Ginny, Buharry, Hamjatta and all those following the debate on the cause or
causes of AIDS, in addition to the various the links and articles on both
sides of the debate, The Economist magazine has an interesting lead story on
the issue which I find quite interesting and relevant to the African debate
on AIDS. My non-scientist view is that we must approach the problem with
some pragmatism. The debate must continue by all means, but Africa cannot
afford to continue trying to re-arrange the deck chairs of the Titanic while
the disease takes its toll at such alarming rates.  Please visit The
Economist web site at www.economist.com/editorial for views which closely
represent mine. Thanks
Sidi Sanneh


>From: Ginny Quick <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: HIV Is Not The Cause of AIDS - Fwd
>Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 13:37:03 -0500
>
>To Buharry and anyone else interested...  There is a website with articles
>and information from other "AIDS dissidents", as those who do not follow
>the
>mainstream are called.  I stumbled upon the site accidentally from antoher
>site I was at.
>The link is below.  I am not sure what to think, but the information is
>quite compelling, and to my mind, carries no more or less weight than what
>the mainstream info does, considering that it seems we are no closer to
>solving the AIDS dilemma than we were 15 of 20 or so years ago.
>Here is the link...
>http://www.virusmyth.com/
>Take care,
>Ginny
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 9:51 AM
>Subject: HIV Is Not The Cause of AIDS - Fwd
>
>
>Hi Hamjatta!
>                   The articles you forwarded on AIDS are enlightening. The
>South African president was talking about AIDS from the Duesberg
>perspective
>which has caused such an uproar. I'll forward some articles dealing with
>this and the conspiracy theory that you talked about in your other posting.
>Have a good day.
>
>Buharry.
>____________________________________________________________________
>
>
>HIV Is Not the Cause of AIDS
>By Peter H. Duesberg
>
>Science, Vol. 241, pp. 514-517, July 29, 1988.
>
>
>
>
>
>HIV Is Not the Cause of AIDS
>Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is not the cause of AIDS because it
>fails
>to meet the postulates of Koch and Henle, as well as six cardinal rules of
>virology.
>     1) HIV is in violation of Koch's first postulate because it is not
>possible to detect free virus (1, 2), provirus (3-5), or viral RNA (4, 6,
>7)
>in all cases of AIDS. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has
>established guidelines to diagnose AIDS when all laboratory evidence for
>HIV
>is negative (8).
>     2) In violation of Koch's second postulate, HIV cannot be isolated
>from
>20 to 50% of AIDS cases (1, 9-11). Moreover, "isolation" is very indirect.
>It depends on activating dormant provirus in millions of susceptible cells
>propagated in vitro away from the suppressive immune system of the host.
>     3) In violation of Koch's third postulate, pure HIV does not reproduce
>AIDS when inoculated into chimpanzees or accidentally into healthy humans
>(9, 12, 13).
>     4) In contrast to all pathogenic viruses that cause degenerative
>diseases, HIV is not biochemically active in the disease syndrome it is
>named for (14). It actively infects only 1 in 104 to > 105 T cells (4, 6,
>7,
>15). Under these conditions, HIV cannot account for the loss of T cells,
>the
>hallmark of AIDS, even if all infected cells died. This is because during
>the 2 days it takes HIV to replicate, the body regenerates about 5% of its
>T
>cells (16), more than enough to compensate for losses due to HIV.
>     5) It is paradoxical that HIV is said to cause AIDS only after the
>onset
>of antiviral immunity, detected by a positive "AIDS test," because all
>other
>viruses are most pathogenic before immunity. The immunity against HIV is so
>effective that free virus is undetectable (see point 1), which is why HIV
>is
>so hard to transmit (9, 12, 13). The virus would be a plausible cause of
>AIDS if it were reactivated after an asymptomatic latency, like herpes
>viruses. However, HIV remains inactive during AIDS. Thus the "AIDS test"
>identifies effective natural vaccination, the ultimate protection against
>viral disease.
>     6) The long and highly variable intervals between the onset of
>antiviral
>immunity and AIDS, averaging 8 years, are bizarre for a virus that
>replicates within 1 to 2 days in tissue culture and induces antiviral
>immunity within 1 to 2 months after an acute infection (9, 17). Since all
>genes of HIV are active during replication, AIDS should occur early when
>HIV
>is active, not later when it is dormant. Indeed, HIV can cause a
>mononucleosis-like disease during the acute infection, perhaps its only
>pathogenic potential (9, 17).
