bmj.com Rapid Responses for Fassin and Schneider, 326 (7387) 495-497

Rapid Responses to:

EDUCATION AND DEBATE:
Didier Fassin and Helen Schneider
The politics of AIDS in South Africa: beyond the controversies
BMJ 2003; 326: 495-497 [Full text]

Rapid Responses published:

Mbeki's AIDS Panel still active: David Rasnick (28 February 2003)

The politics of AIDS in South Africa: David Rasnick (28 February 2003)

Political Mobilisation against HIV in South Africa: Jack P Lewis (1 March 2003)

The priority should be to preserve humanity: Richard G Fiddian-Green (1 March 2003)

The reality of AIDS in South Africa: Kate A Herbert, Didier Fassin, Helen Schneider (2 March 2003)

The invisible epidemic and the AZT intoxication: Claus K�hnlein (2 March 2003)

Killing the geese that lay the golden eggs: Richard G Fiddian-Green (2 March 2003)

Political nonsense: Richard L. Newell (3 March 2003)

AIDS in South Africa:The Third Dimension: Harold D. Foster (3 March 2003)

Priority of Health Education.: Gabor A. Balint, New Clinics,(Dept.of Psychiatry)Lab.Cli.Pharm/ (3 March 2003)

HIV in Southern Africa: social and political factors are very relevant, but so is the virus itself!: Jim Bond (3 March 2003)

Action not Politics: Anne Savage (7 March 2003)

ART and Political Will: Louis-Jacques van Bogaert (12 March 2003)

HIV in South Africa: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John M Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, Sam Mhlongo, Helman Alfonso, David Causer, Christian Fiala and Anthony Brink (13 March 2003)

POVERTY, SQUALOR & AIDS INDISTINGUISHABLE IN SOUTH AFRICA: MBEKI MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISREPRESENTED: Sam WP Mhlongo (14 March 2003)

Studies showing LOW rates of heterosexual transmission do not support alternative AIDS theories...: Tony Floyd (15 March 2003)

Time for the end of AIDS: Ed Cooper (18 March 2003)

Low rates of heterosexual transmission and the HIV theory of AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John M Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, Helman Alfonso, David Causer, Sam Mhlongo, Anthony Brink (24 March 2003)

Neither Padian, Gisselquist or Brody provide any reason to believe HIV isn't sexually transmitted...: Tony Floyd (26 March 2003)

Is There Proof for Heterosexual Transmission of HIV?: Eleni Papadopulos Eleopulos, Barry Page, Valendar Turner, John Papadimitriou, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (27 March 2003)

Heterosexual anal intercourse. A severely underestimated mode of HIV transmission?: Tony Floyd (28 March 2003)

More reasons for low heterosexual transmission in the Padian study: Peter Flegg (30 March 2003)

So, where is the evidence?: David Rasnick (1 April 2003)

Clarification of the basic issues in relation to the HIV theory of AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, David Causer, Barry Page, Helman Alfonso (1 April 2003)

Wake up call and need for paradigm shift: Felix ID Konotey-Ahulu (3 April 2003)

For some people its April Fool's day all year round: Peter J Flegg (3 April 2003)

Okay, provide the references: David Rasnick (4 April 2003)

Most Experts Suggest 90% of African Adult HIV is from heterosexual transmission, Gisselquist 30%: Tony Floyd (5 April 2003)

Heterosexual Intercourse Found to be the Major Mode of HIV Transmission in a Group of Thai Fisherman: Tony Floyd (7 April 2003)

Sexual transmission of HIV during early infection: Peter J Flegg (10 April 2003)

Support for wake up call and need for paradigm shift: Dr. Charles Ssali (11 April 2003)

Prelude to Flegg�s references: David Rasnick (13 April 2003)

Assumptions and opinions do not prove heterosexual transmission of HIV: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (15 April 2003)

Comments and an Analysis of Flegg's reference number 1: David Rasnick (16 April 2003)

Use of CONDOMS for heterosexual intercourse is HIGHLY EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING HIV TRANSMISSION......: Tony Floyd (17 April 2003)

Drifting in a state of denialist d�j� vu.: Peter J Flegg (18 April 2003)

Misquotations: Peter J Flegg (18 April 2003)

Re: Comments and an Analysis of Flegg's reference number 1: Peter J Flegg (18 April 2003)

Conspiracy indeed!: David Rasnick (18 April 2003)

Re: Conspiracy indeed!: Peter J Flegg (19 April 2003)

Analysis of Flegg's references 2-4: David Rasnick (23 April 2003)

CONSPIRACY THEORY???: Tony Floyd (23 April 2003)

A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (25 April 2003)

Critical appraisal of evidence - does the BMJ have a vacancy?: Peter J Flegg (25 April 2003)

Analysis of Flegg's references 5&6: David Rasnick (26 April 2003)

The Piatak Study CONFIRMS the Link Between HIV and Disease AND Shows Antiretroviral Drug Efficacy...: Tony Floyd (28 April 2003)

Forget HIV/AIDS, is there sufficient evidence to prove that LIFE is sexually transmitted????????????: Tony Floyd (29 April 2003)

Let�s critically analyse data instead of merely reading and quoting abstracts: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (1 May 2003)

Critical appraisal is essential: Carl Williams (2 May 2003)

Does sexual intercourse result in pregnancy?: Peter J Flegg (2 May 2003)

Time to Put Padian to Bed Before Moving on to Other Authors Who Have Been Misrepresented: Tony Floyd (4 May 2003)

Yes. It is about time to move on.: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (5 May 2003)

No Matter How You Twist Mr Gisselquist, He Does Not Support Alternative AIDS Theories.: Tony Floyd (7 May 2003)

Your argument has more holes in it than something full of holes used for comparative purposes.: Tony Floyd (8 May 2003)

The politics of AIDS in South Africa: Gordon Stewart (8 May 2003)

Re: The politics of AIDS in South Africa: Peter J Flegg (14 May 2003)

Mbeki's AIDS Panel still active: David Rasnick (15 May 2003)

"If it makes you feel good.....": Peter J Flegg, UK, FY3 8NR (17 May 2003)

Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel: what happened: David Rasnick (19 May 2003)

Where are the experiments which prove HIV isolation, sexual transmission and antibody specificity?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (22 May 2003)

Re: Where are the experiments which prove HIV isolation, sexual transmission and antibody specificit: Brian T Foley (23 May 2003)

HIV - which is the simplest and most obvious truth: Stephen T. Green (25 May 2003)

Unravelling the truth: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (27 May 2003)

Condoms and Partner Choice are Important in Containing HIV: Tony Floyd (29 May 2003)

A modest proposal: Aiden P. Gregg (29 May 2003)

Manipulations and misrepresentation of scientific facts only serve to fuel HIV/AIDS: Tony Floyd (30 May 2003)

Re: A modest proposal: Brian T Foley (1 June 2003)

Who studies healthy HIV positives ?: Sang G. Hahn (3 June 2003)

Re: Who studies healthy HIV positives ?: Brian T Foley (4 June 2003)

Re: Re: A modest proposal: Jamie Mills (4 June 2003)

Faster Progression to AIDS and Death Occurs in Those With Higher Levels of HIV VIRUS: Tony Floyd (4 June 2003)

Re: Re: Re: A modest proposal: Brian T Foley (5 June 2003)

A simple request from the Perth Group: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (5 June 2003)

Re: A simple request from the Perth Group: Brian T Foley (6 June 2003)

The request remains the same and is still pure and simple: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (12 June 2003)

Re: The request remains the same and is still pure and simple: Brian T Foley (12 June 2003)

Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (19 June 2003)

Distinguishing between true and "official" HIV infection: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (20 June 2003)

If It's Good Enough for RSV, Then It is Good Enough for HIV.: Tony Floyd (24 June 2003)

Re: Condoms and Partner Choice are Important in Containing HIV: Matthew L Grove (25 June 2003)

Re: HIV in South Africa: Matthew L Grove (25 June 2003)

Re: Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?: Brian T Foley (26 June 2003)

Re: Re: HIV in South Africa: Christopher S Tyler (26 June 2003)

We repeat: �Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (26 June 2003)

Re: Re: Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?: Brian T Foley (27 June 2003)

Re: Distinguishing between true and "official" HIV infection: Brian T Foley (27 June 2003)

Re: Re: Re: HIV in South Africa: Matthew L Grove (27 June 2003)

Re: We repeat: �Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?": James Whitehead, Work with other "effected" people in trying to expose the "hiv/aids" myths (30 June 2003)

Re: Re: Re: Re: HIV in South Africa: Christopher S Tyler (30 June 2003)

Does the Rous Sarcoma Virus and Moloney Murine Sarcoma Virus also therefore NOT EXIST???: Tony Floyd (1 July 2003)

Re: Re: We repeat: �Where is the proof for HIV purification by any method?": James Whitehead (1 July 2003)

H2O toxicity: Peter J Flegg (2 July 2003)

Re: H2O toxicity: Christopher S Tyler (2 July 2003)

A plea for the references on HIV purification: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papdimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (3 July 2003)

Re: A plea for the references on HIV purification: Brian T Foley (3 July 2003)

Re: H2O toxicity: Carl Williams (4 July 2003)

Re: Re: H2O toxicity: Peter J Flegg (7 July 2003)

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools: Carl Williams (9 July 2003)

A further plea for references on HIV purification: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (9 July 2003)

Re: A further plea for references on HIV purification: Brian T Foley (10 July 2003)

Risk/benefit of HIV therapy: Peter J Flegg (10 July 2003)

Matthias Egger's Study Found up to 65% Reduction in Mortality With Antretroviral Drugs: Tony Floyd (11 July 2003)

Re: Re: Distinguishing between true and "official" HIV infection: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David, Causer, Helman Alfonso (12 July 2003)

If it walks, talks and quacks like HIV, then it probably is HIV.: Tony Floyd (13 July 2003)

Re: If it walks, talks and quacks like HIV, then it probably is HIV.: Christopher S Tyler (13 July 2003)

Re: Re: Re: H2O toxicity: Christopher S Tyler (15 July 2003)

Thoughts on Lymphopenia in AIDS and Sarcoidosis: Trevor G Marshall (16 July 2003)

Re: Risk/benefit of HIV therapy: Christopher S Tyler (18 July 2003)

A plea not to "sex up" the data on toxicities: Peter J Flegg (18 July 2003)

Liver deaths and HAART - the truth.: Peter J Flegg (18 July 2003)

�HIV� genome, clones and sequences: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (18 July 2003)

The ever-changing rules of the game don't apply to Africa: David Rasnick (20 July 2003)

Re: The ever-changing rules of the game don't apply to Africa: nojeem adeleye adepegba, NONE (21 July 2003)

Re: "HIV" genome, clones and sequences: Christopher J Noble (22 July 2003)

Re: HIV genome, clones and sequences: Christopher J Noble (24 July 2003)

Re: HIV genome, clones and sequences: Christopher J Noble (25 July 2003)

Which brings us back to politics?: Brian T Foley (25 July 2003)

The "HIV" and influenza A virus genomes: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (26 July 2003)

Re: Liver deaths and HAART - the truth.: Christopher S Tyler (28 July 2003)

The HIV and "influenza A" virus genomes: Christopher J Noble (28 July 2003)

Re: The HIV and "influenza A" virus genomes: Correction: Christopher J Noble (29 July 2003)

Comparing HPV and HIV: John Kirkham (30 July 2003)

And now for something completely different..: John Q Smith (31 July 2003)

Re: Comparing HPV and HIV: Christopher J Noble (31 July 2003)

Re: Comparing HPV and HIV: Christopher J Noble (31 July 2003)

Benefits of treatment - response to C. Tyler.: Peter J Flegg (31 July 2003)

"HIV" genomic variations: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (31 July 2003)

Politics vs. science.: Brian T Foley (31 July 2003)

Politics, HIV science and rhetoric: Carl Williams (1 August 2003)

Politics vs. science.: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (5 August 2003)

Re: Politics vs. science.: Christopher J Noble (7 August 2003)

A plea to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (8 August 2003)

A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Christopher J Noble (8 August 2003)

Re: A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Christopher J Noble (15 August 2003)

Re: A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Jeffrey L Evans (18 August 2003)

Re: Re: A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Christopher J Noble (19 August 2003)

HIV is not the only exogenous retrovirus.: Brian T Foley (19 August 2003)

Re: Re: A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Jeffrey L Evans (19 August 2003)

Re: Re: Re: A plea to Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos: Jeffrey L Evans (20 August 2003)

The Perth Group answer to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (21 August 2003)

HIV genomic variations: Christopher J Noble (5 September 2003)

RE: Politics vs. Science: Brian T Foley (5 September 2003)

Re: The Perth Group answer to Christopher Noble: Brian T Foley (5 September 2003)

The Perth Group "answer" to Christopher Noble: Christopher J Noble (5 September 2003)

The Perth Group "answer" to Christopher Noble: Christopher J Noble (5 September 2003)

Re: The Perth Group "answer" - Questions for Noble and/or Foley: Jeffrey Evans (6 September 2003)

Re: Re: The Perth Group "answer" - Questions for Noble and/or Foley: Brian T Foley (9 September 2003)

The Perth Group "answer" to Christopher Noble: Christopher J Noble (12 September 2003)

Re: A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Alan F Miceli (14 September 2003)

Re: Re: A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Christopher J Noble (17 September 2003)

Re: The Perth Group "answer" to Christopher Noble: Murali Mohan Chakkilala (17 September 2003)

Genomic "variation": Christopher J Noble (17 September 2003)

Re: Re: A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Brian T Foley (20 September 2003)

Re: Re: Re: A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Christopher Tyler (20 September 2003)

Finding wood among the trees: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (22 September 2003)

Rhetoric and science.: Christopher J Noble (22 September 2003)

Re: Re: Re: Re: A critical examination of the evidence for the existence of HIV: Christopher J Noble (22 September 2003)

Re: Finding wood among the trees: Christopher J Noble (23 September 2003)

Re: Finding wood among the trees: Brian T Foley (25 September 2003)

Re: Finding wood among the trees: Brian T Foley (25 September 2003)

Brian Foley's curiosity: Peter J Flegg (26 September 2003)

Questions and Answers: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, David A. Causer, Helman Alfonso (13 October 2003)

Genomic Variability: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, David A. Causer, Helman Alfonso (14 October 2003)

HIV Denial Has Not Progressed One Bit.: Tony Floyd (14 October 2003)

Time, gentlemen, please: Mark Powlson (14 October 2003)

Re: Genomic Variability: Christopher J Noble (14 October 2003)

Divergent HIV strains and antibody tests: Christopher J Noble (14 October 2003)

Gentlemen, It is Time For Even More Discussion on Genomics: Trevor G Marshall (15 October 2003)

HIV gp41 is not actin: Christopher J Noble (15 October 2003)

Setting ground rules for genomics is not exactly a rapid response: Mark Powlson (15 October 2003)

What motivates them???: Tony Floyd (16 October 2003)

Re: Divergent HIV strains and antibody tests: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, David A. Causer, Helman Alfonso (16 October 2003)

Re: Setting ground rules for genomics is not exactly a rapid response: MC Feliciello (16 October 2003)

gp41: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F. Turner, Jphn Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, David A. Causer, Helman Alfonso (20 October 2003)

Re: HIV gp41 is not actin: james j whitehead, James Whitehead 40 A Josephine Avenue London SW2 2LA (23 October 2003)

More On Genomic Variability: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (23 October 2003)

In fact, INCREDIBLE as it may sound, he acknowledged nothing of relevance to your enduringly specious arguments...: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell and Moses Horwitz (24 October 2003)

HIV gp41 and glutathione peroxidases: Christopher J Noble (24 October 2003)

Re: More On Genomic Variability: Christopher J Noble (24 October 2003)

Bess Continues to Have no Problem Telling Microvesicles from HIV. Why Have You Gone So Far Without Looking at the Rest of His Work?: Tony Floyd, Joseph Wardell, Louis Feinberg, and Moses Horwitz (24 October 2003)

Re: gp41: Christopher J Noble (24 October 2003)

Re: More On Genomic Variability: Brian T Foley (1 November 2003)

Re: Genomic Variability: Brian T Foley (1 November 2003)

The evolution of RNA viruses.: Brian T Foley (4 November 2003)

Did Montagnier prove the existence of HIV?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (4 November 2003)

More repetition.: Christopher J Noble (5 November 2003)

PCR specificity: Christopher J Noble (6 November 2003)

The Politics of AIDS in South Africa:: Brian T Foley (6 November 2003)

Error thresholds: Christopher J Noble (6 November 2003)

Mutations in HIV proteins do indeed sometimes alter function.: Brian T Foley (8 November 2003)

Re: In fact, INCREDIBLE as it may sound, he acknowledged nothing of relevance to your enduringly specious arguments...: Djamel TAHI (10 November 2003)

Professor Peron and an MS virus?: Trevor G Marshall (11 November 2003)

South African Government is moving ahead with anti-retroviral drugs.: Tony Floyd (20 November 2003)

More on "HIV" gp41: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (25 November 2003)

Perth Group responses to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopoulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (25 November 2003)

Perth Group Responses to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (25 November 2003)

Has Montagnier discovered the Human Immunodeficiency Virus?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (25 November 2003)

Re: Perth Group Responses to Christopher Noble: Ed Cooper (26 November 2003)

Re: Perth Group Responses to Christopher Noble: Christopher J Noble (27 November 2003)

0%-100% specificity of the PCR Test?: Christopher J Noble (5 December 2003)

Re: 0%-100% specificity of the PCR Test?: Alexander H Russell (6 December 2003)

HIV Tunnel Vision: John Kirkham (6 December 2003)

1.1 An appeal for patient rights and health to take precedence over HIV tunnel vision ( combos and or nothing strategy ) Plus a new petition.: james j Whitehead, Caroline Cox et al long term surviver (7 December 2003)

Is there proof of a correlation between the "HIV" antibody and PCR tests and what may underlie such a correlation?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (11 December 2003)

Re: Is there proof of a correlation between the "HIV" antibody and PCR tests and what may underlie such a correlation?: James J Whitehead (12 December 2003)

Re: Is there proof of a correlation between the "HIV" antibody and PCR tests and what may underlie such a correlation?: Christopher J Noble (15 December 2003)

Re: 1.1 An appeal for patient rights and health to take precedence over HIV tunnel vision ( combos and or nothing strategy ) Plus a new petition.: James J Whitehead (16 December 2003)

Re: Re: Is there proof of a correlation between the "HIV" antibody and PCR tests and what may underlie such a correlation?: James J Whitehead (16 December 2003)

Re: Re: Is there proof of a correlation between the "HIV" antibody and PCR tests and what may underlie such a correlation?: Christopher S. Tyler (16 December 2003)

Rhetorical questions: Christopher J Noble (17 December 2003)

Will Christopher Noble please post his analysis of the 1983 Montagnier Science paper: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulus, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (19 December 2003)

More on the specificity of PCR and its correlation with the antibody test: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (19 December 2003)

Re: Rhetorical questions: Christopher Tyler (21 December 2003)

Re: More on the specificity of PCR and its correlation with the antibody test: Christopher J Noble (22 December 2003)

Basic requests which remain unanswered by Brian Foley and Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (24 December 2003)

A request to the Perth group: Murali Mohan Chakkilala (1 January 2004)

Perth Group response to Murali Mohan Chakkilala: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (16 January 2004)

Re: Perth Group response to Murali Mohan Chakkilala: Murali Mohan Chakkilala (20 January 2004)

Still no proof for a correlation between the HIV PCR and antibody tests: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso (6 February 2004)

Re: Still no proof for a correlation between the HIV PCR and antibody tests: Christopher J Noble (11 February 2004)

Re: Re: Still no proof for a correlation between the HIV PCR and antibody tests: Murali Mohan C.G. (14 February 2004)

That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Mark Bartlett (19 February 2004)

Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Peter J Flegg (20 February 2004)

Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Christopher Tyler (21 February 2004)

Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Murali Mohan C.G. (21 February 2004)

What is the Perth group's stand?: Alistair D'Sa (22 February 2004)

Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Mark Bartlett (23 February 2004)

Re: Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Christopher J Noble (23 February 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Mark Bartlett (24 February 2004)

More responses to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Andrew Maniotis, Christian Fiala (24 February 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Christopher Tyler (24 February 2004)

Re: More responses to Christopher Noble: Christopher J Noble (25 February 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Murali Mohan C.G. (25 February 2004)

Perth Group response to Peter Flegg: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (26 February 2004)

Perth Group response to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (26 February 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: That is a Scientist's Responsibility: Julian Turningheart (27 February 2004)

Re: What is the Perth group's stand?: Murali Mohan C.G. (27 February 2004)

Misinformation on HIV and its consequences: Peter J Flegg (2 March 2004)

Perth Group reasoning: Peter J Flegg (2 March 2004)

Re: What is the Perth group's stand?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Andrew Maniotis, Christian Fiala (4 March 2004)

Horizontal Transmission ?: James E Parker (5 March 2004)

Re: Re: More responses to Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (9 March 2004)

More Lies: Christopher J Noble (12 March 2004)

Re: Perth Group reasoning: Murali Mohan C.G. (12 March 2004)

Re: More Lies: Christopher Tyler (17 March 2004)

The serological and nucleic acid tests for HIV-1 and HIV-2 are as good as or better than the tests for any other infection.: Brian T Foley (18 March 2004)

