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Duesberg continued to regard HIV as bona fide, but as an inert, phenomena inferred as proof for the existence of HIV. harmless "passenger" virus linked to AIDS only through the kinds The ready acceptance of the Montagnier/Gallo 1983/84 Science of activity associated with drug taking (including taking of pre- papers posed enormous difficulties for Eleopulos in having her scribed drugs). Duesberg, like others before him, pointed to the work published. Thus, "Reappraisal of AIDS: Is the oxidation epidemiological data revealing a 50-fold difference in the AIDS caused by the risk factors the primary cause?" was twice rejected "attack rate" between various groups of HIV-positive individuals, by Nature, eventually finding light of day in Medical Hypotheses, as well as the proclivity of certain AIDS diseases for particular twelve months after Duesberg.’ However, the editor of this jour- risk groups. Thus, 50 per cent of HIV-positive blood transfusion nal had also rejected the paper, only recanting after Eleopulos recipients develop AIDS within one year (but so do 50 per cent of | worked for several months to convince him that equatorial Africa HIV negatives) compared to | per cent of haemophiliacs. was not in the grip of an epidemic of sexually transmitted immun- Kaposi's sarcoma was, for all intents and purposes, confined to odeficiency and thus not in breach of her theory.''*:*° gay men.*'*” Thus, even if HIV were necessary to cause AIDS, it To paraphrase the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking: could not be the only factor. However, accretion of "co-factors" wrong predictions affirm bad theories; correct predictions make to the HIV theory rendered the significance of any particular fac- them powerful. The HIV theory requires that HIV causes all the tor problematic. It was possible to argue that HIV may be only a AIDS-defining diseases and predicts that HIV/AIDS will become minor factor or, at least in the minds of Eleopulos and Duesberg, a global epidemic via the oldest and most unstoppable of all not a factor. uman activities. However, Kaposi's sarco- Apparently, the role of HIV was also a ma, one of the two diseases for which the problem for Montagnier. Although he wrote HIV theory was proposed, is no longer attrib- in Nature in December 1984 that "all avail- uted either directly or indirectly (via AID) to able data are consistent with the virus being HIV. | 1354.77.80" the causative agent of AIDS",” in 1985 he In the OECD countries, the prediction of a expressed an opinion impossible to reconcile sexual pandemic has failed completely. For with the HIV theory. "This syndrome q example, as of the beginning of 1998, 93 per occurs in a minority of infected persons, The HIV theory requires cent of the cumulative deaths from AIDS in who generally have in common a past of that HIV causes all the Australia occurred in the original risk groups, antigenic stimulation and of immune depres- ~ os . that is, gay/bisexual men, drug addicts and sion before LAV [HIV] infection",” that is, AIDS-defining diseases haemophiliacs. This observation fits the cause after effect (italics ours). One must H classic demographic profile of non-infectious surmise that, within a year, the discoverer of and predicts that diseases such as pellagra, beri-beri and HIV was already hedging his bets. His HIV/AIDS will become scurvy which characteristically remain con- recent interview with the investigative i i H fined to their risk groups. All are journalist Djamel Tahi®' (see below) a global epidemic via caused by vitamin deficiencies, but in fuels such speculation. the oldest and most the past were regarded as infectious and sufferers were shunned and quaran- ELEOPULOS AND THE PERTH unstoppable of all tined. GROUP human activities. The HIV protagonists also predicted Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos' AIDS a curative vaccine by the end of 1986 research began in 1981. In May 1986, and an animal model to prove the HIV she submitted for publication a paper theory beyond all doubt. Neither pre- which refuted every step in the HIV diction has been fulfilled. A vaccine is theory, including HIV itself. She also not envisaged until well into the next proposed an alternative, non-viral theo- century, possibly around 2010, and ani- ry (of which "Duesberg's" "Drugs/ mals given "HIV" do not develop AIDS hypothesis" is a subset), and AIDS. predicated non-toxic and relatively On the other hand, the Eleopulos inexpensive treatments. oxidative stress theory predicts the cur- Her theory was based on a general theory of cellular function- rent demographic data, an apparent loss of T4 cells, the risk from ing, which she had formulated in the 1970s as a basis for unravel- passive anal intercourse in both sexes, HIV positive and AIDS ling the genesis and improving the treatment of cancer and to patients being oxidised relative to normal individuals, the amelio- offer fresh insights into the pathogenesis of cardiovascular dis- ration of HIV/AIDS by the use of antioxidants, and a non-infec- eases and ageing. Eleopulos postulates that normal cellular func- tious animal model. Every one of these predictions has materi- tioning is determined by the level and oscillations of cellular alised. Oxidative stress is well established by hundreds of redox” (oxidation and its chemical opposite, reduction). In her papers,'**** so much so that in the early 1990s the Pasteur view, when oxidation is prolonged or excessive, cells become Institute was advertising international scholarships for study into abnormal, injured and susceptible to diseases. the phenomenon. In fact, last year Luc Montagnier became the Eleopulos had noticed a link between the risk groups. Gay principal editor of a 558-page book devoted to oxidative stress in men, drug users and haemophiliacs are exposed to chemical stres- cancer, ageing and AIDS.** sors in the form of semen, nitrites, illicit drugs and factor VIII (the The Eleopulos theory predicts that a decline in T4 cells can blood-clotting protein missing from and administered to occur without cellular death. In fact, according to the Perth haemophiliacs). There is abundant evidence that these substances group, there is no evidence to support the notion that T4 cells are are potent cellular oxidants.’? In Eleopulos' view, oxidative stress dead or that "HIV" kills such cells. In T4 cell cultures, the same produces low numbers of T4 cells and AIDS, as well as the number of T4 cells "disappear", regardless of whether one adds AIDS-defining diseases and predicts that HIV/AIDS will become a global epidemic via the oldest and most 32 - NEXUS JUNE — JULY 1999 unstoppable of all human activities.