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AIDS Debate: An alternate View Point

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Here is a controversial article published in a magazine " One India one

people " in July 2001, when it presented an issue on the " AIDS Debate

~ an alternate viewpoint " by Rupa Chinai. It will be interesting to know

what the forum members think. I do not buy her arguments.

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___________________________________________

AIDS debate: An alternate viewpoint

By Rupa Chinai

As a journalist writing on public health issues for the past six

years,I have closely followed issues related to AIDS, both within

India and internationally. This exposure is forcing a number of

questions.

The evidence at ground reality does not conform to what we are being

Told about how this `epidemic' is projected to behave. But when

questions are raised, they either encounter a stone wall of silence,

or the questioner is lampooned.

At a time when there is still no known cure for AIDS; when

there is no certainty that the `cocktail therapy' does more good than

harm; when many patients dubbed as `HIV positive' are driven to suicide

because of the social stigma, and enormous public funds are being poured

into an AIDS programme, -- the need for an informed public debate is

urgently required.

Preventing it is the fact that too many AIDS NGOs have to

Perpetuate their existence through AIDS funds; too many careers are being

built as ‘international AIDS consultants’; too many governments in Asia

and Africa are finding an `easy fix' in condom promotion and sex

education. And too many pharmaceutical majors have to sell HIV kits and

drug cocktails.

At last year's international AIDS conference held in South

Africa, one saw the remarkable spectacle of the South African President,

Being lambasted by Western scientists from within the AIDS lobby, and

The media, who dismissed him as a heretic, because he chose to raise

questions, and also listen to those who held `another point of

view'. Those who hold this other point of view are eminent scientists

and professionals, including Nobel prize winners. Many from the

Indian media, present at the Durban conference, followed the official

line of the Indian government, to slam the “dissidents”, without once

explaining their stand.

The ``alternative viewpoint'', as I have understood it, accepts

That there is a disease called AIDS. The main question however,

focusses on what is the causation of AIDS. Is infection by a virus called

HIV solely responsible for the progression into AIDS? If it is not the

virus, what are the other factors assaulting the immune system and is

their impact irreversible?

The `dissident view' challenge the germ theory of disease. They

Believe that AIDS is the consequence of a suppressed immune system that

has been subjected to repeated onslaught of toxins and deficiency due

to

under-nourishment. If at all HIV exists, it is the marker of a

suppressed immune system. Like the witness at the accident spot,

it marks the site of the accident, but did not cause it. Viruses

and bacteria don't cause ill-health and disease - a weak immune

system does, they say.

The most well explained presentation of this ``alternate

thinking'' comes from a group of Australian scientists at the Royal Perth

Hospital. For the past decade they have reviewed published international

Research to conclude that there is no proof that HIV causes AIDS. The

Australian team's conclusion that HIV has never been

isolated and therefore the HIV antibody test cannot prove the presence

of HIV infection raises questions about false positive results due to

cross-reactivity with other microbes.

According to the British journal, Continuum, scientific data has

documented studies showing that the HIV tests, and Western

Blot, can show false results when there is cross-reactivity with a

host of viral and bacterial species. Thus the presence of at least 70

different conditions in a person being tested for HIV can show false

positive results, it claimed. These conditions include influenza, herpes

simplex, hepatitis, all mycobacterium bacterial species (including

leprosy and tuberculosis) malaria, and even the condition of pregnancy

and malnutrition.

The fact that the HIV test is not specific for the detection of

the virus is evident in the literature accompanying the Eliza test

kits (from Abbott Laboratories, for instance). This amply clarifies

that the presence of antibodies does not necessarily confirm the presence

of the virus.

The WHO now concedes that reliance on a single HIV test is not

acceptable in labelling a person as `HIV positive'. At least

three confirmatory tests are required to elimenate the possibility of

picking up other infection markers, they say.

Evidence from disparate international scientific sources

Meanwhile concur on four factors that are contributing to repeated

assaults on the body's immune system, and leading to its suppression.

These factors are rampant antibiotic abuse; recreational drug abuse;

anal sex penetration; nutritional and other forms of stress.

All of these are factors of toxicity and deficiency in the body,

Are public health problems that need to be addressed in themselves.

While drugs and anal sex has been practised over centuries, the new

Factor could be the combination of these four factors since the 1960's

Which could explain the emergence of AIDS.

Having attempted to understand this thinking of the ``dissident

scientific community'' in the West, this reporter then tried to

look at what is happening in India, letting AIDS patients and those

working to support them, speak from their experience of ground reality.

Two clear trends have emerged: HIV does not equal death for many within

the general population. There is however, a rapid progression into

AIDS for many within the homosexual community, and those who indulge

in Drug abuse.

In Mumbai, the ``AIDS capital of India'', counselling groups

such as Salvation Army and CASA (Counselling and Allied Services) who

see HIV positive people from within the general population, say there

is strong evidence to show that the damage caused to the immune system can

be reversed. This is happening with right nutrition, a changed

lifestyle, a supportive family, good counselling and stress reduction.

Experts concede that this is ``an accepted medical phenomenon''.

Unfortunately, this experience of patients is being drowned in

The cacophony over condoms, sex education and multi-drug therapy.

The Salvation Army counsellors can recall only 15 deaths amongst

the 900 patients they have been following over the past decade. These

deaths are attributed to factors of malnutrition and TB.