Re: The serological and nucleic acid tests for HIV-1 and HIV-2 are as good as or better than the tests for any other infection.: Mark Bartlett (22 March 2004)

You can't trust everything you read on the Internet: Brian T Foley (22 March 2004)

Re: Basic requests which remain unanswered by Brian Foley and Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 March 2004)

Re: Horizontal Transmission ?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 March 2004)

A simple question for Brian T Foley: Anita L Allen (23 March 2004)

Re: Re: Basic requests which remain unanswered by Brian Foley and Christopher Noble: Brian T. Foley (23 March 2004)

Re: A simple question for Brian T Foley: Ed Cooper (24 March 2004)

Re: A simple question for Brian T Foley: Brian T Foley (24 March 2004)

Out of all the Responses Four Arguments Have Emerged. Three of These Things are not Like the Other...: Tony Floyd (24 March 2004)

Is Brian T Foley more than virtual?: Anita L Allen (24 March 2004)

Re: Out of all the Responses Four Arguments Have Emerged. Three of These Things are not Like the Other...: Brian T Foley (24 March 2004)

Yet another HIV test FDA-approved: March 24, 2004: Brian T Foley (25 March 2004)

Re: Re: Out of all the Responses Four Arguments Have Emerged. Three of These Things are not Like the Other...: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell and Moses Horwitz (25 March 2004)

Re: Re: Out of all the Responses Four Arguments Have Emerged. Three of These Things are not Like the Other...: Mark Bartlett (25 March 2004)

Re: Re: Out of all the Responses Four Arguments Have Emerged. Three of These Things are not Like the Other...: Christopher Tyler (25 March 2004)

Re: Perth Group reasoning: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Andrew Maniotis, Christian Fiala (26 March 2004)

What part of "infectious molecular clone" do you fail to understand?: Christopher J Noble (26 March 2004)

Re: Re: Perth Group reasoning: Murali Mohan (26 March 2004)

Re: Re: Horizontal Transmission ? Reply to Perth: James E Parker (27 March 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Horizontal Transmission ? Reply to Perth: Mark Bartlett (28 March 2004)

Further response to James Parker: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (1 April 2004)

Re: What part of "infectious molecular clone" do you fail to understand?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (4 April 2004)

Re: Further response to James Parker FeLV Horizontal Transmission: Parker James E (5 April 2004)

The Rape of the Null Hypothesis: Julian Turningheart (6 April 2004)

Re: The Rape of the Null Hypothesis: Murali Mohan (7 April 2004)

HOW MBEKI COULD STILL WIN THE AIDS DEBATE: Charles Ortleb (7 April 2004)

A New Way of Referencing Might Help Reduce Complaints About the AIDS Denialists...: Tony Floyd (7 April 2004)

Don't Confuse CFS with AIDS: Trevor G Marshall (7 April 2004)

CFS: assumption of viral cause.: T C Gettins (7 April 2004)

A second response to Christopher Noble's "What part of "infectious molecular clone" do you fail to understand?": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (8 April 2004)

Re: A New Way of Referencing Might Help Reduce Complaints About the AIDS Denialists...: Julian Turningheart (8 April 2004)

Re: A New Way of Referencing Might Help Reduce Complaints About the AIDS Denialists...: Alistair D'Sa (10 April 2004)

Re: A second response to Christopher Noble's "What part of "infectious molecular clone" do you fail to understand?": Brian T Foley (20 April 2004)

A reasonable request to the �HIV�/AIDS experts: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 April 2004)

Re: A second response to Christopher Noble's "What part of "infectious molecular clone" do you fail to understand?": Christopher J Noble (20 April 2004)

Re: A reasonable request to the �HIV�/AIDS experts: Brian T Foley (21 April 2004)

The reasonable request to the �HIV�/AIDS experts still remains: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 April 2004)

Re: Re: A reasonable request to the �HIV�/AIDS experts: Murali Mohan (24 April 2004)

The Day HIV Became a Fraud or "It's the Epidemiology, Stupid!": Charles Ortleb (24 April 2004)

Re: HIV: Clive Davies (25 April 2004)

Re: Re: HIV: Christopher Tyler (25 April 2004)

What �infectious molecular clone of HIV� means?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (28 April 2004)

Two questions to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (28 April 2004)

Our basic requests to Brian Foley and Christopher Noble remain still unanswered: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman (29 April 2004)

Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (29 April 2004)

Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (29 April 2004)

Questions to Peter Flegg which remain still unanswered: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (30 April 2004)

Questions That Should Remain Unanswered by Peter Flegg: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell and Moses Horwitz (1 May 2004)

Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Christopher Tyler (4 May 2004)

Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (4 May 2004)

Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Julian Turningheart (4 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (4 May 2004)

Re: Questions That Should Remain Unanswered by Peter Flegg: Julian Turningheart (4 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (6 May 2004)

Re: Re: Questions That Should Remain Unanswered by Peter Flegg: Brian T Foley (6 May 2004)

Re: Re: Further response to James Parker FeLV Horizontal Transmission: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (6 May 2004)

Some history on work done by the Gallo and Montagnier groups, 1982-1985.: Brian T Foley (6 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Questions That Should Remain Unanswered by Peter Flegg: Julian Turningheart (6 May 2004)

Re-phrasing our two questions to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (11 May 2004)

Re: Re-phrasing our two questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (11 May 2004)

A QUESTION AND A REQUEST TO BRIAN FOLEY: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (12 May 2004)

Re: A QUESTION AND A REQUEST TO BRIAN FOLEY: Brian T Foley (13 May 2004)

A paraphrased request and a question to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 May 2004)

Re: A paraphrased request and a question to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (14 May 2004)

Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (24 May 2004)

Re: Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (25 May 2004)

Re: Re: Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Christopher Tyler (26 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (26 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Christopher Tyler (27 May 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Eight simple questions and a repeated request to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (28 May 2004)

A comment on the size of cultures used for harvesting viruses.: Brian T Foley (28 May 2004)

Twelve simple questions to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 May 2004)

Re: Twelve simple questions to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (2 June 2004)

One simple question for the Perth Group.: Christopher J Noble (3 June 2004)

Re: One simple question for the Perth Group.: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (4 June 2004)

The methods used to clone HIV are the same ones used to clone other retroviruses.: Brian T Foley (5 June 2004)

One simple question for the Perth Group - 2: Christopher J Noble (7 June 2004)

Re: One simple question for the Perth Group - 2: Christopher Tyler (7 June 2004)

Re: Re: One simple question for the Perth Group - 2: Christopher J Noble (8 June 2004)

New and repeated questions and requests to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (8 June 2004)

Re: New and repeated questions and requests to Brian Foley: Brian T Foley (8 June 2004)

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.: Brian T Foley (8 June 2004)

Show me the photo please: Pennee R Atkinson (20 June 2004)

Re: Show me the photo please: Christopher J Noble (21 June 2004)

So, I see the picture, but what is it showing?: Trevor G Marshall (22 June 2004)

Re: Re: Show me the photo please: Christopher Tyler (22 June 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Show me the photo please: Brian T Foley (24 June 2004)

Did Montagnier discover HIV in 1983?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (24 June 2004)

Re: Did Montagnier discover HIV in 1983?: Brian T Foley (24 June 2004)

The rules of retrovirus isolation: Christopher J Noble (24 June 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Show me the photo please: Christopher J Noble (24 June 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Show me the photo please: Christopher Tyler (25 June 2004)

More on the photo: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 June 2004)

Re: More on the photo: Brian T Foley (25 June 2004)

I stand corrected re: gp120 lost in centrifugation: Brian T Foley (25 June 2004)

HIV EM and purification: Nicholas Bennett (28 June 2004)

An oft repeated question to Brian Foley and Christopher Noble: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (28 June 2004)

An oft repeated question to the Perth group: Christopher J Noble (29 June 2004)

Re: HIV EM and purification: Robert A. Da Prato (29 June 2004)

Re: More on the photo: Christopher J Noble (30 June 2004)

Re: HIV EM and purification: Nicholas Bennett (1 July 2004)

Retrovirologists, retroviruses and purification: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (1 July 2004)

Without the �HIV� genome (poly (A)-RNA banding at 1.16 g/ml) there can be no probes or molecular clones: Eleni Papadopulos-Elelopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (1 July 2004)

The surfaces of HIV particles exhibit "tufts" of protein: Tony Floyd (1 July 2004)

Time Travel and HIV: Tony Floyd (1 July 2004)

Re: Re: HIV EM and purification: Robert A. Da Prato (2 July 2004)

Re: Retrovirologists, retroviruses and purification: Nicholas Bennett (2 July 2004)

Re: Time Travel and HIV: Paul Whiting (2 July 2004)

Re: Retrovirologists, retroviruses and purification: Brian T Foley (2 July 2004)

Re: Without the �HIV� genome (poly (A)-RNA banding at 1.16 g/ml) there can be no probes or molecular clones: Brian T Foley (2 July 2004)

Re: Retrovirologists, retroviruses and purification: Christopher J Noble (2 July 2004)

Re: HIV EM and purification: Nicholas Bennett (2 July 2004)

What is Christopher Noble�s method for proving the existence of a new retrovirus?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 July 2004)

One AIDS patient will suffice: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 July 2004)

Re: What is Christopher Noble�s method for proving the existence of a new retrovirus?: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (6 July 2004)

Re: One AIDS patient will suffice: Nicholas Bennett (6 July 2004)

BBC News propagates Global 'HIV' Myths: Alexander H Russell (6 July 2004)

Paraphrasing or Inventing?: Christopher J Noble (7 July 2004)

Re: BBC News propagates Global 'HIV' Myths: Christopher J Noble (7 July 2004)

Notes from Hanz Gelderblom: Nicholas Bennett (7 July 2004)

Recreational drugs cause 'HIV' test to run positive: Alexander H Russell (8 July 2004)

Re: Recreational drugs cause 'HIV' test to run positive: Christopher J Noble (9 July 2004)

We repeat our request: What is Christopher Noble�s method of proving the existence of a new retrovirus?: Eleni Papdopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (9 July 2004)

Where is the virus?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (9 July 2004)

Re: We repeat our request: What is Christopher Noble�s method of proving the existence of a new retrovirus?: Christopher J Noble (9 July 2004)

Re: Where is the virus?: Christopher J Noble (9 July 2004)

Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Alexander H Russell (10 July 2004)

Re: Where is the virus?: Nicholas Bennett (10 July 2004)

Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Christopher J Noble (12 July 2004)

The causes of AIDS and other diseases: Peter J Flegg (12 July 2004)

Perth Group Invention.: Christopher J Noble (13 July 2004)

What are appropriate methodologies in retrovirology?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David (13 July 2004)

Where is the "HIV-1 infectious molecular clone"?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David (13 July 2004)

Re: The causes of AIDS and other diseases: Alexander H Russell (13 July 2004)

Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Alexander H Russell (13 July 2004)

Re: Where is the "HIV-1 infectious molecular clone"?: Nicholas Bennett (14 July 2004)

Re: Re: The causes of AIDS and other diseases: Stuart A Maguire, EH21 7RG (14 July 2004)

Absolutely Necessary Criteria.: Christopher J Noble (14 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Christopher J Noble (14 July 2004)

Re: Re: Where is the virus?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 July 2004)

Again we ask Christopher Noble to tell us his method of proving the existence of a new retrovirus: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 July 2004)

Again I ask the Perth Group to provide us with references for their "Rules of Retroviral Isolation".: Christopher J Noble (15 July 2004)

'HIV' research and children: Christopher Tyler (15 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Where is the virus?: Christopher J Noble (15 July 2004)

The HUT 78 cell line: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (15 July 2004)

Re: The HUT 78 cell line: Christopher J Noble (17 July 2004)

Re: The HUT 78 cell line: Nicholas Bennett (19 July 2004)

Where are the proper controls in "HIV" research?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (19 July 2004)

The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (19 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Guillaume Pandraud (19 July 2004)

Re: HIV Tunnel Vision: James J Whitehead (19 July 2004)

Re: Where are the proper controls in "HIV" research?: Nicholas Bennett (20 July 2004)

Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher Tyler (20 July 2004)

Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Nicholas Bennett (20 July 2004)

Re: HIV Tunnel Vision: Nicholas Bennett (20 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Nicholas Bennett (20 July 2004)

The non-existent rules: Christopher J Noble (20 July 2004)

Re: The HUT 78 cell line: Christopher J Noble (20 July 2004)

Re: Re: HIV Tunnel Vision: James J Whitehead, James J Whitehead (21 July 2004)

Don't Let Inconsistent Denialists Get the 'Bess' of you...: Tony Floyd (21 July 2004)

Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher J Noble (21 July 2004)

A Deafening Silence: Christopher J Noble (21 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: James J Whitehead, James J Whitehead (21 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: HIV Tunnel Vision: Nicholas Bennett (21 July 2004)

KS risks.: Nicholas Bennett (21 July 2004)

Re: Don't Let Inconsistent Denialists Get the 'Bess' of you...: Liam Scheff (23 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher Tyler (23 July 2004)

Is Non-HIV AIDS Now One Percent of AIDS Cases?: Charles Ortleb (23 July 2004)

MONTAGNIER'S REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE ACTIVITY: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 July 2004)

WE REPEAT, WHERE IS THE VIRUS?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 July 2004)

NICHOLAS BENNETT'S INTERPRETATION OF RICHIERI ET AL: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 July 2004)

Re: MONTAGNIER'S REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE ACTIVITY: Nicholas Bennett (26 July 2004)

Re: WE REPEAT, WHERE IS THE VIRUS?: Nicholas Bennett (26 July 2004)

Re: MONTAGNIER'S REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE ACTIVITY: Nicholas Bennett (26 July 2004)

A Question for all you Vaccine Researchers: Pennee Atkinson (26 July 2004)

Re: KS risks.: Pennee Atkinson (26 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Alexander H Russell (26 July 2004)

Re: Re: KS risks.: Peter J Flegg (27 July 2004)

Answers to Pennee Atkinson: Nicholas Bennett (27 July 2004)

Differentiating a Vaccinated Individual from an Infected Individual: Tony Floyd (28 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reply to Noble: Recreational drugs can cause 'HIV' positivity: Christopher J Noble (28 July 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher J Noble (28 July 2004)

Re: Where are the proper controls in "HIV" research?: Christopher J Noble (28 July 2004)

Kaposi's Sarcoma and the Perth Group: Christopher J Noble (5 August 2004)

THE CELL LINES HUT102 AND HUT78: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (5 August 2004)

Challenge to Noble: Prove 'HIV' is sexually transmitted: Alexander H Russell (5 August 2004)

Re: KS risks.: James J Whitehead (11 August 2004)

Re: Answers to Pennee Atkinson: Pennee Atkinson (11 August 2004)

Re: Kaposi's Sarcoma and the Perth Group: Alexander H Russell (11 August 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher Tyler (17 August 2004)

Is oxidation necessary for activation?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 August 2004)

Still no proper controls in HIV research: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 August 2004)

Is oxidation of "HIV" the critical factor?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 August 2004)

Is "HIV" sufficient or necessary for T4 cell decrease (AID)?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 August 2004)

Re: THE CELL LINES HUT102 AND HUT78: Christopher J Noble (17 August 2004)

"HIV" and KS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 August 2004)

Re: Re: Answers to Pennee Atkinson: Nicholas Bennett (17 August 2004)

Re: Re: KS risks.: Nicholas Bennett (17 August 2004)

Re: Re: Kaposi's Sarcoma and the Perth Group: Nicholas Bennett (17 August 2004)

Re: Re: Kaposi's Sarcoma and the Perth Group: Christopher J Noble (17 August 2004)

Re: Re: Kaposi's Sarcoma and the Perth Group: Peter Flegg (18 August 2004)

Re: "HIV" and KS: Nicholas Bennett (18 August 2004)

Re: Re: "HIV" and KS: Jean Umber (19 August 2004)

The politics of AIDS in South Africa: beyond the controversies: Christopher J Noble (19 August 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher J Noble (19 August 2004)

PubMed searches: Nicholas Bennett (20 August 2004)

"HIV", HHV-8 AND KS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 August 2004)

Where is the evidence for the existence of the "HIV" genome: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 August 2004)

Where is the evidence that "HIV" is causally related to KS?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 August 2004)

Re: "HIV", HHV-8 AND KS: Nicholas Bennett (21 August 2004)

Sezary Syndrome 101: Nicholas Bennett (21 August 2004)

Valerie Beral Said No Such Thing. The 'Perth Group' Need to Make This More of a Challenge.: Tony Floyd (22 August 2004)

re: In response to Nicholas Bennett: Pennee Atkinson (25 August 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher Tyler (25 August 2004)

Re: Re: Re: KS risks.: James J Whitehead (25 August 2004)

Re: Where is the evidence for the existence of the "HIV" genome: Christopher J Noble (25 August 2004)

Re: Re: "HIV", HHV-8 AND KS: James J Whitehead (25 August 2004)

Re: Where is the evidence that "HIV" is causally related to KS?: Christopher J Noble (25 August 2004)

Re: re: In response to Nicholas Bennett: Nicholas Bennett (26 August 2004)

Re: re: In response to Nicholas Bennett: Nicholas Bennett (26 August 2004)

Re: Re: re: In response to Nicholas Bennett: Jean UMBER (27 August 2004)

Reply to Noble: 'HIV' plays no role in KS: Alexander H Russell (27 August 2004)

Re: Reply to Noble: 'HIV' plays no role in KS: Christopher J Noble (31 August 2004)

HUT-78 AND HTLV: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 August 2004)

CELL DEATH AND OXIDATION: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 August 2004)

A REQUEST TO NICHOLAS BENNETT, CHRISTOPHER NOBLE: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 August 2004)

THREE REQUESTS TO PETER FLEGG: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 August 2004)

AZT oxidation: Nicholas Bennett (31 August 2004)

Re: Re: re: In response to Nicholas Bennett: Christopher Tyler (31 August 2004)

IS OUR ANALYSIS OF THE ZAGURY PAPER: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (31 August 2004)

More research misrepresentations: Peter J Flegg (31 August 2004)

Re: CELL DEATH AND OXIDATION: Nicholas Bennett (1 September 2004)

Re: CELL DEATH AND OXIDATION: Christopher J Noble (1 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The non-existent knobs on "HIV" particles: Christopher J Noble (1 September 2004)

Christopher J Noble and The Perth Group: Alexander H Russell (2 September 2004)

Re: AZT oxidation: Jean Umber (2 September 2004)

Re: Re: Where is the evidence that "HIV" is causally related to KS?: James J Whitehead (2 September 2004)

WATER AND SEMEN: THE SAME CARCINOGENIC PROPERTIES?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (2 September 2004)

"OKT3, OKT4 and all that": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (2 September 2004)

Re: Re: "HIV" and KS: James J Whitehead (3 September 2004)

Re: WATER AND SEMEN: THE SAME CARCINOGENIC PROPERTIES?: Nicholas Bennett (3 September 2004)

CD3 CD4 and all the more modern names...: Nicholas Bennett (3 September 2004)

Re: WATER AND SEMEN: THE SAME CARCINOGENIC PROPERTIES?: Christopher J Noble (3 September 2004)

Re: Christopher J Noble and The Perth Group: Christopher J Noble (3 September 2004)

Re: Re: AZT oxidation: Jean Umber (3 September 2004)

Re: Re: Christopher J Noble and The Perth Group: Alexander H Russell (6 September 2004)

Nicholas Bennett and the "HIV-1 infectious molecular clone": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 September 2004)

More on the "HIV" Genome: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (6 September 2004)

SH levels alone are predictors of AIDS and mortality: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (7 September 2004)

"HIV" "is not sufficient nor necessary" for KS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (7 September 2004)

Cell death, radiation and oxidation: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (7 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: "HIV" and KS: Nicholas Bennett (8 September 2004)

Re: Nicholas Bennett and the "HIV-1 infectious molecular clone": Nicholas Bennett (8 September 2004)

Re: "HIV" "is not sufficient nor necessary" for KS: Christopher J Noble (8 September 2004)

Re: Cell death, radiation and oxidation: JamesJ Whitehead (8 September 2004)

Re: More on the "HIV" Genome: Christopher J Noble (8 September 2004)

SH levels alone are NOT predictors of AIDS and mortality: Christopher J Noble (8 September 2004)

Nicholas Bennett and Montagnier's RT Activity: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (8 September 2004)

Requests to Christopher Noble and Nicholas Bennett: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (8 September 2004)

Various responses to the Perth Group: Nicholas Bennett (9 September 2004)

Re: Nicholas Bennett and Montagnier's RT Activity: Nicholas Bennett (9 September 2004)

Re: Requests to Christopher Noble and Nicholas Bennett: Christopher J Noble (10 September 2004)

Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Alexander H Russell (12 September 2004)

Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Nicholas Bennett (14 September 2004)

CAUSES OF LOW CD4 COUNTS IN AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 September 2004)

Re: CAUSES OF LOW CD4 COUNTS IN AIDS - a question to the Perth Group: Peter Flegg (14 September 2004)

Levy now studies HIV's ability to be transmitted and to induce disease.: Tony Floyd (16 September 2004)

Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Mark W. Bartlett (16 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Peter J Flegg (16 September 2004)

HIV in Canada and elsewhere: Nicholas Bennett (16 September 2004)

Re: HIV in Canada and elsewhere: Mark Bartlett (17 September 2004)

