The Debate over HIV

Mayank Tiwari
Hindustan Times
May 29^th 2005

What causes Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)? As people die of diseases their immune systems are no longer capable of fighting, international scientists remain divided about the origin and causes of the syndrome. The virus supposedly responsible for the disease – HIV – is under attack.

Peter Duesberg discovered retroviruses – the family of viruses to which HIV also belongs. A professor of cellular and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Duesberg has been vehemently questioning the “HIV causes AIDS” hypothesis for nearly twenty years now.

Dr Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos at the Royal Perth Hospital, Australia has been questioning the very existence of HIV.

In India, Dr Manu Kothari, a general surgeon based in Mumbai’s KM hospital, says there is no evidence to support the claim that HIV causes AIDS.

JACK, an NGO, has been questioning the scientific evidence for declaring homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users as high-risk groups. “In 1994, according to National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), 60 per cent of prostitutes in Mumbai were HIV positive. The number then was according to NACO. Ten years later the situation should have worsened with most infections turning into full blown AIDS leading to deaths. But there is no evidence of people dying there. Who is accountable?,” asks Purushothaman Mulloli, convenor of JACK.

In 1987, Duesberg published a paper titled HIV does not Cause AIDS in the medical journal Cancer Research. He argued that HIV could not possibly be the cause of any immunological disorder since retroviruses do not, by definition, kill cells and therefore could not cause the mass cell destruction seen in AIDS.

In an interview with Sunday Hindustan Times, Duesberg pointed out that the scientific standard to prove that a virus or microbe causes disease are Koch’s postulates (see box). “HIV does not meet the first and the third of Koch’s postulates,” says Duesberg adding, “There are numerous cases of HIV-free AIDS.” This was the subject of a paper he wrote in 1993, where he presented over 3000 AIDS cases that were HIV free. “The third postulate calls causing the disease by infecting a suitable host with a virus. Over 200 chimpanzees have been infected in the last 21 years, but not one of them has developed AIDS,” says.

Koch’s Postulates
Koch’s Postulates call for: a 100 per cent correlation between microbe and disease; isolation of the microbe in pure form; causation of the suspected disease by inoculation of a suitable host with pure microbe.

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos agrees. “There are many problems with the HIV theory of AIDS.” She believes sufficient evidence isn’t there to support the existence of the virus, and she questions the tests used to detect the virus in human beings.

“There has to be proof a virus exists, which involves isolating it,” she points out. “However, all the laboratory phenomena said to demonstrate the isolation of HIV are non-specific,” she says. Which basically means no one has ever managed to photograph the virus using an electron microscope.

Her statement gains weight if you consider all the controversy swirling around the discovery of the virus. It almost reads like a thriller with claim and counterclaim, and even an element of deception. (see box).

