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rampant, indiscriminant sexual practices interspersed with needle Five years prior to the AIDS era, a few laboratories around the sharing and drug taking, the fact that immune suppression had world were drawing towards the end of a fruitless search to prove multiple causes was also known in 1981. Some considered the a viral cause for human cancers. During the 1970s, Dr Robert diseases resulted from multiple assaults to bodily functions caused Gallo, the central figure as "co-discoverer" of the AIDS virus, and y the many and varied diseases, toxins and treatments that his colleagues claimed to have discovered three human retrovirus- accompanied the gay and drug-taking lifestyle that had evolved es. (The name "retroviruses" arises because of the copying of the during the late 1970s. RNA which forms the viral "genes" [the genome] "backwards" Just how extensive these multiple assaults were was indicated into DNA—a direction contrary to that long considered universal, y the English journalist Neville Hodgkinson, documenting the that is, from DNA into RNA.) range of infections of just one homosexual, the late Michael In 1975, the first human retrovirus, HL23V, was proposed to Callen, in his book, AIDS—The failure of contemporary science: cause human leukaemia, but by 1980 was considered an embar- How a virus that never was deceived the world.” Hodgkinson rassing mistake—in fact, not to have ever existed. Of the remain- writes: "From 1973, when he came out as a homosexual, to 1975, ing two, one was postulated to cause a specific, though rare, form e only got mononucleosis and non-specific urethritis (NSU). In of adult leukaemia, and the second remains orphaned without a 1975, he had his first bout of gonorrhoea... But from there, it all disease. What is significant is that the latter two retroviruses are egan to snowball. ‘First came hepatitis A in 1976 [said Callen]. said to exhibit a liking for T4 lymphocytes. Then more NSU and gonorrhoea. In 1977, amoebas [intestinal This led Donald Francis, Gallo and others to propose that an arasites] and hepatitis B...NSU and gonor- existing or closely related retrovirus was the rhoea. 1978: more amoebas...my first case agent responsible for killing the T4 cells in of shigella [and] more VD. Then in 1979, AIDS patients. When researchers actively hepatitis a third time...non-A, non-B...amoe- sought and then discovered the same dis- as...giardias...a fissure [and] my first case of eases in individuals who were not gay, retro- syphilis. And of course, more gonorrhoea viruses, as well as retrovirologists, received penile, anal and oral]. In 1980: the usual renewed interest and GRID became AIDS. gonorrhoea, shigella twice, and more amoe- as...' Added to that list were herpes simplex . FIRST PROCLAMATIONS types I and II; venereal warts; salmonella; The perceptions that In May 1983, Professor Luc Montagnier chlamydia; cytomegalovirus (CMV); . and his colleagues at the Pasteur Institute in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); mononucleosis; T4 Cells were dying Paris published a paper in Science, entitled and finally cryptosporidiosis (‘a disease of and AIDS was ‘Isolation of a T-Lymphotrophic Retrovirus cattle!')." Indeed, an early US Centers for . . from a Patient at Risk for Acquired Immune Disease Control (CDC) study confirmed that infectious led to the Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)".°° It is the first 100 men with AIDS had a important to note that the first word in median lifetime number of 1,120 sexual theory that Al DS this paper, "Isolation", serves as a sig- RL, Bs Gaiten himself put « is caused by a nal that the researchers are claiming y , I got some combination 0 . . . proof for the existence of a new virus. venereal diseases each and every time I microbial organism. In the interests of science, on several had sex." occasions Montagnier sent samples of Not surprisingly, given the wide- his tissue cultures to the Gallo labora- spread belief of a causal relationship tory in America, with the express between immunity and the maintenance understanding that these "could be of health, in 1981 the "new" disease used for biomedical, biological and became known as Gay Related Immune molecular biological studies".°’ Deficiency (GRID). In fact, none of the However, Montagnier did not claim to diseases was new. Some were known have proven his virus was the cause of to occur in drug addicts and haemophil- AIDS, and the French discovery lay on iacs long before the AIDS era.“ What the table until May 1984 when Gallo was "new" was their exponentially and Popovic and their colleagues pub- escalating prevalence in gay men. lished four papers, also in Science.*"! On 23 April 1984, at a Washington press conference held two TECHNOLOGY & VIROLOGY weeks before the papers were published, Margaret Heckler, Coincidental with the beginning of the AIDS era, a technique Secretary for Health and Human Services (HSS), announced that was developed to classify and count the different types of lym- Gallo and his co-workers had discovered the "probable" cause of phocyte white blood cells. It was noticed that some AIDS AIDS and had developed a sensitive blood test to detect the virus patients had diminished numbers of the so-called T4 "helper" cell in the body. A curative vaccine was predicted within two years. subtype and, despite lack of proof, the cells were assumed to be Inexplicably, causation was proclaimed merely by association and dying at the behest of an agent selectively targeting them. This despite "isolation" of HIV in only 26 (i.e., 36 per cent) of Gallo's became the "hallmark" of AIDS as well, forming a measure of the 72 AIDS patients—barely a third. (The frequency of "isolation" amount of immune deficiency. In turn, this "immune deficiency" is no better today.”) (the "AID" in AIDS) caused the diseases (the "S" in AIDS) that In 1985, the Pasteur Institute alleged that Gallo had misappro- constitute the clinical syndrome. The perceptions that T4 cells priated their virus. The ensuing conflict, which eventually were dying and AIDS was infectious led to the theory that AIDS reached the US courts, was settled by a negotiated agreement is caused by a microbial organism. signed in 1987 by Gallo and Montagnier as "co-discoverers", and The perceptions that T4 cells were dying is caused by a microbial organism. TECHNOLOGY & VIROLOGY Coincidental with the beginning of the AIDS era, a technique was developed to classify and count the different types of lym- phocyte white blood cells. It was noticed that some AIDS patients had diminished numbers of the so-called T4 "helper" cell subtype and, despite lack of proof, the cells were assumed to be dying at the behest of an agent selectively targeting them. This became the "hallmark" of AIDS as well, forming a measure of the amount of immune deficiency. In turn, this "immune deficiency" (the "AID" in AIDS) caused the diseases (the "S" in AIDS) that constitute the clinical syndrome. The perceptions that T4 cells were dying and AIDS was infectious led to the theory that AIDS is caused by a microbial organism. 30 + NEXUS JUNE — JULY 1999 and AIDS was infectious led to the theory that AIDS