SEMEN, NITRITES AND KS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 September 2004)

MORE ON RADIATION AND OXIDATION: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Christopher J Noble (17 September 2004)

Mice May Have Good Reason to Fear Male Pigs: Tony Floyd (17 September 2004)

Reply to Bennett: 'HIV' is not an STD: Alexander H Russell (17 September 2004)

Re: Reply to Bennett: 'HIV' is not an STD: Nicholas Bennett (17 September 2004)

Re: Re: HIV in Canada and elsewhere: Nicholas Bennett (20 September 2004)

KS and UV: Nicholas Bennett (20 September 2004)

REPEAT, SH LEVELS ALONE ARE PREDICTORS OF AIDS AND MORTALITY: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Mark Bartlett (20 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Mark Bartlett (20 September 2004)

FIVE QUESTIONS TO NICHOLAS BENNETT: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (21 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Peter Flegg (21 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Mark Bartlett (23 September 2004)

Re: FIVE QUESTIONS TO NICHOLAS BENNETT: Nicholas Bennett (23 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Questions for Christopher Noble & Nicholas Bennett: Peter J Flegg (24 September 2004)

Questions for Peter Flegg: Alexander H Russell (27 September 2004)

Re: Questions for Peter Flegg: Nicholas Bennett (27 September 2004)

Re: Re: Questions for Peter Flegg: Mark Bartlett (28 September 2004)

Re: Re: Questions for Peter Flegg: Alexander H Russell (28 September 2004)

More on Nicholas Bennett and Montagnier's RT activity: Eleni Papdopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (28 September 2004)

More on Nicholas Bennett's "HIV" infectious molecular clone: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (28 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Questions for Peter Flegg: Nicholas Bennett (28 September 2004)

Neonatal HIV: Nicholas Bennett (28 September 2004)

Re: Neonatal HIV: Nicholas Bennett (29 September 2004)

"MECHANISM BY WHICH HIV CAUSES AIDS": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (29 September 2004)

Relative values.: Nicholas Bennett (29 September 2004)

Re: Neonatal HIV: Christopher Tyler (29 September 2004)

Re: Mice May Have Good Reason to Fear Male Pigs: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (29 September 2004)

Answers for Nicholas Bennett: Alexander H Russell (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Nicholas Bennett (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Mark Bartlett (30 September 2004)

More on CD4s: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (30 September 2004)

"HIV" � "a necessary or sufficient cause" for AIDS?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (30 September 2004)

Diagnosing �HIV� infection in neonates: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (30 September 2004)

PACTG 076 and HIVNET 012: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Mice May Have Good Reason to Fear Male Pigs: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Mice May Have Good Reason to Fear Male Pigs: Peter Morrell (30 September 2004)

Re: Relative values.: Mark Bartlett (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Peter J Flegg (30 September 2004)

Re: "HIV" � "a necessary or sufficient cause" for AIDS?: Peter J Flegg (30 September 2004)

Re: More on CD4s: Peter J Flegg (30 September 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Mice May Have Good Reason to Fear Male Pigs: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (30 September 2004)

Re: Answers for Nicholas Bennett: Nicholas Bennett (1 October 2004)

Re: Diagnosing �HIV� infection in neonates: Nicholas Bennett (1 October 2004)

HIV mechanism revisited: Nicholas Bennett (2 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Christopher Tyler (8 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Peter Flegg (8 October 2004)

Repeat, the origin of the CK and RT activity: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (11 October 2004)

Questions to Nicholas Bennett and Peter Flegg: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (11 October 2004)

Give us the "HIV" "structure", please.: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (11 October 2004)

Re: Questions to Nicholas Bennett and Peter Flegg: Peter Flegg (11 October 2004)

Re: Repeat, the origin of the CK and RT activity: Nicholas Bennett (11 October 2004)

Aids and the making of the Public Mind: Alexander H Russell (12 October 2004)

HIV - a smoking gun?: Nicholas Bennett, Brian Foley, Chris Noble contributed. Don't shoot the messenger. (12 October 2004)

Re: HIV - a smoking gun?: Alexander H Russell (12 October 2004)

Re: Aids and the making of the Public Mind: Nicholas Bennett (13 October 2004)

Re: Give us the "HIV" "structure", please.: Brian T Foley (13 October 2004)

TB, "HIV" antibody tests and AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 October 2004)

The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 October 2004)

"HIV" and PCP: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 October 2004)

"HIV", Factor VIII and CD4s: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (14 October 2004)

Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Nicholas Bennett (15 October 2004)

Still no in vivo images of 'HIV'!: Alexander H Russell (15 October 2004)

Re: Still no in vivo images of 'HIV'!: Nicholas Bennett (15 October 2004)

Re: Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Mark Bartlett (15 October 2004)

Re: Still no in vivo images of 'HIV'!: Nicholas Bennett (15 October 2004)

"HIV" and AIDS: Eleni Papdopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (16 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Nicholas Bennett (18 October 2004)

HHV-8 and KS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (18 October 2004)

Repeat, SHs play a critical role in cell survival following irradiation: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (18 October 2004)

A Selection of Questions Recently not Answered by the 'Perth Group': Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (18 October 2004)

Re: "HIV" and AIDS: Nicholas Bennett (18 October 2004)

Re: Re: Still no in vivo images of 'HIV'!: Alexander H Russell (18 October 2004)

Wonderful phrases: Peter Morrell (18 October 2004)

Re: "HIV" and PCP: Peter J Flegg (18 October 2004)

Impossible requests and absence of evidence: Nicholas Bennett (18 October 2004)

Re: "HIV", Factor VIII and CD4s: Peter J Flegg (19 October 2004)

Re: HHV-8 and KS: Nicholas Bennett (19 October 2004)

Pneumocystis. Is it a Protozoan or a Fungus? Does it exist at all according to 'PG' isolation criteria?: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (19 October 2004)

Re: Re: "HIV", Factor VIII and CD4s: Alexander H Russell (19 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Mark Bartlett (20 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: "HIV", Factor VIII and CD4s: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (20 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: "HIV", Factor VIII and CD4s: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (20 October 2004)

Repeat, the "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (20 October 2004)

What is the definitive paper that demonstrates that HIV causes AIDS?: Alexander H Russell (20 October 2004)

Re: Repeat, the "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic in infants, but are fine in adults: Nicholas Bennett (20 October 2004)

Re: Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Nicholas Bennett (21 October 2004)

Suggestions That Respondents Provide a Consistent and Cogent Argument Should Not Be 'Disturbing': Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (21 October 2004)

Re: Repeat, the "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Peter J Flegg (21 October 2004)

Re: Re: Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Mark Bartlett (25 October 2004)

Repeat, give us the "HIV" "structure", please: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

"HIV" necessary for AIDS?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

Once again, the origin of the CK and RT cannot be determined by their "RELATIVE amounts": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

Yet again, give us the "HIV" structure, please: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

Yet again on "HIV" and AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

Aids paradigm timeline: James I Madigan (25 October 2004)

Question for Flegg et al: Where is the evidence that 'HIV' is the cause of 'AIDS'?: Alexander H Russell (25 October 2004)

HTLV a lentivirus?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (25 October 2004)

An appeal to the moderators: James I Madigan (26 October 2004)

Re: The "HIV" antibody tests are not diagnostic: Nicholas Bennett (26 October 2004)

Re: Aids paradigm timeline: Nicholas Bennett (26 October 2004)

Long Irrelevant yarns are actually hard science.: Nicholas Bennett (26 October 2004)

Re: An appeal to the moderators: Dr John Rumbold (26 October 2004)

Re: HHV-8 and KS: James J whitehead, James J Whitehead (26 October 2004)

Re: An appeal to the moderators: Nicholas Bennett (26 October 2004)

Re: An appeal to the moderators: Brian T Foley (26 October 2004)

re: timeline and Ho: James I Madigan (28 October 2004)

Some Random Comments: Mark Bartlett (28 October 2004)

Re: re: timeline and Ho: Nicholas Bennett (29 October 2004)

Re: Some Random Comments: Nicholas Bennett (29 October 2004)

Re: Some Random Comments: Peter J Flegg (29 October 2004)

Reply to Russell - What Stephan Lanka actually said.: Peter J Flegg (29 October 2004)

Re: Re: Some Random Comments: Nicholas Bennett (30 October 2004)

Re: Re: Some Random Comments: Mark Bartlett (30 October 2004)

RE: Nick Bennett: Ho and Pantaleo: James I Madigan (1 November 2004)

Mr. Bennett's Covert Call for Censorship on 'HIV/AIDS' at BMJ's Rapid Responses: Alexander H Russell (1 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Some Random Comments: Nicholas Bennett (1 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Some Random Comments: Peter J Flegg (1 November 2004)

Reply to Flegg: What Stefan Lanka actually said in context: Alexander H Russell (1 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Neonatal HIV: Christopher Tyler (1 November 2004)

Re: RE: Nick Bennett: Ho and Pantaleo: Nicholas Bennett (1 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Some Random Comments: Peter J Flegg (4 November 2004)

PCP and "HIV": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (5 November 2004)

Re: PCP and "HIV": Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (6 November 2004)

Request for the Perth Group: Peter J Flegg (9 November 2004)

Re: PCP and "HIV": Peter J Flegg (9 November 2004)

Request for Peter Flegg: Alexander H Russell (10 November 2004)

Re: Request for Peter Flegg: PeterJ Flegg (10 November 2004)

Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Peter Morrell (11 November 2004)

Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Alexander H Russell (11 November 2004)

Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Tony Floyd (12 November 2004)

It is high time Messrs. Flegg, Floyd, Noble, Bennet, Rumbold rethink the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis: Alexander H Russell (15 November 2004)

Re: It is high time Messrs. Flegg, Floyd, Noble, Bennet, Rumbold rethink the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis: Nicholas Bennett (16 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Christopher Tyler (16 November 2004)

Re: It is high time Messrs. Flegg, Floyd, Noble, Bennet, Rumbold rethink the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis: Dr John Rumbold (16 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Mark Bartlett (18 November 2004)

Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Tony Floyd (18 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg: Nicholas Bennett (19 November 2004)

Nicholas Bennett inadvertantly admits that 'HIV' is a 'genetically engineered' laboratory artefact: Alexander H Russell (19 November 2004)

Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Christopher Tyler (22 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Peter J Flegg (23 November 2004)

Source for 99+% accuracy claim: Robert A. Da Prato (23 November 2004)

ELISA 'HIV' tests are non-specific and inaccurate: Alexander H Russell (24 November 2004)

Re: Source for 99+% accuracy claim: Nicholas Bennett (24 November 2004)

Re: Source for 99+% accuracy claim: Peter J Flegg (24 November 2004)

Re: Source for 99+% accuracy claim: Brian T Foley (24 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Gregory P Benvenuti (24 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (24 November 2004)

Re: ELISA 'HIV' tests are non-specific and inaccurate: Nicholas Bennett (26 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Tony Floyd (26 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Peter J Flegg (26 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Nicholas Bennett (26 November 2004)

What is the evidence that "HIV" causes PCP?: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (29 November 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Gregory P Benvenuti (1 December 2004)

Reply to Flegg: the Unanswered Question of 'HIV' isolation is not a "mental block": Alexander H Russell (1 December 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Request for Peter Flegg and Outstanding 'Perth Group' Questions: Christopher Tyler (1 December 2004)

Response to Gregory Benvenuti: Nicholas Bennett (3 December 2004)

GIVE US THE EVIDENCE THAT "HIV" DECREASES THE CD4 COUNT: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (7 December 2004)

Re: What is the evidence that "HIV" causes PCP?: Peter J Flegg (8 December 2004)

Re: GIVE US THE EVIDENCE THAT "HIV" DECREASES THE CD4 COUNT: Peter J Flegg (8 December 2004)

Re: Response to Gregory Benvenuti: Gregory P Benvenuti (8 December 2004)

Re: Re: Response to Gregory Benvenuti: Peter J Flegg (11 December 2004)

The Appeal of the Underdog and Unwillingess of the 'Perth Group' to Engage in Debate...: Tony Floyd, Louis Feinberg, Joseph Wardell, Moses Horwitz and Jennifer Hawkins (11 December 2004)

An AZT Quiz and an HIV Test for Peter J. Flegg: Alexander H Russell (11 December 2004)

Re: The Appeal of the Underdog and Unwillingess of the 'Perth Group' to Engage in Debate...: Peter Morrell (12 December 2004)

Re: Re: Re: Response to Gregory Benvenuti: James J Whitehead (12 December 2004)

Re: Re: The Appeal of the Underdog and Unwillingess of the 'Perth Group' to Engage in Debate...: Tony G Floyd (13 December 2004)

No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (16 December 2004)

Re: No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: Nicholas Bennett (17 December 2004)

Re: No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: Peter J Flegg (17 December 2004)

Unanswered Questions for Dr.Peter J. Flegg: Still No Evidence that 'HIV' Exists: Alexander H Russell (17 December 2004)

Re: Re: No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: Alexander H Russell (19 December 2004)

Re: Re: Re: No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: Nicholas Bennett (20 December 2004)

Reply to Nicholas Bennett: If 'HIV' really exists it should be visible: Alexander H Russell (31 December 2004)

Does Dr. Peter Flegg still defend the (ab)use of HAART drug regimes and 'HIV' testing?: Alexander Hr Russell (31 December 2004)

Re: Re: No scientific evidence � no scientific debate: James J Whitehead (31 December 2004)

Re: Reply to Nicholas Bennett: If 'HIV' really exists it should be visible: Nicholas Bennett (3 January 2005)

Reply to James Whitehead: Nicholas Bennett (3 January 2005)

Re: Does Dr. Peter Flegg still defend the (ab)use of HAART drug regimes and 'HIV' testing?: Nicholas Bennett (3 January 2005)

Reply to Nicholas Bennett: Haemophiliacs prove 'HIV' to be endogenous: Alexander H Russell (5 January 2005)

Re: Reply to Nicholas Bennett: Haemophiliacs prove 'HIV' to be endogenous: Nicholas Bennett (6 January 2005)

Re: Reply to James Whitehead: James J Whitehead (7 January 2005)

Re: Re: Reply to James Whitehead: Nicholas Bennett (8 January 2005)

HIV-1 does not encode glutathione peroxidase.: Brian T Foley (11 January 2005)

A question to Brian Foley: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (13 January 2005)

The politics of AIDS in South Africa: Did Makgatho Mandela die from ARVs?: Alexander H Russell (13 January 2005)

Re: HIV-1 does not encode glutathione peroxidase.: James J Whitehead (13 January 2005)

Re: The politics of AIDS in South Africa: Did Makgatho Mandela die from ARVs?: Nicholas Bennett (13 January 2005)

Re: Re: The politics of AIDS in South Africa: Did Makgatho Mandela die from ARVs?: James J Whitehead (14 January 2005)

Re: Re: HIV-1 does not encode glutathione peroxidase.: Nicholas Bennett (14 January 2005)

Reply to Whitehead: Makgatho Mandela died of pancreatic cancer - not 'AIDS': Alexander H Russell (18 January 2005)

Makgatho Mandela's death: Peter J Flegg (21 January 2005)

Oxidation - the primary cause for AIDS and "HIV": Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (21 January 2005)

Clinical trials of antioxidants: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (21 January 2005)

Re: Oxidation - the primary cause for AIDS and "HIV": Nicholas Bennett (22 January 2005)

Reply to Bennett: None of the predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis has been fulfilled: Alexander H Russell (25 January 2005)

Re: Re: Oxidation - the primary cause for AIDS and "HIV": Rod mcgregor (25 January 2005)

Re: Re: Oxidation - the primary cause for AIDS and "HIV": PeterJ Flegg (25 January 2005)

Reply to Peter Flegg: Makgatho Mandela's 'real' death: Alexander H Russell (25 January 2005)

HIV tests: Nicholas Bennett (26 January 2005)

The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Nicholas Bennett (26 January 2005)

Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: bruno spagnoli (27 January 2005)

Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Nicholas Bennett (28 January 2005)

Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Brian T Foley (28 January 2005)

Answers to Bennett: The 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis has failed all its predictions: Alexander H Russell (28 January 2005)

Activity does not homology make: Nicholas Bennett (29 January 2005)

Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Julian Turningheart (29 January 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Nicholas Bennett (30 January 2005)

Potatoes, Poppycock and HIV/AIDS: Tony Floyd (31 January 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Anita L Allen (31 January 2005)

More representative HIV test literature: Nicholas Bennett (1 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Bruno Spagnoli (1 February 2005)

More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (1 February 2005)

Re: Potatoes, Poppycock and HIV/AIDS: Anita L Allen (1 February 2005)

HIV diagnostics: Peter J Flegg (1 February 2005)

Re: More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (2 February 2005)

Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Nicholas Bennett (2 February 2005)

Re: More representative HIV test literature: Anita L Allen (2 February 2005)

More misrepresentative 'HIV' test literature: Alexander H Russell (2 February 2005)

Re: Re: More representative HIV test literature: Nicholas Bennett (3 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Bruno Spagnoli (3 February 2005)

More misrepresentation of experts by the alt-AIDS group???: Tony Floyd (3 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: The predictions based upon the 'HIV/AIDS' hypothesis have been fulfilled: Nicholas Bennett (4 February 2005)

Reply to Tony Floyd: requested Philip Mortimer reference: Alexander H Russell (5 February 2005)

Re: Reply to Tony Floyd: requested Philip Mortimer reference: Tony Floyd (6 February 2005)

Can Bennett isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Alexander H Russell (6 February 2005)

Re: More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: James J Whitehead (7 February 2005)

Re: Can Bennett isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Nicholas Bennett (7 February 2005)

Re: Re: More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: James J Whitehead (7 February 2005)

Reply to Floyd: 'HIV' Fundamentalists are today's 'Flat Earthers': Alexander H Russell (7 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (7 February 2005)

Re: Re: More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (8 February 2005)

Re: Reply to Floyd: 'HIV' Fundamentalists are today's 'Flat Earthers': Nicholas Bennett (8 February 2005)

Galileo and alt-AIDS: Tony Floyd (8 February 2005)

Will Bennett now isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Alexander H Russell (8 February 2005)

Re: Will Bennett now isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Nicholas Bennett (9 February 2005)

Reply to Tony Floyd & Nicholas Bennett: Alexander H Russell (9 February 2005)

Re: Galileo and alt-AIDS: Julian Turningheart (10 February 2005)

Re: Re: Galileo and alt-AIDS: Tony Floyd (11 February 2005)

Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: James J Whitehead (14 February 2005)

Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: Nicholas Bennett (15 February 2005)

Can Bennett at last now isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Alexander H Russell (16 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants - erratum: Nicholas Bennett (16 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: James J Whitehead (16 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: James J Whitehead (16 February 2005)

Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Peter Morrell (17 February 2005)

Re: Can Bennett at last now isolate 'HIV' via de Harven's methodology?: Nicholas Bennett (17 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: Nicholas Bennett (17 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: Gregory P Benvenuti (17 February 2005)

When "HIV antibodies" are not "HIV" antibodies: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (17 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: James J Whitehead (18 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Clinical trials of antioxidants: Nicholas Bennett (18 February 2005)

A Medical Hypothesis is just that: Tony Floyd (18 February 2005)

Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Alexander H Russell (18 February 2005)

Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Nicholas Bennett (19 February 2005)

Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Peter Morrell (20 February 2005)

Reply to Bennett: David Ho's 'virological mayhem model' has long since been debunked: Alexander H Russell (20 February 2005)

Re: Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Alexander H Russell (20 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Nicholas Bennett (21 February 2005)

Russell to Morrell: regarding 'epiphenomena' and Duesberg's drug/AIDS hypothesis: Alexander H Russell (21 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Christopher J Noble (21 February 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Reply to Morrell: Regarding 'endogenous entities' and 'epiphenomena': Peter Flegg (21 February 2005)

Re: When "HIV antibodies" are not "HIV" antibodies: Peter Flegg (21 February 2005)

Reply to Flegg regarding 'retroviruses': Alexander H Russell (23 February 2005)

Reply to Russell: more regarding endogenous entities: Peter Morrell (24 February 2005)

Peter Flegg grossly misrepresented Stefan Lanka out of context: Alexander H Russell (24 February 2005)

Re: Peter Flegg grossly misrepresented Stefan Lanka out of context: Peter J Flegg (25 February 2005)

Reply to Peter Morrell: Deconstructing 'viruses': Alexander H Russell (25 February 2005)

Re: Re: Peter Flegg grossly misrepresented Stefan Lanka out of context: Alexander H Russell (28 February 2005)

Re: Reply to Flegg regarding 'retroviruses': Nicholas Bennett (4 March 2005)

Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Torsten Engelbrecht (17 March 2005)

Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Nicholas Bennett (18 March 2005)

Aspects of 'HIV' testing: Alexander H Russell (18 March 2005)

Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Torsten Engelbrecht (21 March 2005)

Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Mark Bartlett (21 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Nicholas Bennett (21 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Nicholas Bennett (21 March 2005)

A Summary of Our Debate with Nicholas Bennett: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (22 March 2005)

The Predictions of the "HIV" and Oxidative Theories of AIDS: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (22 March 2005)

Re: Let them be: Theo HM Fenton (22 March 2005)

Re: Re: Let them be: Nicholas Bennett (23 March 2005)

Re: Re: Let them be: Mark Struthers (23 March 2005)

