AIDS DENIALISTS WHO HAVE DIED

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AIDS Denialists Who Have Died

A partial list of HIV-positive HIV/AIDS denialists who have died from

conditions, and with symptoms, characteristic of AIDS

None of the scientists and journalists who are the most prominent

promoters of HIV denialist theories in the mainstream

and " independent " media[1] have reported testing positive for HIV;

the issue of the cause and treatment of HIV/AIDS is a purely academic

matter for those who drive the denialist movement. But a number of

people diagnosed with HIV infection—people whose lives are in the

balance--have become activists in the " AIDS dissident " movement.

Tragically, many of these individuals have died with symptoms and/or

infectious illnesses that are characteristic of AIDS. Their friends

in the denialist movement have in every instance insisted that HIV

had nothing to do with their deaths. The medical records of dead

denialists are, of course, not publicly available, but obituaries and

reports of their untimely deaths almost always include descriptions

of symptoms and conditions that are typical of late-stage HIV disease

and extremely rare in uninfected people, along with statements

attributing their deaths to " unknown causes, " to secret illicit drug

use, and to immune system damage caused by the " stress " of supporting

the unpopular cause of AIDS denialism. It's worth noting that none of

the HIV-negative denialists have died from these ailments.

The numbers and stories speak for themselves, and we hope that

readers who test positive for HIV will heed the warning in these

deaths. What is the likelihood that so many individuals would die

with AIDS-like symptoms at relatively young ages without their HIV

infection playing the causative role?

(AIDStruth.org has not included here the names of perinatally

infected HIV+ children who have died from HIV/AIDS because their

denialist parents chose not to seek appropriate medical care for

them.)

[1] E.g., Duesberg, Rasnick, Mathias Rath, Kary Mullis,

Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Val , Harvey Bialey, Etienne de

Harven, Celia Farber, Liam Scheff, etc.

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Ken Anderlini

Ken Anderlini was a co-moderator of the " AIDS Myth Exposed " message

board on MSN. Anderlini died in April of 2007. Denialist Crowe

from the " Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society " wrote an announcement of

his death, saying: " Over the past couple of years his health had

declined rapidly with a strange neurological disease for which nobody

could pinpoint the cause (except doctors who claimed it was HIV

related, of course). "

(http://groups.msn.com/aidsmythexposed/general.msnw?

action=get_message & mview=0 & ID_Message=28789 & LastModified

=4675620632766605055)

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the great Nigerian music star, " died in 1997 of

a disease he claimed didn't exist, and certainly not in Africa: AIDS.

No matter that Fela's older brother, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti,

had served as the country's health minister and launched Nigeria's

much-lauded early AIDS program. About the only concession Fela made

to white medicine was to let Olikoye stitch up his head after the

police had gashed it. There was hardly an illness African herbs

couldn't cure, Fela maintained, and he dismissed condoms as

unnatural, unpleasurable, and a white plot to reduce the black

birthrate. He believed, says Olikoye, that " all doctors were

fabricating AIDS, including myself. " Fela was 58.

(Mark Schoofs, " A Tale of Two Brothers Part 2: Fela Didn't Believe

AIDS Existed. But then he died of the disease. His brother is still

trying to convince Fela's fans that HIV is real. " Village Voice,

November 10 - 16, 1999.)

Bellefountaine

A member of the denialist ACT UP/San Francisco, Bellafontaine

died on May 10, 2007. He was 41. His Bay Area Reporter obituary said

that " According to , a friend and fellow activist, Mr.

Bellefountaine died of a sudden systemic infection, though the exact

cause has not been determined. " (http://ebar.com/obituaries/index.php?

sec=ob & article=252)

Sophie Brassard

Sophie Brassard, a Canadian, was the HIV-positive mother of two HIV-

positive, perinatally-infected sons. Citing the influence of HEAL,

Alive and Well, Duesberg and Mullis, she refused to allow her

children access to medical care when the became ill and fled the

country with them. She consequently lost custody and parental rights.

She died of AIDS on September 16, 2002, at age 37.

(http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000186.html)

Ronnie Burk

Ronnie Burke was a member of the dissident group ACT UP/San Francisco

(which has been denounced by other legitimate ACT UP groups). He died

from AIDS in March of 2003 at the age of 47.

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?

f=/c/a/2006/06/09/DDGEAJ9IH61.DTL)

Huw Christie

Huw Christie (Huw Christie Harry ) was an editor of

Continuum, a long-running AIDS denialist newsletter from the UK that

folded when all the editors died. Huw Christie developed Kaposi's

sarcoma and died in August of 2001. He was 41.

(http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/mbobituaryhc.htm)

In an email, Duesberg described Christie's death as

follows: " Did you know Hugh* Christie? Also a gay friend of mine from

London, filmmaker and editor of the very popular British gay-

interested journal, Continuum. Christie campaigned actively against

the health and AIDS hazards of poppers in Continuum. Like me, he was

invited by Mbeki, to discuss the causes of AIDS in Africa in 2000.

And a year or two later he passed away with Kaposi's, from long-term

over- use/addiction to poppers! " * (Source: Email to s

from Duesberg, Wednesday, April 05, 2006. *Name misspelled and

exclamation point in the original.)

