HIV denial

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His latest ideas vary little from his publications of 20 years ago.        <ref>Duesberg, P., Koehnlein, C. and Rasnick, D. (2003) The        Chemical Bases of the Various AIDS Epidemics: Recreational Drugs, Anti-viral        Chemotherapy and Malnutrition. (J. Biosci. 28: 383-412)[http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html Link]</ref>
 
His latest ideas vary little from his publications of 20 years ago.        <ref>Duesberg, P., Koehnlein, C. and Rasnick, D. (2003) The        Chemical Bases of the Various AIDS Epidemics: Recreational Drugs, Anti-viral        Chemotherapy and Malnutrition. (J. Biosci. 28: 383-412)[http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html Link]</ref>
He continues to tout the "Chemical AIDS Hypothesis", and claims that HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS.  An accompanying editorial endorsed this idea and cited the "gay lifestyle", which seems quite bizarre, given the AIDS pandemic is most relevant to heterosexuals in the developing world.
+
He continues to tout the "Chemical AIDS Hypothesis", and claims that HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS.  An accompanying editorial endorsed this idea and cited the "gay lifestyle", which seems quite bizarre, given the AIDS pandemic is most relevant to heterosexuals in the developing world.  Another commentary, listed on Deusberg's website, takes it as fact that there is still ongoing debate about the etiology of AIDS.  This is a false statement.
  
 
==Evidence==
 
==Evidence==

Revision as of 22:04, 23 July 2007

HIV denial refers to the "theory" that AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is not caused by HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), but by some other factor, or combinations of factors.

Contents

History[1]

AIDS

In the early 1980s, the CDC reported several cases of Pneumocystic carinii pneumonia, a rare respiratory disease that only strikes people with severely compromised immune systems.[2] All of these cases occurred in gay men who had been otherwise healthy. Hospital wards began to fill up rapidly with formerly healthy young men with bizarre illnesses related to immune deficiency. Over time, this syndrome became known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Gay men were the first group to be affected in large numbers, and young men began to fill up hospital wards in large urban areas. It was soon noticed that intravenous drug users were also suffering from similar illnesses, as were hemophiliacs. Despite lack of support from the Reagan administration, CDC epidemiologists were able to piece together a picture of a new blood-borne infection that seemed to single out certain unpopular groups of people.[3] Eventually, sub-Saharan Africa emerged as the epicenter of what was to become a deadly pandemic.

Denial Movement

The loudest and earliest voice for denialism is Peter Duesberg, Ph.D., a prominent U.C. Berkeley retrovirologist. He has contended at least since 1987 that illicit drugs, AZT (an anti-HIV drug) and other factors are the real cause of AIDS. His arguments have changed as the evidence has mounted for HIV causing AIDS--a classic sign of trying starting with a conclusion rather than with observation/evidence. Some of his original assertions follow.[4]

Indeed the virus is not sufficient to cause AIDS
(a) because the percentage of symptomatic carriers is low and varies between 0 and 5% with the risk group of the carrier, suggesting a cofactor or another cause;
This has turned out to be false. Almost all people with HIV develop AIDS if untreated. A notable exception is people with mutations to the gene that codes for the CCR5 receptor, which is partially protective.
(b) because the latent period for AIDS is 5 years compared to an eclipse of only days to weeks for replication and direct pathogenic and immunogenic effects; and
A truly irrelevant observation. The latency of symptoms says nothing about causation.
(c) because there is no gene with a late AIDS function, since all viral genes are essential for replication. Moreover the extremely low levels of virus expression and infiltration cast doubt on whether the virus is even necessary to cause AIDS or any of the other diseases with which it is associated. Typically, proviral DNA is detectable in only 15% of AIDS patients and then only in 1 of 102 to 103 lymphocytes and is expressed in only 1 of 104 to 105 lymphocytes. Thus the virus is inactive or latent in carriers with and without AIDS. It is for this reason that it is not transmitted as a cell-free agent. By contrast, all other viruses are expressed at high titers when they function as pathogens. Therefore AIDS virus could be just the most common occupational infection of those at risk for AIDS because retroviruses are not cytocidal and unlike most viruses persist as latent, nonpathogenic infections. As such the virus is an indicator of sera that may cause AIDS. Vaccination is not likely to benefit virus carriers, because nearly all have active antiviral immunity.
Since the use of PCR and bDNA techniques, it has been shown that HIV virions, even in asymptomatic individuals, circulate at very high levels.