Reply to Fenton: Bennett, Floyd, Flegg - you won't change their views.: Alexander H Russell (23 March 2005)

Re: Re: Let them be: Tony Floyd (23 March 2005)

Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (23 March 2005)

Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (23 March 2005)

Reply to Floyd: Duesberg has not cultured 'HIV': Alexander H Russell (23 March 2005)

Re: Let them be: Theo HM Fenton (23 March 2005)

Let us beware: John Stone (24 March 2005)

Ozymandias: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (24 March 2005)

Re: Re: Let them be: Dr John Rumbold (24 March 2005)

Reply to Fenton: The Outlandish Anomalies of the 'HIV' Hypothesis: Alexander H Russell (24 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: torsten engelbrecht (24 March 2005)

Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (24 March 2005)

Re: Let us beware: James J Whitehead (24 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Nicholas Bennett (24 March 2005)

Reply to Bennett: No evidence for 'HIV' directly killing T cells: Alexander H Russell (26 March 2005)

Re: Reply to Bennett: No evidence for 'HIV' directly killing T cells: Nicholas Bennett (27 March 2005)

Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: James J Whitehead (29 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (30 March 2005)

Reply to Bennett: Why 'HIV' is a misinterpreted 'HERV': Alexander H Russell (30 March 2005)

Re: Reply to Bennett: Why 'HIV' is a misinterpreted 'HERV': Nicholas Bennett (31 March 2005)

Reply to Bennett: HHV-8 does not cause KS: Alexander H Russell (31 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Christopher Tyler (31 March 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Analysis: the properness of the HIV hypothesis is a media hype: Torsten Engelbrecht (1 April 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Nicholas Bennett (1 April 2005)

Re: Re: When "HIV antibodies" are not "HIV" antibodies: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, Barry Page, David Causer, Helman Alfonso, Sam Mhlongo, Todd Miller, Christian Fiala (1 April 2005)

Reply to Bennett: There is no Gold Standard 'HIV' Genome: Alexander H Russell (2 April 2005)

Reply to Bennett: Gay AIDS-KS is caused by poppers: Alexander H Russell (2 April 2005)

Re: Reply to Bennett: Gay AIDS-KS is caused by poppers: Jeffrey L Evans (3 April 2005)

Re: Reply to Russell's points: Nicholas Bennett (4 April 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: Christopher Tyler (4 April 2005)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Yet More on Oxidation � the primary cause for AIDS and �HIV�: James J Whitehead (7 April 2005)

Reply to Bennett: Where are all the heterosexual AIDS-KS cases in the West?: Alexander H Russell (7 April 2005)

See what one wants...: Nicholas Bennett (7 April 2005)

Re: Mbeki's AIDS Panel still active: Nassim C Kamdar (8 April 2005)

Reply to Nassim C. Kamdar regarding Critical 'AIDS' Analysts: Alexander H Russell (10 April 2005)

A Letter and a Request to Dr. Luc Montagnier: Jeffrey Evans (10 April 2005)

Re: See what one wants...: Marcel Girodian (13 April 2005)

Re: Re: See what one wants...: Nicholas Bennett (14 April 2005)

Reply to Bennett: 'HIV' Dogmatists negate 'conventional thought': Alexander H Russell (17 April 2005)

Re: Re: Re: See what one wants...: Marcel Girodian (17 April 2005)

Reply to Bennett: 'HIV' Dogmatists negate 'conventional thought': Alexander H Russell (17 April 2005)

Mbeki's AIDS Panel still active 28 February 2003

David Rasnick,
Chief Science Officer, Boveran, Inc.
San Ramon, CA 94583

Dear Editor,
Didier Fassin and Helen Schneider say that in "April 2002...Mbeki formally distanced himself from the AIDS 'dissidents'". I have read reports in the newspapers making such wishful claims, but none has been confirmed by the South African government, certainly not by the president. I am a member of Thabo Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel, which is still in existence. None of us on his AIDS Panel was informed that Mbeki no longer has need of our services. His government continues to call upon us for advice and assistance. What evidence do Fassin and Schneider have that Mbeki formally or otherwise has distanced himself from the AIDS dissidents? Can they cite their sources of this information?
David Rasnick, PhD
AIDS dissident and still a Member of the President�s AIDS Advisory Panel
Competing interests: Member of President Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel

The politics of AIDS in South Africa 28 February 2003

David Rasnick,
Chief Science Officer, Boveran, inc.
San Ramon, CA 94583

Dear Editor,
Didier Fassin and Helen Schneider wish to talk about "The politics of AIDS in South Africa". Let's do just that.
Almost daily the newspapers and television tell us that 25 million people have died of AIDS, and there are upwards of 40 million people infected with HIV. However, since the USA reports a cumulative number of only three quarters of a million AIDS cases since 1980, and Europe reports even fewer, that means that over 95% of all those AIDS deaths and HIV infected people must be somewhere else. That somewhere else, according to the newspapers, is Africa, India, and increasingly China.
Because of its international importance, South Africa is the biggest roadblock impeding the expansion of American-dominated AIDS Incorporated throughout the developing world. The battle to determine the future of AIDS Inc. is being waged right now in South Africa.
South African president Thabo Mbeki's government is justifiably suspicious of the rush to get the highly toxic anti-HIV drugs into South African bodies. The South African government is currently conducting trials in 18 centers across the country to determine the safety and efficacy of administering the anti-HIV drug nevirapine to pregnant women and their babies. The trial was to be completed in December 2002 but not enough women have volunteered. However, AIDS Inc. cannot afford to let this trial go to completion for two reasons: 1) the results may show that the drug is neither safe nor efficacious, and 2) the government of South Africa cannot be permitted to set the example of acting independently of AIDS Inc. when it comes to AIDS.
Realizing that South Africa is crucial to its expansion, AIDS Inc. drafted former president Jimmy Carter and billionaire Bill Gates to do battle with Thabo Mbeki in March, 2002. Carter said he and Gates believed South Africa had not made "adequate progress" in preventing new cases of Aids, which were increasing "by leaps and bounds every day".
Jimmy Carter urged President Mbeki to learn the lessons from poorer African countries that have been much more effective in fighting AIDS--which translated means those African countries that have submitted to the hegemony of AIDS Inc.
Former president Mandela joined Carter and the other drugs-into- bodies enthusiasts saying that, "We can't afford to be conducting debates while people are dying. We have to ensure that our people are given the drugs which are going to help them. This is a war."
War, indeed! President Clinton declared AIDS a national security threat to the USA in 2000, right before Mbeki's State visit to the Whitehouse.
On March 10, 2002, Smuts Ngonyama of the African National Congress (ANC) lashed out at Jimmy Carter's attempt to pressure Mbeki's government.
"We are also surprised at the comments made by the [Carter] delegation about anti-retrovirals drugs in general and Nevirapine in particular.
"We do not understand why US citizens urge this drug upon us when the health authorities in their own country do not allow its use for mother-to-child transmission [of HIV]. One of the reasons for this is that these health authorities say that there is insufficient data about issues of the safety of the drug.
"We find it alarming that President Carter is willing to treat our people as guinea pigs, in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies, which he would not do in his own country.
"The comments he and others made after meeting with President Mbeki indicate the true purpose of his visit to our country, which was arranged without the knowledge of the government.
"Once more, we would like to assure President Carter that our government is firmly committed to meet the health challenges facing our people, including AIDS, STD's, TB, cholera, malaria and others.
"For this, we do not need the interference and contemptuous attitude of President Carter or anybody else. As South Africans, we have the possibility to find solutions to our problems, as the people of the US have.
"We are not arrogant to presume that we know what the US should do to respond to its many domestic challenges. Nobody from elsewhere in the world should presume they have a superior right to tell us what to do with our own challenges."
If AIDS Inc. can pry open the drugs-into-bodies floodgates in South Africa, then billions of dollars will pour through Africa, India, and China on their way to the bank accounts of American and other drug companies. The giant corporations will get richer beyond measure whether or not giving nevirapine to women and children (or anybody else for that matter) is a good idea as Costa Gazi, Zackie Achmat, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, and Nelson Mandela claim, or insane and criminal as the black box warning label of nevirapine makes clear.
http://www.viramune.com/
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 2001,
Viramune (nevirapine)
WARNING
"Severe, life-threatening, and in some cases fatal hepatotoxicity, including fulminant and cholestatic hepatitis, hepatic necrosis and hepatic failure, has been reported in patients treated with VIRAMUNE ��. In some cases, patients presented with non- specific prodromal signs or symptoms of hepatitis and progressed to hepatic failure. Some events occurred after short-term exposure to VIRAMUNE. Patients with signs or symptoms of hepatitis must seek medical evaluation immediately and should be advised to discontinue VIRAMUNE. (See WARNINGS)
"Severe, life-threatening skin reactions, including fatal cases, have occurred in patients treated with VIRAMUNE. These have included cases of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and hypersensitivity reactions characterized by rash, constitutional findings, and organ dysfunction. Patients developing signs or symptoms of severe skin reactions or hypersensitivity reactions must discontinue VIRAMUNE as soon as possible. (See WARNINGS)
"The first 12 weeks of therapy with VIRAMUNE are a critical period during which it is essential that patients be monitored intensively to detect potentially life-threatening hepatotoxicity or skin reactions. VIRAMUNE should not be restarted following severe hepatic, skin or hypersensitivity reactions. In addition, the 14-day lead-in period with VIRAMUNE 200 mg daily dosing must be strictly followed. (See WARNINGS)"
David Rasnick
Competing interests: Member of Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel

Political Mobilisation against HIV in South Africa 1 March 2003

Jack P Lewis,
Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Film and New Media at the University of Cape Town
IFNM, Betram Place, Hiddingh Hall Campus, UCT, Cape Town, South Africa

In response to Fassin and Schneider - I would like to submit the this report by Ralph Berold on the protest march supported by 20 000 people organised by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) at the opennig of Parrliament on the 14th February 2003. The article beautifully captures the nature of the TAC, a movement which is seen by many as a critical force for breaking the logjam in AIDS policy.
The TAC has contributed mightily to mobilizing domestic and international opinion to create access to life saving medicine. There can be no doubt highy active anti-retorival treatment (HAART)makes a huge difference to the ability of particularly men to be open about their HIV status. This opponness is the critical ingredient for encouraging safer sexual practice and a lower rate of new infections. Proper treatment of opportunistic infections **and** HAART **combined** with strong social mobilisation as referenced by the politics of the TAC, has shown that it can provide the crucial missing link in effective HIV prevention. This is what we mean when we say that treatment and prevention "are two sides of the same coin". This "combination therapy" - the combination of effective clinical management and a geneuine commitment to the broader social needs of poor people - creates an environment in which men who otherwise might not care about the possibiilty that they may be causing new HIV infections, to improve their health status, take responsibility for their actions and do everything in their power to ensure they do not infect others. This is the experience of thousands of people who have become active in the TAC. The introduction of widespread availability of HAART through the public health system and continued social mobilisation is the best prescription we have to bring down the rate of new infections and reduce mortality in the HIV epidemic in South Africa.
Jack Lewis
Institute of Film and New Media
University of Cape Town
jlewis@hiddingh.uct.ac.za
ARTICLE OF RALPH BEROLD FOLLOWS
Get up stand up!
I wasn't sure whether I would go to the march for HIV treatment,organised by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) at the opening of Parliament. The thought of the 36 hour train journey, only 12 hours in Cape Town and then another 36 hours back, had something to do with it.
But I realised last week that this was an important journey for me. I had become passionate about the issues. I scan the papers and email for news on changes in HIV/AIDS policy. It is time for government to take care of some of its 4 to 5 million citizens who are living with HIV. This must be shown not in empty promises and policies, but in practical terms, through a better public health system and universal access to life saving medicines. These changes have been proposed in a document which has been under discussion for the last three months at NEDLAC.
"Don't go there and insult our President" one comrade said. I explained that TAC was not trying to insult or take over our government. We are open about our motives - We want government and organised business to sign the framework agreement that have been negotiating. Let us stop fighting and move forward on this issue. Together, as South Africans we are facing one big challenge.
We left at 9pm on Wednesday night from Park Station. About 600 activists from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KZN and Limpopo province boarded the train and began singing. The songs did not stop for three days. On Thursday we ran workshops in the dining car. We looked after people that were on TB treatment. Logistics such as catering for 600 through one narrow passage was a nightmare. But people were patient and efficient and there was an air of respect, a partnership amongst strangers.
I met a policeman who had disclosed his status and was an active HIV role model and educator. I met counsellors, toyi-toyi boys, nurses, old people, students, researchers and journalists on the train - each with a common purpose. We stopped at Beaufort West in the afternoon. Staggered into an air conditioned Wimpy for a coke and to our delight and surprise we found an oasis in this dusty town - a deep blue public swimming pool. We swam in our clothes.
Friday morning we hit Cape Town station. In the light rain we gathered and were issued our "HIV positive" T-shirts. 600 people walked to St George's cathedral distributing pamphlets to people on the streets. At the former church of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, we ate breakfast and met up with our Cape Town compatriots. Six of us split the scene, with some hours to kill before the march was scheduled to begin. We roamed the Company Gardens, past the back of Parliament, Tuynhuis - the official residence of the President, past the National Gallery. We were allowed into the National Museum for free where we saw the massive bones of whales and million year old rocks and crystals.
The six of us then made our way to the start of the march down Adderly Street, where the presidential guard stood at attention, dressed in full colours. Clad in our "loud" T-shirts we passed them handing out flyers to the growing crowd. When we reached the TAC crowd, the president and his armoured BMWs drove past. TAC activists lining the streets. Our marshals, identified in red T-shirts kept the crowd from pushing forward to meet the President's motorcade. Anxious police officers.
The rally started at about 12:30. Amampondo hammered out some beautiful melodic rhythms on their marimbas. A flatbed truck served as a stage for speakers and a sound system. Patricia de Lille was one of the first to speak. She said that today she had left Parliament to march with TAC. She reported that the President, in his "state of the nation speech", talked about the US and Iraq for 20 minutes and just mentioned HIV/AIDS in passing, not even by name. Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane did not mince his words - "they say that we do not have money for antiretroviral drugs, yet we can pay R60 billion rand for arms!". Where are our priorities?
Then about 20 000 people stood up and arranged themselves in legions -groups in which they would march up Adderley Street. First the people living openly with HIV and AIDS. Then the religious and political leaders. Then the unions. Gays and lesbians. Students. NGOs and community based organisations. Each activist knew why they were there. "HIV treatment for all". We sang, shouted, toyi-toyed, clapped hands and moved forward. Shop workers came to their doors to give their support. Pedestrians were swept into the tide of our wave. I looked up the street and as far as I could see were thousands of people. The power of our bodies and our determination.
In front of Parliament we stopped. A mass meeting at the gates of power. TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat told us how the great rivers of Africa were not big enough to hold our tears, our grief of loved ones lost or dying. He said that we needed to move into a new era, where the people of this country will be cared for, and we will all be afforded the dignity and rights that we deserve. Comrade Willie Madisha, president of COSATU, reminded us that we had spent six months negotiating this deal. Representatives from government, business, labour and the community had come to a consensus and had drafted a framework agreement for a treatment plan. This was meant to be signed on the 1st December. It has not yet been signed. The President and minister continue to deny that it is worth anything.
Each day over 1000 people die of AIDS-related illnesses. Each day without good doctors, nurses and medicines, means another 1000 die. That is 7000 a week, and over 28 000 a month, 300 000 per year, until more than 5 million South Africans will die. Mr President - we plea you, we ask you, we demand of you, to declare a national emergency and to agree to a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan!
By Ralph Berold, February 2003
beroldr@hr.wits.ac.za
Competing interests: � None declared

The priority should be to preserve humanity 1 March 2003

Richard G Fiddian-Green,
None
None

The call for the "discussion of AIDS in South Africa .... to move beyond a simplistic "for or against" stance on President Mbeki's denial of a connection between HIV and AIDS" is appropriate for the conflict misses the primary issues(1). As the WHO data, reviewed in yesterday's Financial Times, show population growth is out of control in Africa and elsewhere unless the AIDS story is real. Herein lies the rub for the AIDS story is simply not credible (2,3). Concealing the truth or manipulating the facts to achieve some hidden agenda is suicidal if, as I have argued, disproportionate population explosion and its accompanying environmental destruction threatens not only peace but also the survival of man on earth
Our first priority should be to define the threats to the human race and the actions that need to be taken, if necesary, to deal with them in a timely manner. All other agendas are of lessr importance. The problem is that there may be an irresistable temptation to fiddle the figures to secure the less important and potentially divisive agendas. Perhaps, therefore, we should begin with a full disclosure of all hidden agendas and the means that are being used to pursue them in the spirit of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We cannot, however, afford to delay resolution by working at the pace customary in the UN.
1. The politics of AIDS in South Africa: beyond the controversies Didier Fassin and Helen Schneider BMJ 2003; 326: 495-497
2. HIV/AIDS: the biggest error? Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/320/7237/0#7270, 4 Apr 2000
3. Let us call a spade a spade Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/326/7381/126/e#28968, 20 Jan 2003
Competing interests: � None declared

The reality of AIDS in South Africa 2 March 2003

Kate A Herbert,
none
sw11 1sy,
Didier Fassin, Helen Schneider

Dear Editor
I trust the authors of this informative and interesting article are chuckling to themselves at the response from David Rasnick. The culture of 'suspician and denial' has been evidenced brilliantly.
I welcome the call to move away from the politics of treatment. AIDS is a national emergency in South Africa - an emergency many are still hoping to ignore. Treatment is one option but long term, support at a grass-roots level is essential to prevent the breakdown of the fabric of society.
The authors neglect to mention one staggering statistic: by the end of 2005, it is predicted that there will be 1.5 million children in South Africa orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Children left to struggle on their own. Children who will stop attending school. Children who will one day be disillusion, uneducated adults. It is essential that this aspect of the AIDS pandemic is not ignored.
I spend a lot of my spare time working for Starfish Charity, which is working to provide education, food and accomodation to AIDS orphans in South Africa. I'm a typical white South African living in the UK - and have been living away from South Africa for over a decade. But this has struck a deep chord - and, I fully agree with the authors' conclusion that HIV/AIDS has mobilised both activists and lay people. This issue is not going to go away, no matter how long we argue about treatment or politics. The time to act is now - and it need not be a dramatic gesture. �10 a year pays a child's school fees in rural areas. There is no longer an excuse not to get involved.
Kate Herbert
Starfish Charity
www.starfishcharity.org
Competing interests: � None declared

The invisible epidemic and the AZT intoxication 2 March 2003

Claus K�hnlein,
M:D:internal Med.
Germany, 24103 Kiel, K�nigsweg 14

Thabo Mbeki had probably a similiar approach when doubting the AIDS- epidemic in his country like me. The epidemic is clinically indeed invisible, because none of the 28 AIDS- defining conditions are new. The "epidemic" only becomes visible if you introduce HIV-Tests in a country. So it is nothing more than a "testepidemic". If you rule out the HIV-tests the "Testepidemic " would disappear and you would see again people suffering from tuberculosis, malaria and lepra and the many more infectious diseases which are still common in the third world.
This burden of diseases is related to poverty. We had these problems of poverty after the world wars in our country. It is textbookknowledge that starvation is the cause of pneumocystis pneumonia(Harrisons,Principles of Internal Medicine)It is also well established that immunosuppressive drugs cause PCP. Unfortunately we chose an immunosuppressive drug, namely AZT as a treatment for an AIDS. The journal Science headlined:"Bone marrow suppression hampers AZT use in AIDS victims".
But what does that mean? It means that treatment of the disease itself gives rise for the bleak prognosis for the disease. This is dokumented in the"Darby Study" that was published in Nature in 1995. Darby showed that the mortality of HIV- pos. hemophiliacs rose tremendously after the widespread introduction of AZT in 1987, but related the rise in mortality to HIV and not AZT- thats the controversy!
This controversy could be easily resolved through a simple animal model: feed the HIV infected chimps who are still healthy with 1500 mg of AZT- the dosis the HIV-pos. hemophiliacs had to swallow and look what happens. I would predict AIDS-defining conditions like wasting and loss of CD4 cells within one or two years.
Competing interests: � None declared

