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Eleni Eleopoulos notes that about a quarter of the population of blood, they will react to the HIV proteins in the test. With the southern Japan has antibodies against the HIV virus, compared Western Blot, these HIV proteins are isolated in bands; when with one per cent of the population of the US. Nevertheless, at the mixed with a blood sample, each protein band will show up if it time of writing, only 14 cases of AIDS had been reported in _ has bound to an antibody. Japan—a figure that has not significantly increased (Medical The CDC considers a single ELISA test without any other con- Hypotheses (1988), 25:151-62). firmation, proof positive that you have HIV infection—hence, One study, performed at St Mary's Hospital in London in the eventually, AIDS. mid-eighties, demonstrated that even HIV-negative homosexual The ELISA test is notoriously unreliable; in Russia in 1990, out men had significantly reduced T- and B-cell activity compared _ of 20,000 positive ELISA tests only 112 were confirmed using the with heterosexual controls. In fact, their immune systems were Western Blot, notes Eleopoulos. just as suppressed as those of symptomless HIV-positive homo- Furthermore, neither test is HIV-specific—both react to many sexual men (Clin. Exp. Immunol. (1989), 75:7-11). This finding other proteins caused by other diseases. For example, the protein would seem to support the argument that elements in the modem _p24, generally accepted to be proof of the existence of HIV, is homosexual lifestyle, independent of HIV infection, are responsi- _ found in all retroviruses that live in the body and do no harm. Dr ble for immune-suppres- Gallo has stated repeat- sion. What's the truth? edly that p24 is not Studies have found that Ss gece unique to HEV*(Bio less than one-third of | Professor Peter Duesberg (University of California at Berkeley) was the Tech, June 1993). A . = rson who made the most noise as to the likelihood of HIV not bein PEitent yee Ieee the cause of AIDS. He was followed soon after by Professor Robert Rott coma, one of the main ill- B in whi k. Rethinking AIDS, is a d ing indi f nesses assectaied with ernstein whose boo Rethinking Al S, isa evastating indictment o} AIDS the muddle and intrigue of AIDS politics and pseudo-science. among homosexu- ‘ x als, are HIV-positive. The debate has been documented by The Sunday Times (UK) science Mand leprosy are just a Researchers at the CDC correspondent Neville Hodgkinson, whose 3 April 1994 article, few af the conditions now accept that KS, one | “Conspiracy of Silence", highlighted scientific scepticism regarding the MM that are capable of pro- of the original and most | M!V=AIDS myth. ee ducing biological false- specific of AIDS-defining | Here are quotes from some of his witnesses: positives in ELISA tests illnesses, is not caused « "The ‘HIV causes AIDS' dogma represents the grandest and perhaps (Nature (1985), directly or indirectly by | the most morally destructive fraud that has ever been perpetuated on J 317:395-403 and The HIV (The Lancet (1990), | young men and women." — Dr Charles Thomas, former Harvard Lancet (1989), 11:1023- 1:123-8). Furthermore, | Professor of Biochemistry. 25). In one study, anti- for low-risk groups such | ® "The way the HIV theory is being applied is unfalsifiable and there- Mj bodies to p24 were as the wives of | fore useless as a medical hypothesis. AIDS is the result of an enormous detected in one out of haemophiliacs, inade- | level of exposure to human viruses and bacteria." — Dr Kary Mullis, 150 healthy individuals, quate proof exists of | 1993 Nobel Prizewinner for Chemistry. 13 per cent of randomly infection. Since 1985, | * "There are many people with AIDS but without HIV, and a greati™m Selected otherwise only 94 wives of the | many people with HIV but without AIDS. The HIV+AIDS hypothesis is jj healthy patients with 15,000 HIV-positive sel too simple. Plausible alternative, testable site ATE baci generalised papilloma Hepatitis B and C, malaria, papilloma virus warts, glandular fever, tuberculosis, syphilis haemophiliacs have sup- | part of regular AIDS research." — Dr Hank Loman, Professor of J Virus warts, 24 per cent posedly developed AIDS- | Biophysical Chemistry, Free University of Amsterdam. of patients with cuta- defining — diseases. |» "Evidence is rapidly accumulating that the original theory of HIV is jj 0°0us T-cell lymphoma, However, given the small | not correct: ‘It is not sufficient alone to cause the disease." — Dr Steven jj 24 41 per cent of number, and the fact that } jonas, Professor of Preventive Medicine, State University of New York, patients with multiple most of these women (Source: Int'l Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, August '94) sclerosis (New England have died of age-related Journal of Medicine opportunistic infections (1988), 318:448-9). such as pneumonia, Duesberg argues that an association between In a 1991 study it was noted: "In half of the cases in which the them and HIV infection has not been established. In another study, subject had a positive p24 test, the subject later had a negative test of 41 wives of immunodeficient haemophiliacs, all the T-cell ratios | without taking any medications that would be expected to affect of the women were normal (JAMA (1984), 251:1450-54). p24 antigen levels." The researchers concluded that the “test is The proof of HIV as the causation of AIDS entirely hinges on _ clinically erratic and should be interpreted cautiously." (Abstracts, the idea that detection of an antibody response to the virus is proof VII International Conference on AIDS, Florence, Italy, 1991, vol. of its actual presence. In other words, the assumption is that if 1, p. 326.) your body has made antibodies specific to HIV, it must mean that The French government has recently withdrawn nine of the 30 a protein of the virus and, hence, the virus itself is present. Thisis HIV tests. so because the so-called AIDS tests cannot test for the presence of Western Blot, which is supposed to be the more accurate of the HIV, just the presence of antibodies to it—the usual sign that the —_ two, is no more specific than ELISA. Dr Max Essex of Harvard body has fought off infection. University's School of Public Health, a highly respected AIDS The HIV tests are themselves known to be highly erratic and _ expert, found that the Western Blot gave a positive result to some unreliable. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) 85 per cent of African patients found to be HIV-negative. test is most frequently used to test your HIV status, and the Eventually they discovered that proteins from the leprosy germ— Western Blot is used as a confirmation. What happens with which infects millions of Africans—can show up as a false posi- ELISA is that a sample of the patient's blood is added to a mixture _ tive on both ELISA and Western Blot (as reported in The Sunday of proteins. It is assumed that if HIV antibodies are present in the Times, 22 May 1994). NEXUS ¢ 11 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1994