>     7) Retroviruses are typically not cytocidal. On the contrary, they
>often
>promote cell growth. Therefore, they were long considered the most
>plausible
>viral carcinogens (9). Yet HIV, a retrovirus, is said to behave like a
>cytocidal virus, causing degenerative disease killing billions of T cells
>(15, 18). This is said even though T cells grown in culture, which produce
>much more virus than has ever been observed in AIDS patients, continue to
>divide (9, 10, 18).
>     8) It is paradoxical for a virus to have a country-specific host range
>and a risk group-specific pathology. In the United States, 92% of AIDS
>patients are male (19), but in Africa AIDS is equally distributed between
>the sexes, although the virus is thought to have existed in Africa not much
>longer than in the United States (20). In the United States, the virus is
>said to cause Kaposi's sarcoma only in homosexuals, mostly Pneumocystis
>pneumonia in hemophiliacs, and frequently cytomegalovirus disease in
>children (21). In Africa the same virus is thought to cause slim disease,
>fever, and diarrhea almost exclusively (22, 23).
>     9) It is now claimed that at least two viruses, HIV-1 and HIV-2, are
>capable of causing AIDS, which allegedly first appeared on this planet only
>a few years ago (20). HIV-1 and HIV-2 differ about 60% in their nucleic
>acid
>sequences (24). Since viruses are products of gradual evolution, the
>proposition that within a few years two viruses capable of causing AIDS
>could have evolved is highly improbable (25).
>
>References and Notes:
>   1.. J. Albert et al., J. Med. Virol. 23, 67 (1987).
>   2.. L.A. Falk, D. Paul, A. Landay, H. Kessler, N. Engl. J. Med. 316,
>1547
>(1987).
>   3.. G.M. Shaw et al., Science 226, 1165 (1984).
>   4.. D. Richman, J. McCutchan, S. Spector, J. Infect Dis. 156, 823
>(1987).
>   5.. C.-Y. Ou et al., Science 239, 295 (1988).
>   6.. M.E. Harper, L.M. Marselle, R.C. Gallo, F. Wong-Staal, Proc. Natl.
>Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 772 (1986).
>   7.. A. Ranki et al., Lancet ii, 589 (1987).
>   8.. Centers for Disease Control, J. Am. Med. Assoc. 258, 1143 (1987).
>   9.. P.H. Duesberg, Cancer Res. 47, 1199 (1987).
>   10.. H. von Briesen et al., J. Med. Virol. 23, 51 (1987).
>   11.. D. Gallo, J. Kimpton, P. Dailey, J. Clin. Microbiol. 25, 1291
>(1987).
>   12.. J.W. Curran et al., Science 239, 610 (1988).
>   13.. G.H. Friedland and R.S. Klein, N. Engl. J. Med. 317, 1125 (1987).
>   14.. J. Coffin et al., Science 232, 697 (1986).
>   15.. A. Fauci, ibid. 239, 617 (1988).
>   16.. J. Sprent, in B and T Cells in Immune Recognition, F. Loor and G.E.
>Roelants, Eds. (Wiley, New York, 1977), pp. 59-82.
>   17.. H.A. Kessler, J. Am. Med. Assoc. 258, 1196 (1987).
>   18.. R.C. Gallo, Sci. Am. 256 (No. 1), 47 (1987).
>   19.. Centers for Disease Control, AIDS Weekly Surveill. Rep., 18 April
>1988.
>   20.. R. Baum, "AIDS: The molecular biology," Chem. Eng. News (23
>November
>1987), pp. 14-26.
>   21.. R.M. Selik, E.T. Starcher, J.W. Curran, AIDS 1, 175 (1987).
>   22.. R. Colebunders et al., Lancet i, 492 (1987).
>   23.. K.J. Pallangyo et al., ibid. ii, 972 (1987).
>   24.. F. Clavel et al., Nature 324, 691 (1986).
>   25.. J. Sonnabend, in New York Native (9 May 1988), p. 19.
>
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