Killing the geese that lay the golden eggs 2 March 2003

Richard G Fiddian-Green,
None
None

Parties within the medical profession and the environmental movements are, through ignorance, guilty of being party to killing the geese that lay the golden eggs (1,2,3).
The primary objective for the medical profession should be to do anything legitimate within their power to maximize longevity and especially disability-adjusted longevity for their patients and their descendents. As we cannot always have what we want and have to bow to economic realities we have, therefore, to choose what is the most cost- effective. That means we have first to be able to define what is meant by effective. Agreement upon this definition appeared to have been reached but only very recently. We need to measure the effectiveness of outcomes in terms of life-years and disability-adjusted life-years saved.
Whatever the cause or causes of premature death and disability the sooner one is able intervene effectively the more cost-effective the intervention is likely to be It should be appreciated that unless a given treatment has been shown, by appropriate statistical means when the therapeutic benefit is not obvious, to be effective it can never be considered cost-effective. This eliminates an embarrisingly large number of therapeutic interventions especially in medical as opposed to invasive practices. Once a treatment is shown to be effective its cost-effectiveness can be determined. For both medical treatments and measures devised to address environmental causes this may be best expressed in terms of dollars spent per incremental life-year or disability-adjusted life-year saved (4,5,6). Only when these steps have been taken is it possible for us to make rational decisions.
From the outcry they provoke it is clear that rational choices do not necessarily equate with popular choices even amongst the medical profession and basic scientists whom one would have assumed were most capable of making rational judgements (1,3,7,8,9). Part of the problem may ralate to a lack of appreciation for what it is that really causes diseases that cause disabilities and death (10). Part of the problem may be the failure to appreciate that whilst many drugs and environmental pollutants may clearly be harmful exposure to low doses may often be beneficial potentially even in the case of the environmental pollutants(11,12). Part of the problem may be the unreliability of much of the data that have been gathered even by WHO (13). Hidden and highly provocative political agendas may account in part for inaccuracies in the data.
The therapeutic activity of plants or drugs reside in descrete chemicals within them. Furthermore the potency and safety of different products differs widely even when manufacturing controls insure uniformity in the composition of the products. Given this scenario who in their right minds would want to be given a drug manufactured in some third world sweat shop or herb even if genetic engineering insured that it concealed pharmaceutical products with established efficacy? There is a real danger of political forces supported by covert activities undermining the established free market practices of established and highly credible pharmaceutical companies. The attacks against the pricing of AIDS medications in lesser developed countries is one manifestation of these political forces.
The attacks against intellectual property rights is another manifestation of these contraversial and possibly hidden political initiatives. Having worked on both sides of the fence and in both developed and lesser developed countries I have little doubt that free market practices, with some improvements, are by far the best means of keepingall patients supplied with the most effective and theerefopre cost- effective treatments even in lesser developed countries (14,15,16,17). The reality is, as President Mbeki appreciates, that the determinants of cost -effectiveness and hence the ranking of cost-effective interventions be they public health, medical or surgical differ greatly between developed and lesser developed countries.
1. Drug companies face pressure on profits Deborah Josefson BMJ 2002; 324: 65.
2. Thought control The scourge of the greens is accused of dishonesty (From The Economist print edition) Jan 11th 2003
3. Howls from greens The appointment of an eco-sceptic may mark a big change in policy (From The Economist print edition) Mar 2nd 2002
4. Fiddian-Green RG. Tonometry: part 2 clinical use and cost implications. Intensive Care World. 1992 Sep;9(3):130-5. Review.
5. The truth about the environment (From The Economist print edition) Aug 4th 2001
6. Doomsday postponed (From The Economist print edition) Sep 8th 2001
7. Defending science (From The Economist print edition) Feb 2nd 2002
8. Never the twain shall meet (From The Economist print edition) Feb 2nd 2002
9. The litany and the heretic (From The Economist print edition) Feb 2nd 2002
10. Determining the cause of death Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/324/7328/41#29384, 3 Feb 2003
11. Dual Effect of energy deficit on hippocampal neurogenesis Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7370/934#26556, 28 Oct 2002
12. D'Arcangelo D, Facchiano F, Barlucchi LM, Melillo G, Illi B, Testolin L, Gaetano C, Capogrossi MC. Acidosis inhibits endothelial cell apoptosis and function and induces basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor expression. Circ Res. 2000 Feb 18;86(3):312-8.
13. Should WHO confine its activities to monitoring?? Richard G Fiddian- Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7375/1294#27726, 10 Dec 2002
14. Has the FDA served its function? Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7364/592#25700, 20 Sep 2002
15. Patents and their commercial value are essential Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7364/562/a#25646, 19 Sep 2002
16. The need to protect intellectual property rights Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7363/519#25347, 9 Sep 2002
17. Preparing for the coming healthcare revolution Richard G Fiddian-Green bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7375/1290#27463, 29 Nov 2002
Competing interests: � None declared

Political nonsense 3 March 2003

Richard L. Newell,
Ship's Doctor
In the Caribbean

Sir
I would not dream of depriving Fassin and Schneider of their right to receive funding from a French agency to pursue research into the politics of HIV/AIDS, but surely they should do better than this.
They ignore the fact that HIV by and large spread from north to south over the last 20 years, and that the colonial masters had left 20 years before that. Blaming colonialism for the ills of Africa has always been the habit of the chattering classes: nobody can tell what would have happened to the continent's people had the white man not arrived. Furthermore, most of South Africa's mass removals took place before HIV was invented! Also to talk of economic inequalities implies that HIV will attack the poor more aggressively if there are rich people around - as if the rich were somehow responsible for it. But rich black Africans get HIV too; indeed the worst affected communities tend to be those who are employed in the formal sector, i.e. the relatively rich.
The only responses that have any meaning and do not pursue a set agenda come from the South Africans Lewis and Herbert (although it is interesting to see that Herbert recruited the article's authors as co- authors of her letter!). Not so much as a hint of anything that could usefully be done to help the epidemic in South Africa emerges from the article, which is nothing more than another thumping of the old guilt- ridden white man's drum.
Let all of us South Africans try to care for our orphans and sick adults, and let us be energetic in educating the people about risky behaviour. To look for a quick fix to the problems of our country is neither realistic nor helpful. And yes, it is indeed one of the great ironies that HIV has struck its blow just when things were looking up for the African population, but that must not deflect us down politically and therapeutically sterile paths.
Competing interests: Established and ran an HIV clinic in KZN in South Africa, 1990-91

AIDS in South Africa:The Third Dimension 3 March 2003

Harold D. Foster,
Professor,University of Victoria,Victoria,B.C.,Canada
Departnent of Geography,University of Victoria,P O Box 3050,Victoria,B. C.,Canada.V8W 3P5

The saddest aspect of the controversy between Dr Peter Duesberg and his supporters and those who insist that HIV alone causes AIDS is that it is so easy to show that both sides of the debate are in error.In 1983,Cuba started to test its population for HIV.Since 1986,all those found positive have been quarantined.Some will view this as a major assault on personal freedom, but it has been an exceptionally effective strategy in preventing the spread of AIDS.AIDS is now roughly twelve times as common in neighbouring Jamaica as in Cuba.Indeed,Cuba has some of the lowest prevalence rates for HIV-1 infection and AIDS on the planet.If,as Duesberg and supporters claim,HIV-1 plays no role in AIDS,why is this the case?
Conversely,after twenty years of multibillion dollar scientific research, supporters of the "HIV alone causes AIDS" hypothesis have provided us with a "treatment cocktail" which relies strongly on AZT,a highly carcinogenic drug, and a vaccine that does not work.As a result global HIV-positive rates continue to increase exponentionally,on target for Hasteltine's prediction of one billion infections by 2015.
In 1990, Dr Luc Montagnier,(who had headed the team that first discovered HIV),published a short paper that showed beyond doubt that HIV alone could not cause AIDS.Montagnier demonstrated that although cultured cells infected with HIV died rapidly,if given the antibiotic tetracycline,they flourished.Since antibiotics do not kill viruses,Montagnier concluded that HIV must require at least one co-factor to cause AIDS.He has been looking for this cofactor ever since.
HIV-1 is a virus that encodes for glutathione peroxidase,part of a group that includes the Hepatitis B and C viruses and the Coxsackie B virus.Field trials with all the other members of this group have shown that adding selenium to diet greatly reduces infection rates.The geographical diffusion of HIV/AIDS, in both Africa and the USA,clearly shows that HIV has major problems infecting those who are not selenium deficient.Anything that causes a selenium deficiency,(from low soil levels through acid rain to infection by other pathogens that encode for a selenoenzyme)will make a population more prone to HIV-1 infection. Adding selenium to diet in Southern Africa and elsewhere would greatly slow the diffusion of HIV-1.Anyone needing more information can download a free copy of "What really causes AIDS" at www.hdfoster.com.
Competing interests: � I have a U.S. patent pending on a nutritional treatment for the reversal of AIDS and have published a book "What really causes AIDS" on the topic.

Priority of Health Education. 3 March 2003

Gabor A. Balint,
professor of clinical pharmacology
Univ.Szeged Med.School.H-6701 Szeged,GPOBox 427. Hungary,
New Clinics,(Dept.of Psychiatry)Lab.Cli.Pharm/

Dear Editor,
Drs. Fassin & Schneider state in their article (BMJ.326;495, 2003,)that previous social segregation (apartheid) between Caucasians and Africans in South Africa is translated nowadays as a cause of the different HIV sero- prevalence between the mentioned groups.I am definitely NOT a racist - I have spent more than 6 years in Africa as an expat - BUT their tenet seems to be (from medical point of view) definitely faulty. According to my humble opinion education and social traditions, etc. (e.g. extramarital sex)have a far greater role in this very unfortunate fact.
Therefore our duty is clear- vigorous health education. (See the result in Uganda, please!) Racism is a political and ideological "principle", nothing to do with it in the public health.(But of course we cannot approve it!)
Sincerely yours, G.A.B.
Competing interests: � None declared

HIV in Southern Africa: social and political factors are very relevant, but so is the virus itself! 3 March 2003

Jim Bond,
Specialist Registrar in Public Health Medicine
Dept. of Public Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Medical School, Teviot Place, EH8 9AG

I would like to add another critical comment on Fassin & Schneider's otherwise excellent article this week:
As a native Zambian, with first hand clinical experience of AIDS in Southern Africa since 1986 (and in South Africa itself since 1992), I find much to agree with in their analysis of the political and social causes of the HIV epidemic in the RSA. However, what they fail entirely to mention is the role of biological factors, e.g. the nature of HIV-1C, the virus that predominates in this region. In this way, they may have fallen into the same trap as Mr Mbeki...
Yes, undeniably, inequality, mobility and violence have fuelled the flames of HIV transmission there, as throughout the world. South African society does indeed have all three factors in abundance. However, it is not unique, as the authors seem to imply. These pressures affect people all over the world, yet no other region has been quite as badly affected as Southern Africa. So what can we learn from the RSA experience?
Firstly, there are two HIV epidemics in South Africa: The first, among predominantly gay, white men started in the early 1980's and was with the same HIV-1B virus that paved the way in North America, Western Europe and Australasia. It was not until 1987 that the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in a black person there, despite all the inequality, mobility and violence associated with this group. However, within a decade, South Africa had more people with HIV than any other country in the world. Why such a delay and why the sharp rise thereafter? Perhaps the answer lies with the second HIV epidemic, that of HIV-1C, which found its niche among predominantly heterosexual, black Africans...
HIV-1C spread initially from its source of origin to the west of Lake Victoria, both north to Ethiopia and south through Malawi to the countries of the south. (A & D spread east and west.) Although its prevalence was small in 1990, compared with the others, HIV-1C has since shot up exponentially, colonising the Caribbean, India, China and is now the UK. In Africa, it is now moving back up the way into Tanzania (where is has been shown to be 6.7x as transmissible perinatally as HIV-1D), and having a ball in DR Congo, where the Zimbabwean army have no doubt played a part in its spread. Approximately two-thirds of all new infections world- wide are now thought to be HIV-1C. So why is it so successful?
HIV-1C appears to have been selected for vaginal transmission (either sexually or vertically), rather than via rectal or injection routes, like HIV-1B. By at least five different mechanisms it is more aggressive: It specifically targets Langerhans cells in vaginal and penile epithelium; it has a simplified co-receptor mechanism for entering T-cells (i.e. requiring one molecular handshake, instead of two); when inside, it is more readily activated by elevated cytokines such as TNF-alpha, (produced e.g. in response to other STI's and malaria); it produces higher viral loads, so it is more infective; and it mutates and forms recombinants more easily than other HIV-1 viruses. Even its transmission across the placenta is higher (mechanism unknown), so more babies are born infected, with or without peripartum nevirapine prophylaxis...
HIV-1C is probably more aggressive by design - it had to be to survive in the relatively low contact rate niche for which it evolved. Only once it reaches a critical level in the general population is it able to take off, hence the late start in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia etc. Perhaps this is the main reason for the scale of the epidemic in the south!
Ethiopia, was for many years the second highest epicentre for HIV and yet this is not a country with a classical, urban migration pattern. On the other hand, Nigeria, a magnet for migrant workers throughout West Africa, and which therefore one might think should have an epidemic of similar scale to to RSA, has been more fortunate.
Madagascar, which has a good deal of internal migration and inequality-related sexual risk going on - evidenced by its very high rates of other STI's (e.g. syphilis 36%), teenage pregnancy and Western sex tourism, has a very low HIV rate - officially 0.15% in 1999. Even if this was a ten-fold underestimate, it was still 100 times lower than KwaZulu-Natal, just across the water! Yes, there is certainly less sexual violence in Madagascar and almost universal male circumcision, but is that enough to explain the difference...?
I can see why Thabo Mbeki, in a country with two HIV epidemics, one small affecting mainly rich whites and one huge, affecting often poor blacks, would think first of possible confounders such as poverty. His background is in economics, not epidemiology.
He was perhaps unwise to question the links so publicly, so soon into his presidency. It has certainly cost him and the ANC dearly. I would even go so far as to say his reluctance to grasp the nettle of AIDS and to embrace HAART has also undoubtedly contributed to several thousands of people unnecessarily suffering and dying.
However, he is also human and we all make mistakes. There are millions of people who deny the reality of HIV/AIDS daily, either by taking risks with their own lives, or ignoring the plight of neighbours and family already affected. ...perhaps because it's too big or too awful, or they feel so powerless to do anything about it.
However, I believe the Western media has also played a role in this catastrophe. Since the Durban AIDS Conference in 2000, there has not been an HIV event, when some high-minded reporter does not thrust an aggressive microphone at Thabo Mbeki with a reminder of the subject. I myself was once invited onto a radio station on the occasion of the president visiting Scotland to unveil a plaque in honour of his father, Govan Mbeki, an often overlooked hero in the struggle against apartheid. All the interviewer wanted from me was to dig the dirt on Thabo Mbeki and his dissenter stance. No wonder he now instinctly switches off at the sound of the word, 'Aids'!
Perhaps this is not the most contructive way to engage with someone we need to play a pivotal role in leading the region through the current crisis...
PS I haven't used the terms 'subtype' or 'clade', although the former is still the accepted term in the HIV world. HIV-1 subtypes, such as B and C, have remained recognisably stable for over 25 years now, despite their huge turnover and mutation rates. They each have their own specific characters in terms of usual mode of transmission, infectivity and rate of disease progression, at both the individual as well as the population levels. They can, and probably most usefully should, therefore be taxonomically regarded as distinct viruses.
Perhaps if this were more widely recognised, it might help to dispel some of the myths and factoids about African sexuality and social behaviour?
[PPS References available by request]
Competing interests: None declared

Action not Politics 7 March 2003

Anne Savage,
retired
NA

Didier Fasson and colleagues are wrong. Their article will do nothing to bridge any gap, it will just be yet more evidence of the 'North'using the 'South' for useless research. To answer a few of the points:
Many people in the world, predominantly in Muslim countries, are desperately poor but do not have the same incidence of HIV. Health information has been available for years. In 1992 I was in the University of the Transkei at Umtata and the walls were covered with posters statiung 'AIDS is coming. Take precautions,' and giving details. The students took no notice.
Less concern about health and the future is partly a result of the belief system, whereby the spirit not only continues to exist after bodily death but also has an influence on the behaviour of those still alive. Concern about health is difficult to sustain in the face of indifference from the 'North'. Many Africans know that most of their illnesses can be easily cured. They turn up at hospitals in their hundreds only to find the doctor has left or the drugs run out.If even a fraction of the money spent on 'research'was used to fund essentials such as analgesics and first-line antibiotics we, in the 'North' might be able to help stem the time. Why not focus on the'social determinants' contributing to the rise of HIV in our own country, which has all the advantages of wealth, education and treatment?
Competing interests: � None declared

ART and Political Will 12 March 2003

Louis-Jacques van Bogaert,
postdoctoral fellow Centre for Applied Ethics, University Stellenbosch, South Africa
Postnet suite 7 Private Bag x8689, Groblersdal 0470 South Africa

Editor- There is no single, much less simple, explanation or justification of a complex problem. Fassin & Schneider [1] invite the reader "to move beyond a simplistic view" on the South African HIV/AIDS predicament. I an afraid that they only manage to keep the vicious circle of "apartheid bashing" alive and well. To keep blaming everything that is or goes wrong to the legacy of apartheid does not help progress. Worse even, I should argue, their paper might mislead the ill-informed but benevolent reader who might believe that, at lomg last, the government has decided to make anti-retrovirals (ARV) available in the public health services that cater for more than 70 percent of the population (politicians have access to ART through their private health insurances).
A single example, but a telling one, will make this apparent. In this same issue of the journal, the Editor's Choice, AIDS in Africa, states:"In the past year, South Africa has made nevirapine available for pregnant women infected with AIDS"[2]. The reality, however,is that only half of the Provincial Governments, some before and others after the July 2002 Constitutional Court judgement, have started the implementation of the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTC) of HIV. The other Provinces are in contempt of court by stalling the roll out. One of them is currently on trial for violation of human rights in this regard (case no 35272/02 High Court of South Africa, Transvaal Provincial Division).
I wish to claim loud and clear that I have no inclination whatsoever in favour of apartheid. During the transition from apartheid to democracy (from the liberation of Nelson Mandela in 1990 till the first democratic elections of 1994) I have been victimised and harmed for allegedly being a "communist" (the arch enemies of apartheid). Under the new dispensation I got labelled "activist" (as bad) for advocating women's reproductive health and rights (with the support of the Treatment Action Campaign).During all these years, as referred to by the authors, an annual "anonymous survey of antenatal women" has been run showing a 0.7 percent prevalence in 1990 and a 36.2 percent in some Provinces in 2000. This survey was initiated during apartheid (who knows for what purpose) and taken over by the post-apartheid dispensation. What could be the use and the ethics if the survey did not lead to steps to prevent or limit the onslaught? I wish not deny thye many factors that have contributed to the epidemic. However, one should present the facts undisguised. I fail to understand why or rather how "adults with a single lifetime sexual partner face an extraordinary high prevalence of HIV". What I know about a Carleton survey sponsored by the Population Council is that it was initially thought that the local spread of HIV was a matter of sex- workers/mineworkers. To their surprise, it showed that it was much more intricate (but promiscuity, wherever, is taboo and politically incorrect).
Colonialism and racism/apartheid are an unfortunate and ugly face of humankind. They have been with us from times immemorial. No continent has escaped. Africans themselves have invaded and conquered neighbouring countries. Colonialism begot anticolonialism and later neocolonialism. Apartheid begot antiapartheid. Let's beware of neoapartheid/reverse apartheid. To deny or even to stall the PMTC on the grounds that is "poisons" women with Western medicines is nothing else but racism/reverse apartheid. Unfortunately, it has the perverse effetc of victimising the very same people politicians claim to protect.
[1] Fassin D, Schneider H. The politics of AIDS in South AFrica: beyond the controversies. BMJ 2003;326:495-97.
[2] Editor's choice. AIDS in Africa. BMJ 2003; 326.
Louis-Jacques van Bogaert
Postdoctoral fellow, Centre for APplied Ethics, University of Stellenbosch
E-mail: ljfvanbo@lantic.net
Competing interests: � None declared

HIV in South Africa 13 March 2003

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos,
Medical Physicist
Perth Western Australia 6009,
Valendar F. Turner, John M Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, Sam Mhlongo, Helman Alfonso, David Causer, Christian Fiala and Anthony Brink

Dear Sir,

HIV in South Africa

We agree with Fassin and Schneider (Education and Debate, 1 March) that �contrary points of view should be understood rather than discredited�.� Consider their statement ��denial � a common response among people facing an intolerable situation � has two facets.� One is a denial of reality: a reaction that something can�t be true, that it is not possible.� The other is a denial of the unacceptable: a reaction that something is not normal, that although it exists it should not.� Both facets are involved in the denial of the reality of HIV/AIDS.�� Nobody denies that an epidemic of poverty and disease exists in South Africa and they go hand-in-hand.� The �controversies� are: Is the disease caused by a retrovirus and is it sexually transmitted?

Sexual Transmission of HIV

In the first study conducted in gay men to examine the relationship between AIDS and sexual activity (before HIV was accepted as the cause of AIDS), the authors reported ��the number of partners per month in receptive anal-genital intercourse with ejaculation, the number of occasions of �fisting�,�were the only independent and statistically significant variables for discriminating patients from controls�.¹� In 1984, Robert Gallo and his colleagues wrote �Of eight different sex acts, seropositivity correlated only with receptive anal intercourse�and with manual stimulation of the subject�s rectum (receptive �fisting�)�and was inversely correlated with insertive anal intercourse.�²� Two years later they confirmed their 1984 findings: �In this analysis, only receptive rectal intercourse, douching, rectal bleeding�were significant predictors (p<.05) of anti-HTLV-III positivity�We found no evidence that other forms of sexual activity contributed to the risk.�³� In a 1994 review of all the major studies conducted in gay men including the longest, largest, best-designed and executed published study of gay men anywhere in the world, the MultiCenter AIDS Cohort Study, the authors concluded:

�(1) unprotected anogenital receptive intercourse poses the highest risk for the sexual acquisition of HIV-1 infection;� (2) anogenital insertive intercourse poses the highest risk for the sexual transmission of HIV-1 infection;� (3) there is mounting epidemiologic evidence for a small risk attached to orogenital receptive sex,�(4) sexual practices involving the rectum and the presence of (ulcerative) STD facilitate the acquisition of HIV-1;� (5) no or no consistent risk for the acquisition of HIV-1 infection has been reported regarding other sexual practices such as anogenital insertive intercourse and oroanal sex��.⁴

Since the main and absolutely necessary property of sexually transmitted agents is bidirectionality, that is, transmission from the passive to the active partner and vice versa, this means HIV cannot be sexually transmitted.

