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The AIDS reappraisal movement (or AIDS dissident movement) is a loosely connected group of activists, journalists, scientists, and HIV-positive persons who dispute the scientific consensus that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Dissidents assert that the consensus that HIV causes AIDS has resulted in inaccurate diagnoses, psychological terror, toxic treatments, and a squandering of public funds, as well as an unprecedented deviation from scientific method and standards. The majority of the scientific community considers the causative role of HIV to be proven; dissident arguments are felt to be the result of cherry-picking of predominantly outdated scientific data, with the potential to endanger public health by dissuading people from utilizing proven treatments. Given the existing scientific consensus on the causative role of HIV, AIDS reappraisal is currently a primarily political, rather than scientific, movement.

A brief history

  • 1983: A group of scientists and doctors at the Pasteur Institute in France, led by Dr. Luc Montagnier, discovers a new virus in a patient with signs and symptoms that often precede AIDS. They name their discovery lymphadenopathy-associated virus, or LAV, and send samples to Dr. Robert Gallo's team in the United States.
  • 1984: On April 23, at a Washington press conference held two weeks before the relevant papers are published, Margaret Heckler, then Secretary of Health and Human Services, announces that Dr. Robert Gallo and his co-workers have discovered a virus that is the "probable" cause of AIDS. This virus is called HTLV-III.
  • 1984: Casper Schmidt responds to the publication of Gallo's papers by writing "The Group-Fantasy Origins of AIDS", which is published by the Journal of Psychohistory. He posits that AIDS is an example of "epidemic hysteria" in which groups of people are subconsciously acting out social conflicts, and compares it to documented cases of epidemic hysteria in the past which were mistakenly thought to be infectious.
  • 1986: The viruses discovered by Montagnier and Gallo, having been found to be genetically indistinguishable, are renamed HIV.
  • 1987: Peter Duesberg questions the HIV theory of AIDS for the first time in his paper "Retroviruses as Carcinogens and Pathogens: Expectations and Reality", published in the journal Cancer Research. This publication coincides with the start of major public health campaigns and the promotion of AZT as a treatment.
  • 1988: The Perth Group, led by Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, publishes their first article questioning aspects of the mainstream ideas about HIV and AIDS. They conclude that there is "no compelling reason for preferring the viral hypothesis of AIDS to one based on the activity of oxidising agents."
  • 1990: Robert Root-Bernstein publishes his first peer-reviewed article detailing his objections to the mainstream view of AIDS and HIV, entitled "Do we know the cause(s) of AIDS?" In it, he questions both the mainstream view and the dissident view as potentially inaccurate.
  • 1994: 28 October: Dr. Robert Willner, whose medical license was revoked for, among other things, treating an AIDS patient with ozone therapy, publicly jabs his finger with blood he says is from an HIV infected patient. Willner died the following year of a heart attack.
  • 1995: The dissident group Continuum places an advertisement in The Pink Paper offering a £1,000 reward to "the first person finding one scientific paper establishing actual isolation of HIV" (according to their specific set of rules).
  • 1996: Various scientists, including Dr. Duesberg, dismiss the Continuum challenge, asserting that HIV doubtlessly exists.
  • 2000: South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, invites several dissidents to join his Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel. The mainstream scientific community responds with the Durban declaration, a document affirming that HIV causes AIDS, signed by over 5,000 scientists and physicians.
  • 2006: Celia Farber, a journalist and prominent AIDS dissident, publishes an essay in the March issue of Harper's entitled Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science, in which she summarizes a number of arguments for AIDS reappraisal and alleges incompetence, conspiracy, and fraud on the part of the mainstream medical community.
  • 2007: South African advocate Anthony Brink and the Treatment Information Group serve a file of indictment at the International Criminal Court against Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), charging that their efforts to expand access to antiretroviral medication in South Africa constitute "genocide" and suggesting that Achmat be locked in "a small white steel and concrete cage" and "eradicated". The TAC responds by describing the indictment as "truly delusional".

The AIDS dissident community

People critical of the mainstream view of AIDS include HIV-positive persons, government employees, scientists, doctors and activists in several countries.

Probably the most famous and influential AIDS dissident scientist is Dr. Peter Duesberg, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, who has been contesting the mainstream view of AIDS causation since 1987. Other scientists include Dr. David Rasnick (who has patents on protease inhibitor drugs used for the treatment of AIDS) and Dr. Rodney Richards (who helped to develop some of the first commercial HIV antibody tests). Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullis (inventor of PCR, used for the development of the viral load test) has expressed sympathy for dissident theories.

Some prominent AIDS dissidents, such as Tom Bethell and Phillip E. Johnson, have expressed support for a wide range of controversial or pseudoscientific beliefs, including intelligent design and global warming skepticism.