Chronology of events surrounding the discovery of HIV

1981 : Increased Clinical frequency of the skin neoplasm Kaposi’s Sarcoma (KS) and Pneumocystis Carinii (PCP) in so-called “otherwise healthy” male homosexuals in the USA reported by Dr. Michael Gottlieb, University of Los Angeles (ULCA) 1982: CDC announces this new phenomenon as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (‘AIDS’) despite the fact that KS is not due to an immune deficiency (low T cell count) 1983 : Dr. Luc Montaginer from Pasteur Institute, Paris, isolates ‘retrovirus particles’ from a gay patient and terms it Lymphodenopathy Associated Virus (‘LAV’). 1984 : Dr. Robert Gallo claims that HTLV III causes AIDS by killing T-cell lines. He publishes pictures of HTLV III which turn out to be pictures of the French LAV which will later be called HIV. The United States Health Secretary, Margaret Heckler along with Dr. Gallo announce HTLV III as the ‘probable’ cause of AIDS at a press conference, despite there not being any scientific paper published to back up their claims. The National Institute of Health (NIH), on behalf of US government takes world-wide patent for the ‘antibody tests’, with Dr. Robert Gallo getting shares. The following month, Gallo’s group publishes four articles in ‘Science’ to demonstrate that his ‘virus’ HTLV-3 is the cause of AIDS. 1985 : DNA analysis proves Montagnier’s LAV and Gallo’s HTLV III to be identical. Dr. Gallo admits that his sample might have got contaminated with LAV 1986 : The French Government brings a patent infringement case against the US government, claiming that Dr. Montaigner is the discoveror of ‘HIV’. And not Dr. Gallo. 1987 : Peter Duesberg sparked The ‘HIV debate’ in 1987 1988 : Dr. Gallo retracts his hypothesis about direct killing of T4 dells by HIV, but continues to support his unproven theory that ‘HIV’ causes AIDS, suggesting “indirect mechanisms” triggered by ‘HIV’ as responsible for the decline of CD4 T-cells . 1992 : The committee of Research Integrity, a scientific body of NIH declares Dr. Gallo guilty of scientific misconduct relating to establishing of the ‘AIDS virus’. It lists 20 instances of “knowledgeable mis-reporting or errors” in his first and main ‘Science’ paper. Eight of these errors, the report said, were serious enough to constitute scientific misconduct. 1993 : Evidence shows that the majority of people in the western world diagnosed as HIV positive are not getting AIDS fifteen years after the assumed introduction of the retrovirus. The same year Dr. Kary Mullis (who discovered the PCR )is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He continues to refute the ‘HIV’ causation theory of AIDS.

She says experts have always been aware of this. “Perhaps in their great haste to find the cause of a new and serious condition they just ‘forgot’. Regardless, the notion there is a virus called HIV is problematic. It wouldn’t be the first time a mistake of this kind has been made.”

The tests that detect HIV by looking for specific antibodies are even more problematic, according to her. She says that if US Food and Drug Administration criteria were used to interpret the HIV Western Blot tests, less than 50% of US AIDS patients are HIV positive, whereas 10% of persons not at the risk of AIDS are.

“The problem is that antibodies can also react with substances that were not responsible for their production. For example, antibodies that arise after streptococcal infections (bacteria) also react with heart muscle proteins. Which means that a person is not necessarily infected with whatever their antibodies react to,” she says.

The way out, according to her, is to check antibodies said to be specific to HIV against HIV itself. “This has never been done,” she says, “So no one knows if all, most, several, a few or even none of the HIV antibodies are really caused by this virus.”

Dr Manu Kothari has been taking care of AIDS patients for a decade and says that AIDS can be controlled by a good diet which is supplemented by nutrients. “Six bananas a day and a healthy diet is what I advise my AIDS patients,” says Kothari adding, “I treat the specific disease when it strikes them.”

Kothari may have a point.

Duesberg dropped a bombshell when he first declared that AIDS was not sexually transmitted and was caused by among other things anti-HIV drugs. “AIDS is a non-contagious chemical or ‘lifestyle’ epidemic, caused by long term consumption of recreational and/or anti-HIV drugs and/or malnutrition,’ he said in a paper titled The Chemical Bases of AIDS Epidemic: recreational drugs, anti-viral chemotherapy and malnutrition.

Duesberg asks critical questions in the paper: Why is there no HIV in AIDS patients, only antibodies against it? Why is there a 7%-9% mortality rate amongst people taking anti-HIV drugs while the global mortality of untreated HIV positive persons is only 1.4%?

Duesberg goes on to suggest exactly the same method of treatment Kothari is using. “The hypothesis predicts AIDS prevention by adequate nutrition and abstaining from drugs, and even cures by treating AIDS diseases with proven medications,” Duesberg says in his paper.

A resolution to this scientific debate, however, seems to have been frustrated by the din raised by star-campaigners, pharmaceutical companies selling anti-retroviral drugs and most governments around the world. Support for further research into HIV/AIDS isn’t forthcoming according to to Dr Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos who says it is very difficult to get funding for projects that aim to discover truth about the HIV theory of AIDS. “We need to garner enough public opinion to mandate a public debate between a small number of HIV theory protagonists and dissidents. This debate should be international, public and adjudicated by a number of disinterested scientists of Nobel Laureate class.”