Mark Griffiths

Mark Griffiths ran a denialist website called Altheal (along with a

French version, Sidasante), until he died in October 2004. In the

article linked below, the AIDS denialist Liam Scheff ponders the

cause of his death, suggesting Griffiths may still have been using

heroin (because he seemed a " bit groggy " sometimes); this is despite

the fact that Griffiths had undergone successful recovery in the late

1980s. Scheff ultimately concluded that Griffiths died because he was

abusing alcohol. (http://www.altheal.org/altheal/markmemorial.htm)

Another associate, Emma Hollister, suggests Griffiths death was

related to a course of antibiotics taken several months before for

dental work:

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/emma_holister/2005/01/07/aids_disside

nce_movement_loses_a.htm)

ston

ston was a co-founder of HEAL Toronto and a co-author of

the self-described " rebuttal " of the Durban Declaration that was

posted to HEAL Toronto's website in 2000. At the time, he

wrote: " ston is a co-founder of HEAL Toronto, and has been

HIV-positive since 1985 yet has suffered no unusual illness since

that time. He attributes his good health to not taking any anti-HIV

medications and to not believing that his positive antibody test has

much significance. "

ston died three years later on April 3, 2003. As with all other

similar cases, ston's colleagues claim his death was not caused

by HIV infection. Crowe wrote that he died of " liver failure

completely unrelated to AIDS. "

Jack Levine

Jack Levine was a regular poster to the " Virusmyth " message board.

When he became sick and began to question denialism, the other board

members turned on him, which eventually led to the Virusmyth message

board being taken permanently offline in order to hide the appalling

record of what happened. Levine died from AIDS in March of 2002 at

the age of 47. (http://www.thebody.com/cgi-bin/bbs/showthreaded.php?

Cat= & Board=living & Number=41833 & page=3 & view=collapsed & sb=9 & o= & vc=1)

Raphael Lombardo

Raphael Lombardo was a gay man who believed Duesberg's claims

that HIV was harmless. Lombardo wrote to Duesberg on May 30, 1995,

noting that he had never used any recreational drugs or

pharmaceuticals and was not sick, despite testing HIV positive (the

letter was titled " Life without AZT ! " ). Duesberg published the

entire letter in his book " Inventing the AIDS Virus " and wrote of

Lombardo: " His letter proves that true science does not depend on

institutional authority. " (The letter is posted at:

http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/pdazt.htm.)

Raphael Lombardo died of AIDS a little over a year later, on June 11,

1996. When asked about Lombardo's death, Duesberg wrote: " In

hindsight, I think his letter was almost too good to be true. I am

afraid now, he described the man he wanted to be [e.g. that he did

not use recreational drugs] and his Italian family expected him to

be, but not the one he really was. I think he died from Kaposi's. "

(Source: Email to Jefferys from Duesberg, Wednesday,

April 05, 2006)

When this correspondence was published on the internet, Duesberg was

contacted by Raphael Lombardo's sister, Regina, who was incensed by

Duesberg's claim that her brother had covertly used poppers or other

recreational drugs (as Duesberg was implying). Duesberg wrote back to

her and told her that she was wrong, too.

Mokaba

Makoba, a senior politician in South Africa's African

Nationalist Congress Party and a prominent denialist, died in 2002 at

the age of 43 from AIDS-related pneumonia after a " long illness. " He

denied that he had AIDS and rejected antiviral drugs as poison.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,753812,00.html)

Marietta Ndziba

Marietta Ndziba was used by the vitamin salesman Matthias Rath to

market multivitamins as an alternative to antiretroviral treatment.

In a pamphlet distributed by Rath and his agents in Cape Town, South

Africa in September 2005, she was quoted as saying that her CD4 count

rose from 365 to 841 due to Rath's vitamins. She implied that these

vitamins treated boils on her arm, her grey skin, diarrhoea and

vomiting. She said " I just thank God that he brings vitamins here to

South Africa to help our lives. " As far as the South African AIDS

activist organisation Treatment Action Campaign could ascertain

Ndziba never took antiretrovirals. She died in about October 2005.

One family member reportedly claimed that she died of a stress

headache. Rath's vitamins clearly did not help Ndziba. She should

have been treated by qualified doctors in the public health system,

not Rath or his agents.

Astoundingly, a video recording of Ndziba claiming the benefits of

Rath's vitamins continued to be available on the front page of Rath's

South African website until January 2006. (Source: TAC)

Pasquarelli

Pasquarelli, a leader of the denialist group " ACT UP San

Francisco " developed PCP, anemia, thrush, meningitis, mycobacterium

and disseminated CMV before he died in March of 2004. He was 37.

(http://www.davidpasquarelli.com)

Casper G. Schmidt

Casper G. Schmidt was a psychiatrist who published " The Group-Fantasy

Origins of AIDS " in the Journal of Psychohistory in 1984. The

article, which claimed that AIDS was not a real disease but a product

of " epidemic hysteria, " is still regularly cited by AIDS denialists.

Schmidt died from AIDS in 1994.

Tony Tompsett

Tony Tompsett wrote for the denialist newsletter Continuum from 1993

until just before his death in 1998 at 39 from Kaposi's sarcoma,

toxoplasmosis and possible pneumonia.

(http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi- bin/res.pl?

keyword=Tony+Tompsett & offset=0)

Jody Wells

Jody Wells was the founder of the U.K. denialist newsletter

Continuum. He had multiple bouts of PCP before he died in August of

1995. (http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/continuum/obituary.htm)