Other notable AIDS dissidents include Australian academic Hiram Caton, the journalist Celia Farber and the activist Christine Maggiore. Nate Mendel, bassist with the rock band Foo Fighters, has expressed support for AIDS dissident ideas and organized a benefit concert in January 2000 for the AIDS dissident organization Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives.

Organizations of AIDS dissidents include the Perth Group and the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis.

Former dissidents

Several prominent figures once associated with AIDS reappraisal have since changed their views and accepted that HIV plays a role in causing AIDS, in response to an accumulation of newer studies and data. Robert Root-Bernstein, author of Rethinking AIDS: The Tragic Cost of Premature Consensus and formerly a critic of the HIV/AIDS paradigm, has since distanced himself from the AIDS dissident movement, saying, "The denialists make claims that are clearly inconsistent with existing studies. When I check the existing studies, I don’t agree with the interpretation of the data, or, worse, I can’t find the studies ." In a 2005 article, Root-Bernstein and his coauthor wrote that "It is well-known that HIV-1 infection results in a gradual decline of the CD4+ T-lymphocytes." In a 2006 article, he and coauthors described therapeutic anti-HIV vaccination as a "promising strategy" in AIDS treatment research.

Joseph Sonnabend, who until the late 1990s regarded the issue of AIDS causation as unresolved, has reconsidered in light of the success of newer antiretroviral drugs, stating, "The evidence now strongly supports a role for HIV... Drugs that can save your life can also under different circumstances kill you. This is a distinction that denialists do not seem to understand."

Both Sonnabend and Root-Bernstein now favor a less controversial hypothesis, suggesting that cofactors in addition to HIV are necessary to cause AIDS. Nonetheless, as of November 2006, some dissident websites continue to claim that Root-Bernstein and Sonnabend deny the role of HIV in AIDS.

Points of contention

The AIDS dissident community is comprised of various people and organizations with a diverse viewpoints. The community is united by their disagreement with the concept that HIV is the cause of AIDS, but specific positions taken by various groups differ.

Dissident arguments have centered around claims that HIV has not been adequately isolated, that it does not fulfill Koch's postulates, that HIV testing is inaccurate, that antibodies to HIV neutralize the virus and render it harmless, or that toxic side effects from antiretroviral drugs are responsible for the syndrome of AIDS.

Such claims have been examined extensively in the peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature; a scientific consensus has arisen that dissident claims have been convincingly disproven, and that HIV does indeed cause AIDS. Accumulating evidence of the significant benefits of modern anti-HIV medication are seen as further confirmation of HIV's role in AIDS.

Impact beyond the scientific community

The concept that HIV causes AIDS is widely regarded as proven in the scientific community. However, the AIDS dissident movement has had a significant impact outside of scientific spheres, making the debate a civil and political as well as a scientific and public health issue.

Impact in North America and Europe

Skepticism about HIV as the cause of AIDS began almost immediately after the discovery of HIV was announced. One of the earliest prominent skeptics was the journalist John Lauritsen, who argued in his writings for The New York Native that AIDS was in fact caused by amyl nitrite poppers, and that the government had conspired to hide the truth.

The publication of Dr. Peter Duesberg's first AIDS paper in 1987 fueled further support for dissident theories. Shortly afterwards, the journal Science reported that Duesberg's remarks had won him "a large amount of media attention, particularly in the gay press where he is something of a hero." However, Duesberg's support in the gay community dried up as he made a series of statements perceived as homophobic; in an interview with the Village Voice in 1988, Duesberg stated his belief that the AIDS epidemic was "caused by a lifestyle that was criminal twenty years ago."

In the following few years, others became skeptical of the HIV theory as researchers intially failed to produce an effective treatment or vaccine for AIDS. Journalists such as Neville Hodgkinson and Celia Farber regularly promoted dissident ideas in the American and British media; several television documentaries were also produced to increase awareness of the alternative viewpoint.

With the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996-1997, the survival and general health of people with HIV improved significantly. The positive response to treatment with anti-HIV medication is regarded as further proof of HIV's causative role in AIDS, and has led several prominent AIDS dissidents to accept the causative role of HIV. Today, AIDS dissident arguments are widely regarded as pseudoscience, on par with Lysenkoism. Nevertheless, these theories continue to exert a significant influence in some communities; a survey conducted at minority gay pride events in four American cities in 2005 found that 33% of attendees doubted that HIV caused AIDS.