These counselling groups, along with several other sources, are

Also seeing a sizeable number of persons in Mumbai are receiving

false HIV positive results. Counsellors and doctors in Mumbai are realising

that an HIV positive test result is fraught with uncertainties when

it shows up in an asymptomatic person who does not have the clinical

symptoms of AIDS.

Mumbai's government run Sion Hospital no longer insists on an

HIV test on admission. It is prescribed only when a patient shows

symptoms such as repeated bouts of diarrhoea, fever, loss of body

weight, or TB. Most private hospitals in the city insist on

an HIV test before admission.

Evidence shows that many private laboratories in the city lack

acceditation and technical expertise to assure standardised

testing, and are doling out false postive HIV results.

Meanwhile, at a recent workshop in Delhi, health officials from

The North-East states spoke of the devastating impact recreational

Drug abuse is having on the lives of the tribal people, and the

Visible presence of AIDS in this region. Unfortunately the entire focus

of their effort is in promoting the `clean needle exchange programme',

while there is mere lip service paid to detoxification and

rehabilitation.

Prevention programmes make no attempt to address problems of

Widespread alcoholism in communities when repeatedly studies point to

this as the most serious underlying factor for high risk behaviour. Drug

addicts and `pill poppers' are not being given the clear message that

use of chemical drugs is leading to immune suppression and AIDS.

Meanwhile a dangerous falsehood is being perpetuated in the

Projections of HIV incidence and AIDS deaths and skewing priorities in

Health policy. International agencies have sought to influence the

`larger than life' hype surrounding HIV/AIDS by making epidemiological

estimations based on mathematical calculations, which find no backing

in the

field.

Two decades into the `AIDS epidemic', India's Death Register

should be recording the unusual rise in ``millions of deaths'', even

if they are not attributed to AIDS. There is no such unusual spurt in deaths

from TB or diarrhoea, the main AIDS associated illnesses, says

biostatician Padam Singh, Additional Director General, Indian Council

of Medical Research.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says that totally

there are only 11,000 ``reported deaths'' of AIDS, while UNAIDS claimed

that 3.1 million people died of AIDS in India in 1999 alone.

Meanwhile, India's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO),

the apex body deciding policy and monitoring data, has itself drastically

scaled down its figures on HIV/AIDS in the country. This is evident from

its earlier published reports and their comparison with figures put out

on NACO's website today.

Considerable evidence now points to the false premise on which

These HIV/AIDS estimations are being made. For instance, data on HIV

prevalence is entirely drawn from blood banks, STD clinics and

ante-natal clinics situated in government run centres,

frequented by the poorer segment of the population. This segment is

under-nourished, vulnerable to a host of infections that could lead to

cross-reactivity and a false HIV positive test.

If this premise is to be challenged as false, then the AIDS

establishment which only believes that the virus causes AIDS,

would need to produce comparative data on HIV/AIDS from the country's

private sector. This sector caters to the better nourished class of

patients, who are presumably, no less sexually active than the poor.

Such data has never been sought by the health authorities.

So what is all this information amounting to? While only the

Scientific community is ultimately in a position to thrash out the issue

of whether HIV exists and whether it is the sole cause of AIDS or not,

the Debate has immediate implications for the government and public.

Research studies from the fields of AIDS, cancer and heart

Disease repeatedly emphasise the dramatic impact right nutrition and

recreational exercise has in maintaining the health of the

body's immune system. Evidence on the foetal origins of disease further

point to the role right nutrition plays in safeguarding the health of

future generations, preventing blood pressure, diabetes and heart

disease in adulthood.

AIDS needs to be treated just like any other chronic disease.

Health and prevention of disease needs holistic support. To limit our

Interventions to sex education, condoms and multi-drug therapy may amount

to perpetuating the greatest hoax of the century on poor and

innocent people in the developing world.

____________________________________________

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Forum Members:

This is in response to Rupa Chinai's article. I do not buy her

arguments. However, the " denialist " sometimes present arguments that appear

to be cogent. They are filled, upon closer inspection, with a great number

of fallacies and errors. Many of us have been addressing issues raised by

the denialists (I have been for over 10 years).

They fall into two camps. One says HIV doesn't exist at all (represented by

the " Perth " group). The other says HIV exists but is not the proximal cause

of AIDS (represented by the Duesberg camp).

Most of the arguments raised by these groups, Continuum, and others are

discussed in detail at

http://www.mischealthaids.org - a newsgroup founded by a fellow named

Scutero. He was a denialist and wanted a free and open forum for the

discussion. He eventually, after much research and watching his T cells

plummet, came to realize that HIV exists and causes AIDS in the majority of

infected individuals. Unfortunately, his personal demons got the better of

him and he committed suicide a few years ago. I have known other denialists

who were HIV+; very few are left alive. The entire chapter of HEAL in

Sydney, Australia died of AIDS.

Sadly, what these denialists do is prevent a discussion of a FAR more

important question. HOW does HIV cause AIDS? We are learning more and more

every day. And with that knowledge, we can identify a great many more

therapeutic interventions. For example, tissue damage to the gut results in

malnutrition which can be offset inexpensively with food and micronutrient

supplementation (which can also help address other pathophysiological

sequelae such as oxidative stress, another feature of the disease). To this

extent, addressing poverty, access to food and clean water clearly become

part of a comprehensive treatment protocol for millions infected by HIV.

I heartily recommend that if people wish to review these issues or engage

in this debate that you join the misc.health.aids newsgroup. I do not

believe this is an appropriate forum for that discussion.

M.

E-mail:<gmc0@...>

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