NIAID (NIH) Rebuttal

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (National Institutes of Health) in the US has posted studies to counter claims that HIV does not cause AIDS. Their argument is reproduced here.

With regard to Koch’s first postulate, numerous studies from around the world show that virtually all AIDS patients are HIV-seropositive; that is they carry antibodies that indicate HIV infection.

With regard to the second postulate, modern culture techniques have allowed the isolation of HIV in virtually all AIDS patients, as well as in almost all HIV-seropositive individuals with both early- and late-stage disease. In addition, the polymerase chain (PCR) and other sophisticated molecular techniques have enabled researchers to document the presence of HIV genes in virtually all patients with AIDS, as well as in individuals in earlier stages of HIV disease.

The third postulate has been fulfilled in tragic incidents involving three laboratory workers with no other risk factors who have developed AIDS or severe immunosuppression after accidental exposure to concentrated, cloned HIV in the laboratory. In all three cases, HIV was isolated from the infected individual, sequenced and shown to be the infecting strain of virus. In another tragic incident, transmission of HIV from a Florida dentist to six patients has been documented by genetic analysis of the virus isolated from both the dentist and the patients. The dentist and three of the patients developed AIDS and died, and at least one of the other patients has developed AIDS. Five of the patients had no HIV risk factors other than multiple visits to the dentist for invasive procedures.

Nearly everyone with AIDS has antibodies to HIV.

A survey of 230,179 AIDS patients in the United States revealed only 299 HIV-seronegative individuals. An evaluation of 172 of these 299 patients found 131 actually to be seropositive; an additional 34 died before their serostatus could be confirmed.

MYTH: HIV antibody testing is unreliable.
FACT: Diagnosis of infection using antibody testing is one of the best-established concepts in medicine. HIV antibody tests exceed the performance of most other infectious disease tests in both sensitivity (the ability of the screening test to give a positive finding when the person tested truly has the disease ) and specificity (the ability of the test to give a negative finding when the subjects tested are free of the disease under study). Current HIV antibody tests have sensitivity and specificity in excess of 98% and are therefore extremely reliable

MYTH: There is no AIDS in Africa. AIDS is nothing more than a new name for old diseases.
FACT: The diseases that have come to be associated with AIDS in Africa - such as wasting syndrome, diarrheal diseases and TB - have long been severe burdens there. However, high rates of mortality from these diseases, formerly confined to the elderly and malnourished, are now common among HIV-infected young and middle-aged people, including well-educated members of the middle class

MYTH: AZT and other antiretroviral drugs, not HIV, cause AIDS.
FACT: The vast majority of people with AIDS never received antiretroviral drugs, including those in developed countries prior to the licensure of AZT in 1987, and people in developing countries today where very few individuals have access to these medications (UNAIDS, 2000).
As with medications for any serious diseases, antiretroviral drugs can have toxic side effects. However, there is no evidence that antiretroviral drugs cause the severe immunosuppression that typifies AIDS, and abundant evidence that antiretroviral therapy, when used according to established guidelines, can improve the length and quality of life of HIV-infected individuals.

MYTH: Behavioral factors such as recreational drug use and multiple sexual partners account for AIDS.
FACT: The proposed behavioral causes of AIDS, such as multiple sexual partners and long-term recreational drug use, have existed for many years. The epidemic of AIDS, characterized by the occurrence of formerly rare opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) did not occur in the United States until a previously unknown human retrovirus - HIV - spread through certain communities

MYTH: The spectrum of AIDS-related infections seen in different populations proves that AIDS is actually many diseases not caused by HIV.
FACT: The diseases associated with AIDS, such as PCP and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), are not caused by HIV but rather result from the immunosuppression caused by HIV disease. As the immune system of an HIV-infected individual weakens, he or she becomes susceptible to the particular viral, fungal and bacterial infections common in the community. For example, HIV-infected people in certain midwestern and mid-Atlantic regions are much more likely than people in New York City to develop histoplasmosis, which is caused by a fungus. A person in Africa is exposed to different pathogens than is an individual in an American city. Children may be exposed to different infectious agents than adults.