Impact in South Africa

In 2000, when the International AIDS Conference was held in Durban, South African President Thabo Mbeki convened a Presidential Advisory Panel containing a number of AIDS dissidents, including Peter Duesberg and David Rasnick. The Advisory Panel meetings were closed to the general press; an invited reporter wrote that Rasnick advocated that HIV testing be legally banned and denied that he had seen "any evidence" of an AIDS catastrophe in South Africa, while Duesberg "gave a presentation so removed from African medical reality that it left several local doctors shaking their heads."

In his address to the International AIDS Conference, Mbeki reiterated his view that HIV was not wholly responsible for AIDS, leading hundreds of delegates to walk out on his speech. Mbeki also sent a letter to a number of world leaders expressing mistrust of superimposing "Western experience on African reality" and likening the mainstream AIDS research community to supporters of the apartheid regime. The tone and content of Mbeki's letter led diplomats in the U.S. to initially question its authenticity.

Mainstream AIDS scientists and activists were dismayed at the president's behavior and responded with the Durban declaration, a document affirming that HIV causes AIDS, signed by over 5,000 scientists and physicians.

South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has also attracted heavy criticism, as she has often promoted nutritional remedies such as garlic, lemons and olive oil to people suffering from AIDS, while emphasizing possible toxicities of antiretroviral drugs, which she has referred to as "poison".

Mbeki's government was charged with delaying the rollout of an antiretroviral drug program for HIV-positive pregnant women. The national program began only after the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) brought a legal case against Government ministers, claiming they were responsible for the deaths of 600 HIV-positive people a day who could not access medication. South Africa was one of the last countries in the region to begin such a treatment program, and roll-out has been much slower than planned.

In 2002, Mbeki requested that AIDS dissidents no longer use his name in dissident literature, and requested that dissidents stop signing documents with "Member of President Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel".

In early 2005, former South African president Nelson Mandela announced that his son had died of complications of AIDS. Mandela's public announcement was seen as both an effort to combat the stigma associated with AIDS, and as a "political statement designed to... force the President out of his denial."

Alleged harm caused by dissident views

At the seminar on HIV and Responsible Journalism at the 16th International AIDS Conference, Nathan Geffen of the South African Treatment Action Campaign stated:

AIDS denialism is real. We’re not having a theoretical discussion over here. People are dying because of it. I have dozens of cases on my desk in my office at home of people who have suffered at the hands of charlatans and pseudo scientists and quacks.

John Moore, Ph.D., argued at the same seminar that:

Any one, man or woman, who’s persuaded that safe sex or using clean needles is not necessary and then becomes HIV infected and dies of AIDS, the person advising them inappropriately bears responsibility. Anyone persuaded not to take antiretrovirals and use instead alternative medicines — lemon and garlic, potatoes and whatever — is also dying unnecessarily. Anyone persuaded not to be screened for HIV status and deprived of the chance of treatment or counseling dies unnecessarily. And infants whose HIV infected mothers listen to AIDS denialists never got the chance to make their own decisions.

In response to Dr. Moore's comments, the dissident Perth Group has denied encouraging unsafe sex or drug use; indeed, they agree that these behaviors increase risk of AIDS and should be avoided. Dr. Duesberg also argues that condoms have a role in preventing AIDS:

Since AIDS is caused by drugs, not by HIV, condoms do not prevent AIDS. However, since many doctors prescribe DNA chain terminators such as AZT as anti-HIV drugs to healthy HIV-positives, and since DNA chain terminators cause AIDS - condoms are useful after all. They protect people who have an average of 1,000 sexual contacts with HIV-positives from infection, and thus from AIDS caused by anti-HIV medication.

