth's to make the claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV.\r\nIf the virus doesn't even exist, so the argument goes, there is no way that\r\nit can cause AIDS. Frightened, desperate and uninformed people are then led\r\nto believe that they need not seek treatment for their infection. In this\r\nway, Virusmyth is indirectly responsible for the suffering and deaths of\r\npeople fooled by their pseudoscience. Some of the members of the Perth Group\r\nare scientists and they commit the worst sin any scientist can; they ignore\r\ndata that falsifies their hypothesis. They have much to answer for.\r\n\r\n","author":"BitMap","parent_id":19152,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-11-09 05:23:16","modified":"2003-11-09 05:23:16","fileurl":""}]}