One of the first case reports of heterosexual transmission was published by Luc Montagnier and his associates in 1985.� The wife of an HIV positive haemophiliac who practised vaginal, oral and anal intercourse was found to be seropositive and to have low T4 cells.� She was followed for ten months after exposure to her husband�s semen was discontinued.� When retested her T4 cells were normal and had a negative antibody test.⁵�� In one of the largest prospective studies conducted in HIV positive haemophiliacs and their spouses, no women seroconverted.� The authors �calculated that in 11 couples unprotected vaginal intercourse occurred a maximum of 2,250 times (minimum 1,563) without transmission of HIV�.⁶� In a similar study, the authors concluded �The most likely value of the probability of infection within 25.8 months for this group of 36 sexual partners is zero�The absence of seropositivity in any of the 36 sexual partners included in this study indicates that heterosexual transmission in this group with no additional risk factor is uncommon."⁷� The Padian et al study (the longest, largest, best-designed and executed published study of heterosexuals anywhere in the world) consisted of two parts, a cross-sectional and a prospective.� In the prospective study, despite the fact that even at the end of the study 25% of the couples were not �consistently� using condoms, no HIV transmission was reported.� In the cross-sectional part, in 10 years they reported only two cases of female-to-male transmission, but the authenticity of both was questioned by the authors themselves.� There were more cases of male-to-female transmission and in these cases �Anal intercourse significantly discriminated between seronegative and seropositive women�;⁸ ��only the practice of anal intercourse (p = .003) and non-white race (p = .015) were significantly associated with infection�.⁹� In the largest European study (9 centres from 6 countries) �The only sexual practice that clearly increased the risk of male-to-female transmission was anal intercourse�no other sexual practice has been associated with the risk of transmission�.¹⁰

In the most recent analysis of heterosexual transmission, the authors wrote: �Though heterosexual intercourse has been virtually the sole explanation offered for the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, to our knowledge in no other part of the world has penile-vaginal exposure (as opposed to �heterosexual sex�) been demonstrated to initiate or sustain rapid HIV propagation.� HIV is not transmitted by �sex�, but only by specific risky practices�Dispassionate assessment of our conclusions admittedly depends on a willing suspension of disbelief, since the current paradigm is deeply embedded�.¹¹� Last year in this journal we presented evidence that in Africa there is no more heterosexual transmission than anywhere else in the world.¹²� One of the most eminent HIV experts, Jaap Goudsmit, acknowledges that for heterosexual HIV transmission ��a homosexual or anal factor seems to be required�Studies in Thailand showed that even frequency of intercourse did not promote the transmission of HIV-1B, as long as the intercourse was vaginal not anal�Limited studies of heterosexual couples in Africa suggest a parallel��.¹³

In conclusion at present there is ample epidemiological evidence which shows that:

(a) The only sexual act, in both gay and heterosexual sex, which is related to the appearance of AIDS and a positive antibody test is receptive anal intercourse.

(b) It is not homosexuality per se but the sexual act (�anal intercourse may be practiced by a much larger absolute population of heterosexuals than of homosexuals�¹⁴) which is important.� Thus, like pregnancy, AIDS and a positive antibody test can be sexually acquired but not sexually transmitted.� The difference is that while pregnancy can be acquired by a single act of sexual intercourse, for AIDS to appear a very high frequency of receptive anal intercourse over a long period is necessary.¹²

HIV Antibody Tests

The only test routinely used to prove HIV infection is the antibody test.� In clinical practice such a test cannot be used unless it is first proven specific.� In the HIV antibody test literature it is claimed that the tests are either 100% specific or they approach this accuracy.� The same literature also shows that the specificity has been determined by: comparing one antibody test with another;� testing known positive and negative samples;� testing young healthy blood donors.� Basic scientific methods rule out specificity being determined in this manner.� Only comparing the reactivity with the presence or absence of HIV will determine the specificity of the antibody tests.� That is, HIV isolation/purification must be used as the gold standard for the antibody tests.� However, at present some of the best known HIV/AIDS experts agree there is no such gold standard.� "One difficulty in assaying the specificity and sensitivity of human retroviruses [including HIV] is the absence of a final 'gold standard'".^{15 16}� According to one antibody test manufacturer �At present there is no recognized standard for establishing the presence or absence of antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 in human blood�Specificity based on an assumed zero prevalence of antibody to HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 in random donors�is estimated to be 99.90%��.¹⁷� The specificity of the Western Blot (WB), the test which is used as a gold standard for all the other antibody tests as well as for the PCR test,^{18 19} cannot be determined even if a gold standard exists.� This is because the WB is not standardised^{20 21}� (see www.theperthgroup.com/aids/WBCHART.pdf ).� It follows that the specificity may be anywhere between 0% and 100%.

��

In the vast majority of studies conducted in Africa the authors do not even follow the algorithms recommended by the manufacturers. One example is the latest and largest study conducted in South Africa and said to have shown that �South Africa has the highest number of people with HIV in the world�, �five million people infected�.� The manufacturer of the test used in this study points out that the test cannot be used to prove HIV infection but only as a screening test to be confirmed by WB.� Furthermore, the �OraSure� HIV-1 Oral Specimen Collection Device is intended for use in the collection of oral fluid specimens for testing for antibodies to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Type 1 (HIV-1) in subjects 13 years of age and older�.^{22 23}� Yet the test (a single ELISA without a confirmatory test) was used to test all individuals including children aged between 2 and 13 years and the results were interpreted as proving that 11.4% of South Africans are HIV infected.²⁴

In addition, the antigens used in the antibody tests may not even be HIV proteins.� According the discoverer of HIV, Luc Montagnier, to characterise the HIV proteins the virus must be purified.� Although in 1983 he and his group claimed to have done so and to have obtained the HIV proteins from the �purified� virus, in 1997 he admitted that even after "Roman effort", in electron micrographs of their "purified" virus they could not see any particles with the "morphology typical of retroviruses.�²⁵� This means that the �HIV� proteins could not have been those of a retrovirus, HIV.� By 1997 some of the best known HIV experts pointed out that HIV �used for biochemical and serological analyses or as immunogens is frequently prepared by centrifugation through sucrose gradients", but in none of the studies "the purity of the virus preparation has been verified".^26
27� In other words, up till 1997 nobody had published electron micrographic proof that the "purified virus" contained nothing else but isolated retroviral particles.� In that year two studies were published, one by a US team and the other a Franco-German collaboration.� The authors of both studies claimed that their �purified� material contained some particles that were HIV particles.� However they admitted that their material predominantly contained �budding membrane particles frequently called microvesicles� or �mock virus�.� In other words, the �HIV� proteins have been and still are obtained from particulate material which consists overwhelmingly of cellular fragments in which are interspersed a small number of particles whose morphology more resembles that of retrovirus particles but none of which have all the structural characteristics attributed to HIV or even to retrovirus particles.^{26 27}

The minimum absolutely necessary but not sufficient condition to claim that what are called "HIV-1 particles" are a retrovirus and not cellular microvesicles is to show that the sucrose density fractions obtained from the infected cells, the �purified virus�, contain proteins which are not present in the same fractions obtained from non-infected cells, the �mock virus�.� However, this is not the case.� The only difference one can see in the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis strips of "purified virus" and "mock virus" is quantitative, not qualitative.� This means that the same proteins are present in the �purified virus� and �mock virus�.� In other words, the antigens in the antibody tests could be nothing more than cellular proteins, a problem which has been known for many years.

In 1983, Montagnier and his colleagues found a protein p45 (p41) in their �purified� virus and the protein reacted with antibodies present in the patient�s sera.�� They concluded that the protein was not viral but the cellular protein actin,²⁸ a view still held by Montagnier.²⁹� At present, some of the best known HIV experts acknowledge that the proteins with molecular weight of approximately 41,000 present in the �purified HIV� are in fact actin.³⁰� In 1989 researchers from New York showed that p120 and p160 in the �purified virus� are oligomers of p41.³¹

In 1987� Henderson isolated the p30-32 and p34-36 of "HIV purified by double banding" in sucrose density gradients.� By comparing the amino-acid sequences of these proteins with Class II histocompatability DR proteins, they concluded that "the DR alpha and beta chains appeared to be identical to the p34-36 and p30-32 proteins respectively".³² That these proteins are cellular is acknowledged by other HIV experts.³⁰

Since the antigens present in the antibody test kits are normal cellular proteins, it follows that they will react with auto-antibodies.� They may also cross-react with other antibodies including HIV which may be present in the sera.� However the only way to prove that HIV antibodies are present in any sera is by using HIV as a gold standard which to date has not been done.� Until this is achieved, the HIV prevalence in South Africa cannot be ascertained � it could be anything from zero to five million.

This does not mean there is no relationship between a positive �HIV� antibody test, whatever its genesis, and the risk of developing AIDS.� In fact there can be no doubt that in the risk groups many studies have proven this an undisputed fact.� However, at present there is no proof that the reason for being seropositive is HIV.� A positive antibody test may be no more than a non-specific marker reflecting a propensity to develop certain illnesses.� In this manner it can be regarded as having similar clinical utility to measurements of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).� The ESR, although archetypically non-specific, is highly indicative or predictive of morbidity and mortality.� In fact the ESR is a far better predictor of AIDS than the CD4 count despite the fact the latter is accepted to be the cause of the clinical AID syndrome.^21
33

We agree with Fassin and Schneider �to widen the debate and hence to increase understanding of the epidemic� in South Africa.�� However, as well as debating the �social epidemiology of HIV�, the debate must be preceded by or at least be concurrent with the �biomedical and behavioural� debate.�� Once it is irrefutably proven that HIV has indeed infected 5 million or any number of South Africans as a result of heterosexual transmission or by any other means, then it would be useful to pursue the �social epidemiology of HIV�.

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos� Biophysicist, Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia

Valendar F. Turner� Consultant Emergency Physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia

John M Papadimitriou� Professor of Pathology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia

Barry A. P. Page� Physicist, Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia

Sam Mhlongo� Head & Chief Family Practitioner, Family Medicine & Primary Health Care, Medical University of South Africa, Johannesberg, South Africa

Helman Alfonso� Department of Research, Universidad Metropolitana Barranquilla, Colombia

David Causer Physicist, Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia

Christian Fiala� Gynaecologist, Mollardgasse 12a A-1060 Vienna, Austria

Anthony Brink� Advocate of the High Court of South Africa

REFERENCES

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2. Melbye M, Biggar RJ, Ebbesen P, Sarngadharan MG, Weiss SH, Gallo RC, et al. Seroepidemiology of HTLV-III antibody in Danish homosexual men: prevalence, transmission, and disease outcome. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition) 1984;289:573-5.

3. Stevens CE, Taylor PE, Zang EA, Morrison JM, Harley EJ, de Cordoba SR, et al. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III infection in a cohort of homosexual men in New York City. Journal of the American Medical Association 1986;255:2167-2172.

4. Caceres CF, van Griensven GJP. Male homosexual transmission of HIV-1. AIDS 1994;8:1051-1061.

5. Burger H, Weiser B, Robinson WS, Lifson J, Engleman E, Rouzioux C, et al. Transient antibody to lymphadenopathy-associated virus/human T- lymphotropic virus type III and T-lymphocyte abnormalities in the wife of a man who developed the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Annals of Internal Medicine 1985;103:545-7.

6. van der Ende ME, Rothbarth P, Stibbe J. Heterosexual transmission of HIV by haemophiliacs. British Medical Journal 1988;297(6656):1102-3.

7. Brettler DB, Forsberg AD, Levine PH, Andrews CA, Baker S, Sullivan JL. Human immunodeficiency virus isolation studies and antibody testing.� Household contacts and sexual partners of persons with hemophilia. Archives of Internal Medicine 1988;148:1299-1301.

8. Padian N, Marquis L, Francis DP, Anderson RE, Rutherford GW, O'Malley PM, et al. Male-to-female transmission of human immunodeficiency

virus. Journal of the American Medical Association 1987;258:788-90.

9. Winkelstein W, Jr., Wiley JA, Padian N, Levy J. Potential for transmission of AIDS-associated retrovirus from bisexual men in San Francisco to their female sexual contacts. Journal of the American Medical Association 1986;255:901.

10. European Study Group. Risk factors for male to female transmission of HIV. British Medical Journal 1989;298:411-414.

11. Brewer DD, Brody S, Drucker E, Gisselquist D, Minkin SF, Potterat JJ, et al. Mounting anomalies in the epidemiology of HIV in Africa: cry the beloved paradigm. International Journal of STD and AIDS 2003;14:144-147.

12. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E, Turner VF, Papadimitriou JM, Alfonso H, Page BA, Causer D, et al. Global voices on HIV/AIDS. Heterosexual transmission of HIV in Africa is no higher than anywhere else. British Medical Journal 2002;324:1035.

13. Goudsmit G. Viral Sex-The Nature of AIDS. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

14. Voeller B, Reinisch JM, Gottlieb M, editors. AIDS and Sex. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

15. Blattner WA. Retroviruses. In: Evans AS, editor. Viral infections of humans. 3rd ed. New York: Plenum Medical Book Company, 1989:545-592.

16. Mortimer PP. The AIDS virus and the AIDS test. Medicine Internationale 1989;56:2334-2339.

17. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1.� Qualitative Enzyme Immunoassay for the Detection of Antibody to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-1 (HIV-1) in Human Serum or Plasma. Abbott Laboratories,� Diagnostics Division, 1988 & 1998.

18. Defer C, Agut H, Garbarg-Chenon A, Moncany M, Morinet F, Vignon D, et al. Multicentre quality control of polymerase chain reaction for detection of HIV DNA. AIDS 1992;6:659-663.

19. Owens DK, Holodniy M, Garber AM, Scott J, Sonnad S, Moses L, et al. Polymerase chain reaction for the diagnosis of HIV infection in adults. A meta-analysis with recommendations for clinical practice and study design. Annals of Internal Medicine 1996;124:803-15.

20. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E, Turner VF, Papadimitriou JM. Is a positive Western blot proof of HIV infection? Bio/Technology 1993;11:696-707.

21. Papadopulos-Eleopulos E, Turner VF, Papadimitriou JM, Alfonso H, Page BAP, Causer D, et al. High rates of HIV seropositivity in Africa-alternative explanation. International Journal of STD and AIDS 2003. (In press).

22. Gallo D, George JR, Fitchen JH, Goldstein AS, Hindahl MS. Evaluation of a system using oral mucosal transudate for HIV-1 antibody screening and confirmatory testing. OraSure HIV Clinical Trials Group. Journal of the American Medical Association 1997;277:254-8.

23. Orasure Technologies Inc. www.orasure.com/products

24. Shisana O, Simbayi L. Nelson Mandela/HSRC Study of HIV/AIDS Household Survey 2002: South� African Department of Health, 2002:140.

25. Tahi D. Did Luc Montagnier discover HIV?� Text of video interview with Professor Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute July 18th 1997. Continuum 1998;5:30-34.

26. Bess JW, Gorelick RJ, Bosche WJ, Henderson LE, Arthur LO. Microvesicles are a source of contaminating cellular proteins found in purified HIV-1 preparations. Virology 1997;230:134-144.

27. Gluschankof P, Mondor I, Gelderblom HR, Sattentau QJ. Cell membrane vesicles are a major contaminant of gradient-enriched human immunodeficiency virus type-1 preparations. Virology 1997;230:125-133.

28. Barr�-Sinoussi F, Chermann JC, Rey F, Nugeyre MT, Chamaret S, Gruest J, et al. Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Science 1983;220:868-71.

29. Presence of anti-HIV antibodies in used syringes left out in public places, beaches or collected through exchange programs. XIth International Conference on AIDS; 1996; Vancouver.

30. Arthur LO, Bess JW, Jr., Urban RG, Strominger JL, Morton WR, Mann DL, et al. Macaques immunized with HLA-DR are protected from challenge with simian immunodeficiency virus. Journal of Virology 1995;69:3117-24.

31. Pinter A, Honnen WJ, Tilley SA, Bona C, Zaghouani H, Gorny MK, et al. Oligomeric structure of gp41, the transmembrane protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1. Journal of Virology 1989;63:2674-9.

32. Henderson LE, Sowder R, Copeland TD. Direct Identification of Class II Histocompatibility DR Proteins in Preparations of Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type III. Journal of Virology 1987;61:629-632.

33. Lefrere JJ, Salmon D, Doinel C, Rouger P, Courouce AM, Lambin P, et al. Sedimentation rate as a predictive marker in HIV infection. AIDS 1988;2:63-4.

Competing interests: None declared

POVERTY, SQUALOR & AIDS INDISTINGUISHABLE IN SOUTH AFRICA: MBEKI MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISREPRESENTED 14 March 2003

Sam WP Mhlongo,
Head of Department Family Medicine & Primary Health Care, Medunsa
Medical University of Southern Africa, 0204 RSA

Although the title "The politics of AIDS in South Africa: beyond the controversies" (Fassin & Schneider BMJ Vol. 326, March 1st 2003) is eye-catching, the piece has a number of disturbing inaccuracies, polemics and has failed to live up to the title. The article remains firmly rooted in the controversy and invitingly implores the question: what is the cause of AIDS in Africa? The authors have clearly made up their minds and without any shadow of doubt that HIV is the cause of AIDS in Africa and that heterosexual transmission is the dominant mode in the infection process. It s hardly surprising that they have failed to go beyond the controversies - hence HIV appears no less than 22 times in their article.
In their first paragraph, Fassin and Schneider claim that President Mbeki sent a letter to world leaders expressing his doubts that HIV was the exclusive cause of AIDS '.1 There is no reference for this 'letter' of Mbeki's to these anonymous world leaders. Fassin and Schneider deliberately mislead by misrepresentation of President Mbeki's position of 1999. As far as the facts stand at the moment, there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Mbeki has changed from his 1999 position. He still has the same questions, which are: Why is AIDS in Africa so vastly different from AIDS in Western Europe and North America? why is the mode of transmission predominantly heterosexual in Africa? How safe is the drug Zidovudine? When Mbeki failed to get a response to these questions from his scientists, he sought advice from outside South Africa from both orthodox and dissident scientists. This is how The Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel was formed in April 2000 consisting of 20 orthodox and 13 dissident scientists. 2 Mbeki's view is that science cannot be reconciled with national boundaries hence, the international nature of The Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel. Another misrepresentation in this article is that in April 2002, 'Mbeki formally distanced himself from "the AIDS dissidents". We are not given the evidence for this statement. The fact is: Mbeki has neither declared he was distancing himself from dissident nor orthodox positions on the subject of HIV/AIDS.
Slowly but inexorably evidence casting doubt on the orthodox assumption that in Africa, AIDS is overwhelmingly due to heterosexual transmission of HIV is emerging. Interestingly this evidence comes not from dissident but non-dissident scientists. The following from peer reviewed papers will illustrate this point:
a) Devon D. Brewer and his colleagues stated in their 2003 paper: 'We are aware of no study from sub-Saharan Africa suggesting cyclic sexual network architecture. Without evidence of appropriate network configurations on a scale considerably larger than that observed in developed countries, rapid propagation of HIV in Africa would be difficult to sustain ...... Dispassionate assessment of our conclusions admitted depends on a willing suspension of disbelief, since the current paradigm is deeply embedded......Finally, Africans deserve scientifically sound information on the epidemiological determinants of their calamitous AIDS epidemic'. 3
b) With regard to sexual or vertical transmission, David Gisselquist et al have thrown wide open the discussion regarding the cause(s) of AIDS in Africa and concluded that: "The recognition that significant proportions of HIV in African adults and children cannot be explained on the basis of current knowledge about sexual and vertical transmission leaves open several transmission hypotheses" 4 In short, this must necessarily mean re-examination of the current hypothesis and assumption that the mode of HIV transmission in Africa is largely heterosexual activity. In addition the validity of the tests for HIV antibodies need to be questioned in addition to questioning poor hygiene practices in African health care services.
c) To date, the longest epidemiological study questioning heterosexual transmission is that of Nancy Padian and colleagues over a period of ten years. In their paper (Heterosexual Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Northern California: Results from a Ten- Year Study, Padian and her colleagues concluded that with regard to male to female transmission (0.0009 per contact), it would take 770 or 3333 sexual contacts respectively to reach a 50% or 95% probability of becoming infected. Based on Padian's estimate of female-to-male transmission, it would require 6200 and 27000 contacts and a period of 51 and 222 years respectively. 5
Fassin's and Schneider's reference to The Constitutional Court judgement on the provision of antiretrovirals has an air of triumphalism about it. It can be argued that this was not a judgement on science but a judgement dictated to by populism and national emotions about HIV/AIDS. In the midst of all this, physicians and medical scientists should rise above emotions and populist pursuits so that the public is made aware that the improvements in the health status of Western Europe and North America had very little to do with the provision of drugs. In the last two centuries the decline in the incidence of tuberculosis in these countries was not largely due to chemotherapy, but rather due to improved living conditions, sanitation, nutrition, employment and reduced family size- see figure showing mean annual death rates from TB in England and Wales. 6
Prof. Sam MHLONGO MBBS, MSc, LRCP, MRCS (London), MRCGP(UK)
Chief Family Physician & Specialist,
Head of Department of Family Medicine & Primary Health Care, Medical University of Southern Africa, MEDUNSA 0204, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
References:
1. Didier Fassin, Helen Schneider: The politics f AIDS IN South Africa: beyond the controversies: BMJ VOLUME 326 1 March 2003:495-497
2. Sam MHLONGO: HIV BLAMED FOR POVERTY: La medicina la psicanalisi la vita (PUBLISHED BY: SPIRALI/VEL 2000-MILAN)
3. Devon D Brewer et al: Mounting anomalies in the epidemiology of HIV in Africa: cry the beloved paradigm: International Journal of STD and AIDS 2003; 14:144-147
4. Gisselquist, Richard Rothenberg, John Potterat; Ernest Drucker. HIV infections in sub-Saharan African not explained by sexual or vertial transmission: International Journal of STD & AIDS 2002;13:657-666.
5. Padian NS et al (1997) Heterosexual Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Northern California: Results from a Ten- Year Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 1997;14:350-357.
6. Thomas Mckeown: The role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis: 92 - 96: Basil Blackwell: Oxford 1979)
Competing interests: � None declared

Studies showing LOW rates of heterosexual transmission do not support alternative AIDS theories... 15 March 2003

Tony Floyd,
Medical Student
Newcastle University, Newcastle Australia 2308

Works by Gisselquist and Padian are both cited above in support of alternative AIDS theories.
The Gisselquist article(1) (available on line he re) states that:

--- "Studies among African couples find low rates of heterosexual transmission, as in developed countries." ---
As you can read for yourself in the abstract, Gisselquist suggests that iatrogenic causes have been underestimated. If in this article (or any article by Gisselquist or any of his colleagues) you can find ANY suggestion that HIV doesn't cause AIDS or that it isn't transmitted sexually (at all) please let us all know.
As for the Padian paper(2) (available on line her e):
Padian's paper does not prove that HIV can't be transmitted sexually because:
Although there were no NEW transmissions during the study period:
1. All participants were aware that they were with a HIV-positive partner.
2. They all new that they were part of a study examining transmission.
3. It (might be) safe to assume that none of the participants wanted to be infected.
4. The group studied are all from a wealthy country which was saturated with AIDS education.
5. Condom use increased substantially during the study period.
6. Anal sex decreased substantially during the study period.
7. The whole world does not live in North Carolina.