See also

References

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  3. Watson J. (2006). "Scientists, activists sue South Africa's AIDS 'denialists'". Nat Med. 12 (1): 6. PMID 16397537.
  4. "Discredited doctor's 'cure' for Aids ignites life-and-death struggle in South Africa", by Sarah Boseley. Published in The Guardian on May 14 2005. Accessed 9 Feb 2007.
  5. Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
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  7. What to call the AIDS virus?
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  9. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E (1988). "Reappraisal of AIDS--is the oxidation induced by the risk factors the primary cause?". Med Hypotheses. 25 (3): 151–62. PMID 3285143.. Full text available at AIDS dissident website.
  10. Root-Bernstein R (1990). "Do we know the cause(s) of AIDS?". Perspect Biol Med. 33 (4): 480–500. PMID 2216658. Full text available at AIDS dissident website.
  11. Baumann E, Bethell T, Bialy H, Duesberg P, Farber C, Geshekter C, Johnson P, Maver R, Schoch R, Stewart G (1995). "AIDS proposal. Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis". Science. 267 (5200): 945–6. PMID 7863335.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  13. "Postscripts from the Edge", by Bobbie Andelson. Published in POZ magazine, May 2004. Accessed 14 Jan 2007.
  14. ^ Isolated facts about HIV A Response to Claims by AIDS Dissidents That HIV Doesn't Exist by Edward King
  15. South African President pressured to eliminate discourse on HIV and AIDS
  16. Presidential AIDS advisory panel report: setting the scene 1.2 Composition of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel
  17. TAC hits back at claims against Achmat. Independent Online, 12 Jan 2007.
  18. Retroviruses as Carcinogens and Pathogens: Expectations and Reality, Cancer Research, Vol. 47, pp. 1199-1220, (Perspectives in Cancer Research), March 1, 1987
  19. Search for "Rasnick" and "protease" in the United States Patent and Trademark Office database
  21. "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" by Kary Mullis. Chapter 18 & 19. Excerpt re-printed in Penthouse Magazine September 1998.
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  24. ^ "Dead Certain?" by Bob Lederer. Published in POZ magazine April 2006. Accessed 31 Oct 2006.
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  27. "List of Rethinkers": List of people who are claimed to subscribe to AIDS dissident beliefs; does not reflect the fact that some of the named individuals have since come to believe that HIV is in fact the cause of AIDS. Accessed 8 Nov 2006.
  28. Turner V. (1999) E-Mail Correspondence Between Val Turner and Robin Weiss
  29. Duesberg P (1989). "Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: correlation but not causation". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 86 (3): 755–64. PMID 2644642.
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  31. HealToronto.com, dissident website, claiming to provide 10 reasons why HIV cannot cause AIDS. Accessed 28 September 2006.
  32. Cite error: The named reference harpers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. NIAID Fact Sheet: The Evidence that HIV Causes AIDS. Accessed via National Institutes of Health website on 24 Oct 2006.
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  36. Systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence for increasing numbers of drugs in antiretroviral combination therapy
  37. Efficacy of antiretroviral therapy programs in resource-poor settings: a meta-analysis of the published literature
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  39. Sterne J, Hernán M, Ledergerber B, Tilling K, Weber R, Sendi P, Rickenbach M, Robins J, Egger M. "Long-term effectiveness of potent antiretroviral therapy in preventing AIDS and death: a prospective cohort study". Lancet. 366 (9483): 378–84. PMID 16054937.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  40. Biography of John Lauritsen at Virusmyth.com, a dissident website. Accessed 7 Sept 2006.
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  42. Steven Epstein. Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1996. ISBN 0-520-20233-3. Page 118.
  43. Burkett, E (1996) The Gravest Show on Earth (Chapter 2) ISBN 0-312-14607-8
  44. VirusMyth, a dissident website, accessed June 2, 2006.
  45. Kaplan JE et al (2000) Epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus-associated opportunistic infections in the United States in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Clinical Infectious Diseases 30 Suppl 1, S5-14 PMID 10770911
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  48. McNaghten AD et al (1999) Effects of antiretroviral therapy and opportunistic illness primary chemoprophylaxis on survival after AIDS diagnosis. Adult/Adolescent Spectrum of Disease Group. AIDS 13(13), 1687-95 PMID 10509570
  49. Hutchinson A.B., Begley E.B. et al. (2005) Mistrust and Conspiracy Beliefs about HIV/AIDS among Participants in Minority Gay Pride Events. 2005 National HIV Prevention Conference Abstract TP-011
  50. ^ "The Politics of HIV/AIDS in South Africa": a Journ-AIDS Fact Sheet. Accessed 26 Feb 2007.
  51. "Debating the Obvious: Inside the South African Government's Controversial AIDS Panel", by Mark Schoofs. Published in the Village Voice, 5-11 July 2000. Accessed 26 Feb 2007.
  52. ^ "Controversy dogs AIDS forum, from the BBC. Accessed 26 Feb 2007.
  53. "South African President Escalates AIDS Feud", by Barton Gellman. Published in the Washington Post on April 19 2000. Accessed 26 Feb 2007.
  54. 'Dr Beetroot' hits back at media over Aids exhibition, article in the Mail & Guardian Online. Accessed 20 Sept 2006.
  55. Manto again angers AIDS activists, from AEGIS.com. Accessed 20 Sept 2006.
  56. AIDS, Science and Governance.
  57. CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS PREVENTING MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION IN SOUTH AFRICA: BACKGROUND, STRATEGIES AND OUTCOMES OF THE TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN CASE AGAINST THE MINISTER OF HEALTH
  58. AIDS, Science and Governance
  59. "No Place for Denial", by Simon Robinson. Published in Time magazine on January 9 2005. Accessed 26 Feb 2007.
  60. ^ HIV Science and Responsible Journalism, presented at the 16th International AIDS Conference, accessed 7 Sept 2006.
  61. Perth Group Response to Professor Moore
  62. Duesberg.com Frequently Asked Questions

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