Posted on 06/03/2005 11:18:37 AM PDT by FormerLib
Glazov: Dr. Brody, let’s begin with you. Could you kindly comment on this phenomenon and give your perspective on some of the themes I have raised?
Brody: In the early 1980s, in my hometown of New York, it was apparent that AIDS deaths were occurring in transfusees, injecting drug users, and male homosexuals. It was also apparent to the homosexual community that given that affected population, generous federal funding would not be forthcoming. People skilled at public relations developed the "Big Lie": that HIV was a major risk to all, and was readily spread via penile-vaginal intercourse (rather than only by injection or anal intercourse) to otherwise reasonably healthy adults. This lie was understandable given the circumstances at that time. With time, generous funding became available, and the lie was no longer needed for the original purpose.
However, by that time, several political interests became very invested in the Big Lie. Those interests included those who sought to confuse political equality of homosexuals with egalitarian disease susceptibility (I suspect that only a small minority of those promoting that agenda were themselves nominally homosexual). So-called "gender feminists", inspired by the late Andrea Dworkin and her ilk, were keen to vilify intercourse, and hoped to reduce intercourse frequency (in favor of sexual behaviors that were less exclusively heterosexual), as well as to dampen its quality and intimacy (via condom promotion).
In addition to the major role played by the political left, segments of the political right might have been pleased to see a means of enforcing relative sexual continence. People of any political persuasion who, for their own psychological reasons, feared intercourse, also joined the chorus.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
You are right Spetz. When a thread degenerates like this it is better to extricate oneself rather than wait for the mod to close it down.
We have this tendency to be more aggressive online because everyday life is frustrating and we are all anonymous.
God Bless you too.
John I don't deny that homosexuals are the main spreaders of the disease. The only reason I am here is because at the beginning of the article it says they challenge the idea that HIV can be sustained via penile-vaginal intercourse. That's all. I don't have any more fight left in me. I do accept that there's been a lot of propaganda. I believe both sides have been irresponsible in the AIDS matter. