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EDUCATION AND DEBATE: Mari M Kitahata, Mary K Tegger, Edward H Wagner, and King K Holmes Comprehensive health care for people infected with HIV in developing countries BMJ 2002; 325: 954-957 [Full text]

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First things first

David Rasnick   (27 October 2002)

First things first 27 October 2002
David Rasnick, visiting scientist, Dept. MCB UC Berkeley, CA 94720 Send response to journal: Re: First things first	Dear Editor, Since virtually all HIV-positive Africans have not taken anti-HIV drugs, Africa provides the perfect opportunity to determine if there is a difference in mortality and morbidity between two groups of people who differ only in there HIV antibody status. Incredible as it may sound, this study has not been done anywhere before, including the USA and Europe [1, 2, 3]. Therefore, the first thing that Kitahata and colleagues should do before subjecting millions of Africans to billions of dollars worth of very toxic anti-HIV drugs is determine whether or not HIV-positive Africans die sooner and live poorer lives than their HIV-negative neighbors. Kitahata et al. assume that this must be the case, but it is nothing more than an assumption. The second assumption implicit in the article by Kitahata et al. is that people taking the anti-HIV drugs live longer or at least better lives than an identical group of HIV-positive people who do not take the drugs. However, there is no proof in the scientific, medical literature that the anti-HIV drugs do more good than harm, even in the developed world [2]. Indeed, the opposite is true. Dr. Amy Justice of the University of Pittsburgh told her colleagues at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona this year that the most common cause of death among HIV positive people is not AIDS but liver failure due to the drugs [4]. South African president Thabo Mbeki is well aware that the developed world's attitudes towards Africa and its eagerness to subject Africans to toxic, unproved anti-HIV drugs are based on, among other things, the two assumptions of Kitahata et al. That's why Mbeki set up his AIDS Advisory Panel in 2000 to specifically address these assumptions and answer his questions about the differences between AIDS in the developed world and Africa. Instead of providing answers to his questions, AIDS Inc. is systematically trying to neutralize and isolate Mbeki so that he does not infect other Africans with these questions. David Rasnick, PhD Member of Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel References 1) Duesberg PH (1996): Inventing the AIDS Virus. Washington, Regnery Publishing Inc. 2) Duesberg PH, Rasnick D (1998): The AIDS dilemma: drug diseases blamed on a passenger virus. Genetica 104: 85-132. 3) Root-Bernstein R (1993): Rethinking AIDS: The tragic cost of premature consensus. New York, NY, Free Press. 4) http://www.aids2002.com/Program/ViewAbstract.asp?id=/T- CMS_Content/Abstract/200206290750522147.xml