References:
(1) Gisselquist D, Rothenberg R, Potterat J, Drucker E. HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa not explained by sexual or vertical transmission. Int J STD AIDS. 2002 Oct;13(10):657-66. Review. PMID: 12396534. [A bstract]
(1) Padian NS. Shiboski SC. Glass SO. Vittinghoff E. Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 146(4):350-7, 1997 Aug 15. [Ab stract]
Competing interests: None declared

Time for the end of AIDS 18 March 2003

Ed Cooper,
Consultant Pediatrician
Newham General Hospital, London E13

Why don�t we get rid of AIDS? � the name, that is, the diagnostic designation. It has outlived its usefulness, in the same way that we no longer diagnose �consumption� but recognise an infection, tuberculosis. The analogy holds well: centuries ago individuals were recognised to be consumed, sometimes rapidly (�galloping consumption�) by something related to their environment � damp, overcrowding � or perhaps their own constitution. Now we recognise Mycobacterium tuberculosis and see that the infection has a natural history varying by the passage of time, the nutritional state of the host, etc, etc. We are also less likely to misdiagnose �consumption� as we no longer rely on a constellation of symptoms and signs but make the detection of the micro-organism, or at least its protein, essential to confirmation of the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
The history of AIDS is well known: in 1981 in New York an unusual combination of symptoms was observed and its epidemic nature was soon seen. The only link among the effects was the loss of the host�s immune control of parasites and mutant cells. Based on the resemblance to the genetically mediated congenital immunodeficiencies, the entity Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome was born. Both the definition and the risk factors of the new syndrome were revised repeatedly. A virus was later identified. The virology has been elucidated in unusual detail and with great consistency, and its nature as a retrovirus fits with advances in cellular biology on the broad front of scientific research around it. The natural history of infection with this virus has been observed thoroughly. It often culminates in that list of characteristics that meets whatever is the current definition of AIDS. But neither a bedside diagnosis of AIDS, nor a bedside diagnosis of galloping consumption, are as reliable as the laboratory diagnosis of HIV infection, or M. tuberculosis infection.
The argument about whether the characteristics of AIDS in Africa are identical to those in North America is sterile. Not every failure of immunity is mediated by HIV. All diseases, like cancer, vary in symptomatology. The model molecular disease, sickle cell disease, homozygous hemoglobin S, has an invariant genotype and a widely variable phenotype.
But Africa and North America do share an infectious disease. Could it be called immunoretrovirosis (IRV)? The agent is HIV. It is epidemic and dangerous, ultimately lethal. It occurs in Africa. President Mbeki should stop worrying about whether HIV causes AIDS, but worry about the epidemic of immunoretrovirosis around him. We all need to work on the known preventive and treatment measures to control this viral infection. We do not need the acronym AIDS.
Competing interests: None declared

Low rates of heterosexual transmission and the HIV theory of AIDS 24 March 2003

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos,
Biophysicist
Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia 6009,
Valendar F. Turner, John M Papadimitriou, Barry A. P. Page, Helman Alfonso, David Causer, Sam Mhlongo, Anthony Brink

We agree with Tony Floyd that �Studies showing LOW rates of heterosexual transmission do not [necessarily] support alternative AIDS theories�� Now the vast majority of people (millions) who are said to be HIV positive are said to have acquired it through sex. This is not possible if the transmission is zero or even low which means that either HIV was acquired by means other than sex or the HIV antibody test is non- specific and thus they are not infected.
According to Gisselquist and his colleagues �HIV is not transmitted by �sex�, but only by specific risky practices�1, that is, passive anal intercourse.2 It is also our view that a positive antibody test (�HIV�) is acquired by the same means, that is, passive anal intercourse. But no proof exists that it can be transmitted to the active partner.
The Padian study is considered to be the best study of its type in which the author vigorously strived to prove heterosexual transmission. We would be interested to be shown where in the Padian study (�the study in which �Condom use increased substantially during the study period�, and yet EVEN AT THE END OF THE STUDY 25% of couples were not consistently using condoms) is there proof that HIV can be sexually transmitted. Alternatively, is there any prospective study which PROVES bidirectional sexual transmission of HIV?
We can understand Tony Floyd�s comment in his extensive online debate with David Rasnick and Rodney Richards �Can you blame me for being sceptical given the plethora of other errors in attempts to support alternative AIDS theories?� Instead of simply pointing out errors on either side and accepting or dismissing what the authors claim, a return to basic principles is needed.
In HIV/AIDS the two cornerstones are the antibody test and sexual transmission. If the specificity of the antibody test is not determined as David Rasnick stressed in the debate, everything else is totally irrelevant. To claim proof for the specificity there MUST BE at least one study and a few confirmatory studies where the antibody antigen reaction (assuming that the antigens are HIV) is compared with the presence or absence of HIV, that is, with HIV isolation/purification. This study must include a statistically significant number of both patients who have AIDS as well as patients who do not have AIDS but are sick. In addition, the tests must performed blind.
Any study claiming proof for heterosexual transmission MUST satisfy at least the following conditions:
� Be prospective
� Use tests which have been proven to be specific
� Have a statistically meaningful population
� The results must be statistically significant and must exclude any other possible route of infection
Until at least these two basic issues are resolved, scientists have no option but to question the HIV theory of AIDS.
References
1. Brewer DD, Brody S, Drucker E, Gisselquist D, Minkin SF, Potterat JJ, et al. Mounting anomalies in the epidemiology of HIV in Africa: cry the beloved paradigm. International Journal of STD and AIDS 2003;14:144-147.
2. Brody S, Lack of evidence for transmission of human immunodeficiency virus through vaginal intercourse. Arch Sex Behav 1995; 24(4):383-393.
Competing interests: � None declared

Neither Padian, Gisselquist or Brody provide any reason to believe HIV isn't sexually transmitted... 26 March 2003

Tony Floyd,
Medical Student
Newcastle University, Newcastle Australia

It has been stated above that the Padian paper(1) does not PROVE that heterosexual transmission occurs.
No argument there.
My point is that it doesn't PROVE that heterosexual transmission of HIV DOESN'T occur. As has been acknowledged, condom use did decline during the study period (although as many as 25% of the participants still admitted to inconsistent use by the end of the study period.)
I'll stand by my reasons as to why Padian's paper does not prove that HIV can't be transmitted sexually:
Although there were no NEW transmissions during the study period:
---
1. All participants were aware that they were with a HIV-positive partner.
2. They all new that they were part of a study examining transmission.
3. It (might be) safe to assume that none of the participants wanted to be infected.
4. The group studied are all from a wealthy country which was saturated with AIDS education.
5. Condom use increased substantially during the study period.
6. Anal sex decreased substantially during the study period.
7. The whole world does not live in North Carolina.
---
It is also claimed above that:

According to Gisselquist and his colleagues "HIV is not transmitted by �sex�...
REALLY??? Where is that written?
Unless you can get Gisselquist or one of the other researchers to confirm such a comment, one can only go by what they have put into print.
For example in a letter right here in the BMJ(2) (in the final paragraph):

--- "Although cofactors such as sexually transmitted diseases and lack of circumcision may boost heterosexual transmission..." ---
Sure, he is questioning if non-sexual transmission has been overlooked, but he does comment on factors BOOSTING heterosexual transmission!.
Stuart Brody is also cited, and his 1995 paper does state that intravenous and anal activities remain the only clear vectors for HIV transmission.
Does Brody still hold this view now?
His 1997 book(3) refers to the Low AIDS Risk of Vaginal Intercourse.
Not no risk, low risk. AND he is referring to a low risk in modern countries, where the presence of cofactors such as other sexually transmitted diseases(2) is much lower.
References:
(1) Padian NS. Shiboski SC. Glass SO. Vittinghoff E. Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 146(4):350-7, 1997 Aug 15. [Abstract]
(2) Gisselquist D, Rothenberg R, Potterat J, Drucker E. Non-sexual transmission of HIV has been overlooked in developing countries. BMJ. 2002 Jan 26;324(7331):235.
(3) Brody S. Sex at Risk: Lifetime Number of Partners, Frequency of Intercourse, and the Low AIDS Risk of Vaginal Intercourse. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997: 109�168 [amazon.com Link]
Competing interests: None declared

Is There Proof for Heterosexual Transmission of HIV? 27 March 2003

Eleni Papadopulos Eleopulos,
Biophysicist
Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia,
Barry Page, Valendar Turner, John Papadimitriou, David Causer, Helman Alfonso

Is There Proof for Heterosexual Transmission of HIV?
We put two basic questions to Tony Floyd: 1. Where is the evidence that proves the HIV antibody tests are specific? 2. Where is the evidence that proves HIV is heterosexually transmitted?
He answered neither.
Heterosexual transmission of HIV can only be accepted if studies provide evidence which prove it. It is fallacious to state that the Padian study �doesn�t PROVE that heterosexual transmission of HIV DOESN�T occur.�
Concerning the quote from Gisselquist and his colleagues �HIV is not transmitted by �sex��, please read the first sentence of paragraph 2 of the conclusion the authors reached in their paper published in 2003 (Brewer, et al Int J STD & AIDS 2003; 14:144-147) which is reference 1 in our previous rapid response.
Tony Floyd asks: �Does Brody still hold this view now?� (that �intravenous and anal activities remain the only clear vectors for HIV transmission.�) The answer is in the affirmative and is found again in the first 2 sentences of paragraph 2 of the conclusion in their paper published in 2003 (Brewer, et al Int J STD & AIDS 2003; 14:144-147) which is reference 1 in our previous rapid response.
Perhaps Tony Floyd has no answer to our two basic questions listed above.
Competing interests: None declared

Heterosexual anal intercourse. A severely underestimated mode of HIV transmission? 28 March 2003

Tony Floyd,
Medical Student
Newcastle University, Newcastle Australia 2308

>We put two basic questions to Tony Floyd: 1. Where is the evidence that proves the HIV antibody tests are specific? 2. Where is the evidence that proves HIV is heterosexually transmitted?
> He answered neither
Yes, but you asked me neither.
What you asked was:
> Until at least these two basic issues are resolved, scientists have no option...
You asked 'scientists'. Not I. Will the ability of Tony Floyd (or any other medical student) to answer such questions be the sine qua non of Evidence Based Medicine going forward?
Crikey.
What I did provide was seven reasons as to why the Padian paper doesn't disprove heterosexual transmission of HIV. That's all. There was no open challenge issued regarding all questions posed to scientists in general.
What is meant by heterosexual transmission anyway? In a survey of University Students(1) it was found that:

"Almost 23% of nonvirgin students had engaged in anal intercourse"
In a review of heterosexual anal intercourse by Halperin(2) it was concluded that:

"This typically stigmatized and hidden sexual practice must be given greater emphasis in AIDS/STD prevention, women's care, and other health promotion programs"

Perhaps heterosexual anal intercourse is a severely underestimated mode of HIV transmission?
As for Gisselquist and Brody (who are again cited in support of alternative AIDS theories) could you please provide the URL or PMID number for the study referred to (or any study) by these two researchers that supports any theory that HIV can't be transmitted heterosexually?
In the absence of such evidence I can only assume that Gisselquist and Brody continue to support the fact that HIV can be transmitted by heterosexual contact as evidenced by their article(3) and book(4) respectively.
References:
(1) Baldwin JI, Baldwin JD. Heterosexual anal intercourse: an understudied, high-risk sexual behavior. Arch Sex Behav. 2000 Aug;29(4):357-73. PMID: 10948725 [Abstract]
(2) Halperin DT. Heterosexual anal intercourse: prevalence, cultural factors, and HIV infection and other health risks, Part I. AIDS Patient Care STDS 1999 Dec;13(12):717-30 [Abstract]
(3) Gisselquist D, Rothenberg R, Potterat J, Drucker E. Non-sexual transmission of HIV has been overlooked in developing countries. BMJ. 2002 Jan 26;324(7331):235. [Abstract]
(4) Brody S. Sex at Risk: Lifetime Number of Partners, Frequency of Intercourse, and the Low AIDS Risk of Vaginal Intercourse. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997: 109�168 [amazon.com Link]

Competing interests: None declared

More reasons for low heterosexual transmission in the Padian study 30 March 2003

Peter Flegg,
Consultant Physician
Blackpool Victoria Hospital, UK FY3 8NR

Tony Floyd (26th March) lists several reasons why Padian's heterosexual transmission study showed a low transmission rate.
There are two further important reasons. Padian recruited HIV discordant couples for the prospective part of her study.
Firstly, this means that the participants were self-selected as NOT having already acquired HIV infection from their previously infected partners. We know there are some index cases who are "poor transmitters" and similarly some people are more resistant to HIV-acquisition than others. Since Padian's study subjects had all indulged in the risky activity in question (sex) for considerable periods of time prior to joining the study, there is very likely to be a bias towards couples who were unlikely to pass on/catch HIV in any circumstance.
Secondly, we also know that HIV is maximally infectious during the acute phase of infection, and that many if not most transmissions occur during this period. All of Padian's study subjects had passed through this time frame (without experiencing any HIV transmission) before entering her study.
If an HIV seronegative individual is going to acquire HIV heterosexually, it is far more likely to happen within the few weeks after their partner has caught HIV themselves.
It stands to reason that Padian's study subjects were at substantially lower risk of HIV transmission than would be expected in a "real-life" scenario.
Competing interests: None declared

So, where is the evidence? 1 April 2003

David Rasnick,
Chief Science Officer, Boveran, Inc.
San Ramon, CA 94583

Dear Editor,
In trying to explain the Padian et al. inability to detect HIV negative individuals becoming HIV positive after years of unprotected sexual intercourse with HIV positive partners, Peter Flegg says that, "If an HIV seronegative individual is going to acquire HIV heterosexually, it is far more likely to happen within the few weeks after their partner has caught HIV themselves." Perhaps. But, where is the evidence published in the scientific, medical literature that HIV is indeed sexually transmitted, whether early or late in infection? Flegg seems to agree that the Padian et al. study [1] does not provide that proof. So, where is it to be found?
In addition, if one accepts Flegg�s argument, then it raises a serious problem for the contagious/HIV hypothesis of AIDS. If, as Flegg says, after a short time following infection an HIV positive individual eventually fights off HIV and is thus unable to spread the infection, then by definition that individual has become immunized against HIV. That is precisely what having antibodies to HIV signifies. That is also why it is impossible to measure an infectious titer in HIV positive individuals. In other words, HIV behaves exactly like any other virus in that it rapidly produces an strong immune response and is very quickly eliminated in healthy people without a trace of infectious virus.
So, Flegg has unwittingly raised yet another serious problem--how does HIV cause AIDS if it is so rapidly and efficiently eliminated by the immune system? This compels me to ask Flegg, what are the names of the individuals who are documented to have shown how HIV causes AIDS? Failing that, what are the names of the people who have shown that HIV even causes AIDS, regardless of mechanism?
When I have asked this question in the past, the usual response is that there are too many names to list. So, please just list the first individuals, along with their potentially Nobel prize-wining publications.
David Rasnick
1. Padian, N. S., et al. (1997) Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study, Am J Epidemiol 146, 350-357
Competing interests: None declared

Clarification of the basic issues in relation to the HIV theory of AIDS 1 April 2003

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos,
Biophysicist
Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia,
Valendar F Turner, John Papadimitriou, David Causer, Barry Page, Helman Alfonso

Let us clarify the basic issues concerning the HIV theory of AIDS
It is not necessarily a problem that perhaps Tony Floyd or anybody else including scientists such as immunologists and retrovirologists may lack knowledge regarding the two basic issues of the HIV theory of AIDS. However, it becomes a problem when such individuals spare no effort to promote the HIV theory of AIDS. The relevant references are readily available to all including medical students with their young and sharp minds.
As far as the Padian study is concerned, it is irrelevant whether there are 7 reasons or more (we note that Peter Flegg gives 2 more reasons in his rapid response �More reasons for low heterosexual transmission in the Padian study�, 30th March 2003) �why the Padian paper doesn�t disprove heterosexual transmission of HIV.� For heterosexual transmission of HIV to be accepted proof must exist, provided by either Padian or anybody else, that this takes indeed place. Would Tony Floyd have us believe that Martians exist because nobody has proven they don�t?
We are glad Tony Floyd agrees with us that �anal intercourse is a severely underestimated mode of HIV transmission". If he puts some effort into reading some of the references we have provided in our first rapid response �HIV in Africa� (13th March 2003), he will come to the conclusion that all the presently available data prove it is only passive anal intercourse which is the risk factor for the acquisition of a positive antibody test. In other words, a positive �HIV� antibody test like pregnancy can be sexually acquired but cannot be sexually transmitted.
So again we ask, �Is there proof for heterosexual transmission of HIV?� and where is there proof of the specificity of the antibody tests?
Competing interests: None declared

Wake up call and need for paradigm shift 3 April 2003

Felix ID Konotey-Ahulu,
Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Consultant Physician, Department of Tropical Medicine, Cromwell Hospital, London SW5 0TU

