About AIDS

Their Claims, Part I

In the past several weeks, we identified some key AIDS denialists, some possible motives for dissent, and their horrendous impact on real people, including in South Africa. Approaching July's World Conference in Durban, we will examine some of the claims they make.

Foremost is the notion that HIV does not cause AIDS, promulgated by UC/Berkeley's Peter Duesberg. Although not a physician, Duesberg observed in the mid1980s that many people with declining immune function (measured by falling CD4/T4 lymphocyte counts) did not have high levels of HIV-infected T-cells identifiable in their blood. Ergo, HIV couldn't be causing the immune damage. It wasn't known then that early in HIV disease most HIV is harbored in the lymph nodes, not the circulating blood, and that infected T-cells quickly die and are cleared from the bloodstream. In short, Duesberg was looking in the wrong place. He made his pronouncement before AIDS pathogenesis was understood, but - enjoying "outsider" status - has doggedly stuck to it despite enormous amounts of scientific evidence to the contrary (and sadly, at serious cost to a brilliantly developing career).

The most radical denialists even claim that HIV does not exist. Sorry, but we've got pictures to prove it's there, and what they can actually be seen doing to a CD4 T-cell is not pretty. What's more, Duesberg himself participated in decoding the virus' basic genome. Ironically, fellow German scientist Michael Nitsche, who denies HIV's existence, is now attacking Duesberg for his position that HIV exists, claiming that Duesberg profits from his posturing. Follow the fun at user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~myny/duesberg-brief.htm. AIDS may have a more complex causality than is now known, but HIV is not the concoction of a drug company's misinformation campaign. It causes fatal disease, whether by itself or with other pathogens. To pretend otherwise is dangerous not only to the HIV-infected person, but to the uninfected person who may be led to neglect safer behavior choices.

--Sandy Bartlett, Community Information/Education Coordinator

AIDS Services of Austin