The next year[5], responding to critics, he postulated that, among other things, HIV failed to fulfill Koch's Postulates. A strong response was given by Gallo and other respected scientists in the field.

His latest ideas vary little from his publications of 20 years ago. [6] He continues to tout the "Chemical AIDS Hypothesis", and claims that HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS. An accompanying editorial endorsed this idea and cited the "gay lifestyle", which seems quite bizarre, given the AIDS pandemic is most relevant to heterosexuals in the developing world. Another commentary, listed on Deusberg's website, takes it as fact that there is still ongoing debate about the etiology of AIDS. This is a false statement.

Evidence

AIDS presented a unique challenge of both ideas and technology. Fortunately, the technology necessary to identify HIV was just being developed for other purposes. The first AIDS patients were often afflicted by multiple infections and cancers, making the identification of a unique cause difficult.

Clues

One of the first clues to the cause of the AIDS epidemic was the mode of transmission. People who acquired AIDS were exposed to blood and body fluids of others with the disease. Hemophiliacs received multiple blood transfusions. Though the blood they received was filtered, they became ill. Viruses (and only viruses) were able to pass through these filters. Also, hemophiliacs were a more diverse group of people, without the other putative exposures of male homosexuals and IV drug users. This led epidemiologists and researchers to consider a virus as being the ultimate cause of AIDS, and not some combination of drugs, sexual practices, and co-infections.

Another clue came from cell biology. The primary cell-type destroyed in AIDS is the CD4+ lymphocyte. There had been recent discoveries that retroviruses could infect CD4+ lymphocytes.[7] In fact a model existed in HTLV-1, a virus that is blood borne and infects CD4+ cells. HTLV was one of the first viruses thought to cause AIDS. Once HIV was isolated, testing was developed, and HIV was found to be universally present in all people with AIDS, while no other agent was present in all of these patients. By 1984, HIV was found to be strongly attracted to CD4+ cells, was isolated from AIDS patients from many different areas, and similar viruses were found that caused AIDS in other primates.

Also, people who have mutations of the CCR5 surface protein (which assists in HIV's entrance to the cell) are resistant to HIV infection and AIDS. Also, drugs that inhibit HIV replication prevent progression to AIDS.


Koch's postulates, followed at least loosely to prove the nature of an infectious agent, have been fulfilled for HIV:

  1. The microorganism must be found in all organisms suffering from the disease.
  2. The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in a culture.
  3. The cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism.
  4. The microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent.

Denialism

Summary

References

  1. New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 344:1764-1772 June 7, 2001 Number 23
  2. Pneumocystis pneumonia -- Los Angeles. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 1981;30:250-252)
  3. Shilts, R. And the Band Played On. St. Martin's Press, 1987.
  4. Peter H. Duesberg. Retroviruses as Carcinogens and Pathogens:Expectations and Reality.Cancer Research, Vol. 47, pp. 1199-1220.link
  5. Peter H. Duesberg. HIV Is Not the Cause of AIDS.Science, Vol.241, pp. 514-517, July 29, 1988. link
  6. Duesberg, P., Koehnlein, C. and Rasnick, D. (2003) The Chemical Bases of the Various AIDS Epidemics: Recreational Drugs, Anti-viral Chemotherapy and Malnutrition. (J. Biosci. 28: 383-412)Link
  7. Gallo, R. and Luc Montagnier. The Discovery of HIV as the Cause of AIDS. NEJM 349:24, 2283-2285. December 11, 2003
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