Education and debate
One African�s Response
AIDS in South Africa
Wake up call and need for paradigm shift
I present my point-by-point response to Didier Fassin and Helen Schneider1, the value of whose article cannot be overestimated. They have gone farther than anybody in their diagnosis of what is happening with AIDS in South Africa in particular, and Sub-Saharan Africa in general.
President Thabo Mbeki�s Stance on HIV/AIDS in South Africa
�President Mbeki�s stance on the epidemic�1 was influenced by Professor Peter Duesberg who is credited for having initially mapped the genetic structure of retroviruses. Thabo Mbeki has been roundly condemned for putting Peter Duesberg, the apostle of �AIDS Dissidents�, on his panel of experts convened to advise him about �AIDS in Africa: the way forward�2.
Twelve years ago, The Heritage Foundation, invited 11 people around the world to examine the thesis of Peter Duesberg and Bryan Ellison and present their critique for publication. The thrust of Duesberg�s thesis was that HIV was not the main cause of AIDS. I was one of the eleven, approached on the basis of first-hand experiences of what was happening in Africa.3-14 I was sent Duesberg and Ellison�s paper which said �retroviruses are poor candidates to blame serious diseases on,�15 and that poverty, drugs, immunosuppressive behaviour, and certain �risk factors�, singly or in combination, could produce AIDS. The condition, they said, was not infectious and that it failed �Koch�s postulates� test. I was charged with examining this thesis in the light of what was happening in Africa in general, and in my Krobo tribe in particular.
I knew a town where generations had been eating green monkey meat (with their retroviruses) for centuries. The only few AIDS patients in the town were females who had just been sent home to die, from Abidjan where they had gone for the sex trade.3 10 11 Duesberg could be right after all; eating green monkeys did not make HIV jump the species barrier, and if it did it was innocuous.
Searching Parameters for examining Peter Duesberg�s Thesis
I chose 13 socio-clinical parameters and examined each one in the light of Duesberg against what was happening in Africa.3 10-12 Of the 13, Duesberg and Ellison were wrong in 6, and could be vindicated in seven.16 �In summary�, I concluded, �there are �pluses� and �minuses� in the Duesberg and Ellison hypothesis��16 One of the 6 parameters I failed Duesberg on16 was when he said HIV was not infectious.15 If such a world authority maintained that a retrovirus was not infectious and I said it was,16 then were we talking about the same thing?
Another Explanation?
Duesberg might be talking about naturally occurring retroviruses, while the �HIV� I knew was wreaking havoc out there might not be natural at all � it could be artificial, as the astute English physician, Dr John Seale, pointed out in the world�s leading scientific journal Nature that first published the DNA structure. Seale�s short, but brilliant, communication was called �Artificial HIV?�17 Another English physician, Dr Victor Daniels stated: �The origins of the immunodeficiency virus are not totally clear. It has been suggested, but not confirmed that the virus has been man-made in the Soviet Union or United States as a weapon of biological warfare.�18 Writing under the title �The Biological Bomb� The Lancet gave this definition: �Biological warfare is the intentional use of living organisms or their toxic products to cause death, disability, or disease in man, animals, or plants or to poison food-supplies (�public health in reverse�)�19 and that there was a �biological bomb lying at the heart of the cellular nucleus, ticking us to destruction.�19 At the same Lancet symposium, Lord Ritchie-Calder said: �While one group of scientists is devoting its energies to prevent diseases, another is devising man-made epidemics.�19 In their instructive article, Fassin and Schneider revealed: �As has recently been shown, in the last years of apartheid government laboratories were developing chemical and biological weapons (including anthrax, intended to eliminate black leaders), ..�1 Just the type of biological bomb Lancet wrote about 35 years ago19?
HIV versus �HIDDNA�
To understand the difference between the natural �retrovirus-HIV� Duesberg and some �AIDS Dissidents� called �Science Fiction�15, and the real cause of Lancet�s �man-made epidemics�19 I now suggest the perception of �HIV� as some hidden agent (hidd�n agent), �HIDDNA� which term I have coined to stand for �Human Immune Deficiency DNA�, specially fashioned in an apartheid laboratory (�intentional use of living organisms�19) to attack the immune system for biological warfare since we are now told that some such research was going on in South Africa.1 Has South Africa been hit by a biological bomb?
Paradigm Shift in thought and approach is required to tackle the AIDS problem
The answer to whether a possible biological bomb involvement in South Africa explains what is happening needs a paradigm shift in one�s thinking � prepare to think the unthinkable, and believe the unbelievable. Look at the bare facts: On my African tour researching AIDS 3-14 20-22, I did not include South Africa because there were no cases among the black population, but I did communicate with Professor J Metz of the South African Institute of Medical Research in Pretoria who sent me some information on VIGS (AIDS in Afrikaans) confirming that AIDS began in the white population. Within 15 years the situation in the black community has become quite unbelievable. �With an estimated five million people infected� write Fassin and Schneider, �South Africa has the highest number of people with HIV in the world.�1 Experts maintain this is all from sex. Is it not cruel to suggest that black majority rule has suddenly produced a sexual revolution? When Gisselquist and colleagues point out that some HIV Positive children in sub-Saharan Africa have �HIV Negative mothers�23 and that �more research is warranted to clarify risks for HIV transmission�23 they were promptly slapped down by those who subscribed to the view of the African�s alleged sexual prowess. �Don�t emphasize the dirty needle contribution to AIDS�, they say, �it will only make them continue their promiscuity�. But North Africans are no less promiscuous than sub-Saharan Africans, yet they only have a fraction of the continent�s AIDS problem12 14.
BBC�s Disturbing Revelations
�Science In Action BBC World Service Sunday 18 October 1987 GMT 09.15 to 09.45�24 Stephen Hedges, regarding a hospital ward where 30% of the patients were HIV-Positive: �THE RAVAGES OF AIDS IN AFRICA. Film-maker Scot Finch reveals the frightening results of a fact-finding mission he undertook with a team of doctors and scientists to assess the spread of AIDS in Central Africa: �We were in one hospital where the doctor has to use five needles for twenty patients; three syringes, and use the same syringes, the same needles on the AIDS and non-AIDS patients alike. Now this is absolutely horrifying� (Scott Finch was talking to Stephen Hedges in Science In Action, coming to you from London in the World Service of the BBC)�. In the same report Scott Finch said: �One very eminent doctor said, �if we in the Congo don�t change our sexual habits, the Congo could be wiped off the map.��24 It was like demonstrating the connection in the UK between infected blood and AIDS in haemophiliacs, only to prompt a campaign: �If you don�t change your sexual habits, and wear condoms, you haemophiliacs will all be wiped out�.
The Times recently ran the headline �Botched vaccinations blamed for AIDS in Africa�25 to highlight the report of Dr Gisselquist and colleagues23. An important aspect of Fassin and Schneider�s article1 is that when the multifactorial causes of the AIDS epidemic are ignored, suspicions are immediately raised in the African mind.
Suspicion? African Paranoia? Or both?
When South Africans become alarmed about the fact that �some white leaders�even publicly rejoiced over the possible elimination of black people by disease, as one member of parliament did in 1992�1 their suspicions of racist plots are always dismissed as �Conspiracy Theories�. We Africans should not be preoccupied with conspiracy theories, but when the President of the USA apologizes for Conspiracy Facts26, then it was time we began to look at all the channels of infection, for example �attempting to spread HIV through a network of infected prostitutes�1. On May 16, 1997 President Clinton apologized to the eight remaining survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: �The United States government did something that was wrong, deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens. It was clearly racist.�26 In 1932, a group of scientists secretly selected 400 black people from Tuskegee, Alabama, who were never told they had syphilis. They were watched and monitored for 40 years. Even when Penicillin became available they were denied treatment. The experiment was stopped only when the American public was alerted to it, and became outraged, but by then many of the people had died from �syphilis-related heart conditions.�27
Should South Africans who are deeply suspicious about the phenomenal increase of HIV/AIDS among the blacks, and who kept asking: �What on earth is happening?� be branded paranoid? The Financial Times28 had a photograph of �Children from Zevenfontein, where 85 percent of the community are HIV- Positive.�28 Although it is impossible for sex alone to do this, we hear reputable broadcasters continue to say: �Rape incidence in South Africa is the highest in the world! Even babies less than one year old are raped regularly because the HIV-Positive African thinks having sex with a virgin gets rid of the infection. The younger the person raped, the better!� How many rapes per night and day would turn the Zevenfontein community to be 85% HIV-Positive? Or produce �the extremely rapid growth in HIV seroprevalence, for example from 0.7% in pregnant women in 1990 to 24.5% in 2000, reaching 36.2% in KwaZulu Natal�1? When Fassin and Schneider report that �in the year 2000 AIDS accounted for 25% of all deaths, and mortality was 3.5% times higher than in 1985 among 25-29 year old women and two times higher among 30-39 year men�1, is that not �a cry for help� and a �wake up call�?
The British Medical Journal cover photograph and anti-retroviral drugs
The BMJ�s stunning cover photograph29 showed scores of youth wearing �H.I.V. POSITIVE� T-shirts, who appeared to be rejoicing, as if wearing �Badges of Honour� but really were captioned: �South Africans protest for anti-retroviral drugs�29. The assumption is that all these youth, and the pregnant women, became sero-positive through sex, but from what we have seen above23 24, is it right to make that assumption? And now that HIV vaccines are being heralded as the only answer to Africa�s AIDS problem, should we not listen to what one Ghanaian physician said? Commenting on the �let�s wait for a vaccine� prescription for AIDS he said: �Look here, for a vaccine to be worth its name, it must produce antibodies. Would you surrender your seronegative status for a seropositive one?�30 If a pregnant South African lady was persuaded to be vaccinated, and she changed from being HIV-Negative to HIV-Positive, would she not also join this crowd demanding that President Thabo Mbeki sign a cheque for anti- retroviral drugs even though the government blocked their use, �citing the drugs� side effects�1?
Widespread grumbling and non-compliance with the �wear condoms� message
Everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa this intense suspicion has turned to �African Paranoia�13:
Nairobi�s Kikuyu Province: �We prefer the Missionary nurses to vaccinate our children. We do not trust the other vaccines.�
Maeduiguri University, Nigeria: �We fear the donated sanitary towels may contain HIV because they produce intense itching in our private parts�.
Lagos: �Vitamins are not vitamins anymore. They are full of contraceptives�.
Abuja: �They planted in our leading International Hotel, a very beautiful prostitute from Mali to infect us�.
Kampala: �The professor successfully treating HIV/AIDS with herbal immune boosters has been struck off the medical register. One attempt has been made on his life.�31
A Ghanaian city: �The haematology kit we got from abroad was dangerous. HIV- Positive blood showed �Negative�, and HIV-Negative became �Positive� when we checked with our tested controls.�
Doctor in Tema, Ghana: �I am seeing more and more young adults with azospermia. Imported food with spermicides? Is that what the Genetically Modified food is meant to do? No wonder the Zambians turned down the GM food offer.�
Ghanaian Midwife, Accra: �The way Vitamin A is being pushed everywhere, radio, TV, newspapers, makes us very suspicious. Surely we have palm oil with plenty of Vitamin A? Why don�t we push that instead?�
Volta Region, Ghana: �The condoms have lubricant with HIV, and holes specially made to transmit the virus, but block sperm. Preventing pregnancy, and causing AIDS as well?�
Government doctor in East African country: �Instructions came that we should no longer test blood for HIV before surgery, because blood transfusion is not a significant cause of AIDS transmission in sub-Saharan Africa32�.
Mother of children in International School in sub-Saharan Africa: �The children brought a letter announcing vaccination against meningitis. It said children from other countries should go to their respective embassies for their jabs. Isn�t our vaccine good enough for the others?�
Businessman with children in International School: �My son born abroad received a letter telling him he needed to go to the embassy for any vaccinations he required in future, while my other son will be vaccinated at school. Why?�
Kumasi, Ghana: �The herbalist, Nana Drobo, who treated many people including French men with AIDS, was assassinated on his farm33. Anybody using African traditional herbs for AIDS treatment is threatened, as happened in Kenya.�
Douala, Cameroon: �The British-trained professor who has found a revolutionary way of treating AIDS, and is sending people back to their jobs, has been rubbished internationally�.
Abuja, Nigeria: �The Specialist treating HIV/AIDS his own way has been threatened with closure, even when he has successfully treated 30 Air Force personnel�.
Nairobi: �Why should they come to a church and get our children out of Sunday School to be vaccinated? Would they do that in England?�
Influential government official in West Africa: �What scares me is that I do not know how to tell the good white man from the bad one. I sent one packing last month only to find later that he was the good one.�
Accra: PhD Lecturer: �The �You are all at risk� message with a finger pointing directly at one from the poster on the Brewery Road, near the Daily Graphic, always irritates me. How is a happily married man also at risk of HIV/AIDS? Unless, of course, they are spreading the thing quietly through needles as well.�
Kampala: �Police were sent to beat us up when we refused our children vaccination. My first child has not yet recovered from last year�s immunization. One friend of mine�s child turned HIV-Positive after vaccination.�
Lagos: [Secretary to the Cabinet, Chief Samuel Olu Falae]: �Don�t these scientists know that AIDS has less to do with green monkeys than blue movies?�22
Accra: [Scripture Union Chief Executive, Mr Jude Hama]: �NGO�s come offering us money to distribute condoms to students. Our converts are taught not to have sex outside marriage. Do these NGO�s want the children to have a taste for sex in their teens? Sadly, our own Medical Officers do not support us in this.�
And so on, and so forth. Even WHO and UN pronouncements are received coolly. The statement last year by a UN Senior Official that Heads of State should be �kicked out�34 if they did not toe the official line for AIDS control brought the paranoid retort: �They have been in charge of the AIDS Programme for the past 16 years, and all we see is calamity after calamity, while they blame it all on sex. Now we hear: �Obey our AIDS population control plan, and you stay in power. Disobey, and you go�. Soon they are going to ask us to submit to HIV vaccination that will turn us all HIV-Positive. The Head of State that does not enforce this, will be �kicked out?��34
These interpretations of official intentions proliferate. Even the women in the sex trade whom I interviewed around the continent were full of such conspiracy theories. They are convinced someone wants to �wipe out Africa�, even while they continue with their �quantitative and qualitative abnormal sex�6 7 12 to produce a �preponderance of females with AIDS.�35
Everywhere I visited, I found suspicion, fear, and paranoia that seemed to undermine genuine immunization programmes.
The Population Dimension
Paranoid Africans think the white man�s plan for them is �Selective Population Control.� The Times� leading article the same day Fassin and Schneider�s paper was published says: �The world�s population in 2050 is now expected by the UN Population Division to be 8.9 billion. That is 400 million fewer than expected as recently as 2000 and a billion below the figure predicted a decade back.� It goes on �By 2050, the death toll from AIDS is expected to have climbed to 278 million, and 178 million fewer babies will have been born because the impact of the epidemic on women of child-bearing age.� The Times proceeds (chillingly) �Despite high fertility rates, Southern Africa�s population will actually shrink.�36
Is any of this partly (or wholly) due to what The Lancet called Biological warfare�s �public health in reverse�19? Is an iatrogenic population depletion going on faster around the Tropic of Capricorn than anywhere else in the world?
Denial of reality & Denial of the unacceptable versus Denial of wrong doing
�AIDS Dissidents� have a broad spectrum ranging from those who deny that HIV exists at all, across to those who admit that something peculiar was happening, but that it should not be called HIV-AIDS but was a manifestation of old diseases, and on to those labelled �Dissidents� simply because they queried the �official line� regarding anti-retroviral management. There are also some who, because they have tested �Positive� in one laboratory (say in Africa) but �Negative� several times in Europe, insist the whole thing is a hoax to lure them to take immune deprecating drugs that lead to AIDS and death. Joan Shenton37 lists scores of diseases that will test �HIV-Positive� with some test kits.
Yet some others deny �HIV� is infectious because they had refused to wear condoms when the wife was HIV-Positive, and they had remained HIV- Negative for ten years or more � the so-called �Discordant Couples�. They ask: �If the thing is infectious, why am I not infected, and why are there thousands of British HIV-Negative widows of haemophiliacs who had died from AIDS?� Then, as Fassin and Schneider state, there are yet others who deny HIV/AIDS � �even a state leader�1 � because they find it difficult �to comprehend the magnitude of the epidemic� and its consequences �such as the loss of 20 years of life expectancy within 2 decades.�1 In my opinion, such denial was very dangerous because while promiscuity continued to be blamed, transmission by needles could go on undetected.
There is also the denial of wrong doing. �How could anybody do a thing like that � deliberately (or accidentally) infect Africans with HIV? The thing is unthinkable�, they conclude, but because of apartheid hindsight, �what could be seen elsewhere as unfounded suspicion was in South Africa plain reality, historically attested.�1 When that meticulous epidemiological researcher-detective, Ed Hooper, described the role of accidental contamination of polio vaccine with HIV in the AIDS epidemic38 there were frenetic denials of wrong doing. Meanwhile, African Ministers of Health who kept denying that there was an AIDS epidemic, would never be concerned about ever asking the question: �Has the accidental contamination that Hooper revealed, stopped happening?�
Misinformation and Disinformation
�Misinformation� with �Disinformation� about the AIDS epidemic on the African continent was rife9, and that was what made me decide to search out exactly what was happening in the sub-Saharan region. �Disinformation is deliberate misinformation� 9 13. To say that eating green monkeys produced AIDS was misinformation, but for a professor of Immunology to publish that Africans could have developed HIV/AIDS through injecting monkey blood for sexual arousal39 was disinformation. To broadcast that Central Africans and some homosexuals with AIDS had inherited something found in their blood called group specific component Gc1f which predisposed them to AIDS40 was misinformation rather than disinformation because after it was pointed out to the authors that their facts were wrong 5 13 they apologized unreservedly and said there had been a laboratory fault 41.
For accredited authorities of �AIDS and the Third World� to publish two maps showing Ghana striped with AIDS while neighbouring Ivory Coast (which had international prostitution legalized as an industry) was recorded as being entirely free of the disease42 was disinformation. A virtual ban on talk about the sex trade as a chief cause of spread of AIDS was officially maintained to avoid �sex discrimination�, which raised the kind of suspicions circulating in South Africa where it was feared attempts were made �to spread HIV through a network of infected prostitutes�1.
Sometimes the misinformation/disinformation debased the African, as when it was announced that some American scientists had discovered monkey retrovirus antibodies in the blood of Senegalese prostitutes. When the findings were challenged the authors admitted that they had made a mistake, and that there was contamination in their laboratory of human blood and monkey blood43. To redeem the reputation of their great university, a senior professor wrote an editorial about the episode which she called: �A case of mistaken non-identity�44. What surprises us Africans is that after the original misinformation had made world news, and the scientists later confessed error, not one newspaper or radio/TV channel went back to correct the facts. The general public therefore continued to believe that the African did, in fact, inject monkey blood into his thighs for sexual arousal, that Africans did share some genes with AIDS afflicted homosexuals, and that Africans harboured in their blood antibodies of monkey retroviruses. There seemed to be not a single international journalist worth his salt who would stand up for the African. Could all this be a manifestation of �racism�? And, in any case, why should people be mixing monkey blood with human blood in the same laboratory as the two professors did in Boston43?
Racism and Retroracism
Fassin and Schneider observed that racism had led to �suspicion in South Africa of science and orthodoxy � a suspicion that is widespread and not confined to the president and his advisers.�1 Certain scientists, in my opinion, genuinely believe that �blacks� are inferior to �whites�. With little knowledge of the black person�s previous history and real potential, these prejudiced �whites� have stretched Darwinian Evolutionism to absurd limits. The full title of Charles Darwin�s treatise45 is:
�THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE�
As I once I stated46: �The term �race� is a misnomer. There is but one human race, with different peoples. James Bowman and Robert Murray47 should be applauded for the title of their excellent book, Genetic Variation and Disorders in Peoples of African Origin. Others would have used �the African Race� in the title.�46 Sequencing the human genome confirmed recently the fact of just one human race. Darwin�s �favoured races� would want to survive at the expense of the �unfavoured races�.
Looking at some unflattering pictures of half naked Africans in glossy magazine advertisements, for example, Chief Obijol and his �series of clicking sounds�48, racists would like to think that the African was inferior and slow to evolve. They would be terribly mistaken because the African, in his present sorry plight, is not a case of delayed evolution; he is a classic example of accelerated degeneration. There were Black Pharaohs in ancient Egypt, and before Europe was Europe, and while the Caesars were teaching the British Isles to read and write, the Ethiopian Chancellor of the Exchequer of Queen Candace, was reading The Prophet Isaiah fluently49.
There are South African whites who have vowed never to be ruled by a black president, and are like the ones Fassin and Schneider describe as rejoicing in parliament �over the possible elimination of black people by disease�1. These racists require a mental paradigm shift about the black man. The process can be very painful, as was manifested in the case I once described46 of a British university Reader who confessed his racism to a Ghanaian pre-Clinical medical student he had misled in order to deprive him of a First Class Honours Degree. He �could not bear to think that a black African would learn English as a second language, study in the language, and beat all comers.�46 But after he was deprived of what he deserved, that African went on to emerge in the Finals with Honours and Distinctions, to top the whole university of more than 200 newly qualified doctors, and was rewarded by a non-racist Lord Max Rosenheim FRS PRCP, who picked him to be his House Physician. The Ghanaian went on to achieve exploits. I know many white South Africans who are as colour blind as Lord Rosenheim was, and who will not rejoice as their parliamentarian did, because the African population was being decimated.
RETRORACISM: I met this phenomenon in several countries I visited in sub-Saharan Africa. ��Retroracism�� I once wrote, �is a term I coined to mean reverse racism. A retroracist is usually a black man who is consumed with hatred for the white man.�13[page 196] As white racists are best dealt with by white people, so retroracists are most efficiently controlled by fellow Africans. Black South Africans (and all the non-white population), have an obligation to help those among themselves who are retroracists because genuine, non-racist, white people feel intimidated by retroracists, and this can prevent South Africa from dealing with the AIDS epidemic properly and collectively without mistrust raising its ugly head on either side.
Meaningful Interventions
If one does not accept the multi-faceted nature of the HIV/AIDS problem1 plus the role of soiled needles23 24, then even the most elaborate interventions will miss the mark. If the effects of behaviour change and condom use �were not translated into any measurable reduction in HIV-1 incidence�50, then perhaps non-sexual parameters of HIV transmission needed looking at seriously. �Evaluation of promising interventions� as has recently been pointed out, �is essential to the success of HIV prevention�51. To assume that sex is the overwhelming cause of the havoc in South Africa will leave unexplained the HIV-Positive virgins whose mothers are HIV-Negative.23 Meaningful interventions at the grass-roots using appropriate technology in Kenya have been emphasized by Professor Thairu52, and domiciliary management of AIDS in Ghana by Professor Quartey and team53, without resort to anti-retroviral drugs, has been shown to be cost effective. They proved the value of a decentralized approach to the epidemic. For instance, in my Manya Krobo tribe in Ghana where we have clearly worked out the local clinical epidemiology to perfection4 13, we know that only targeting the main local cause of the epidemic can be of any use. Yet, the centralized National AIDS prevention campaign appears not to be tackling root causes, and the problem just gets worse and worse despite the �wear condoms� slogans recommended from abroad by those who sup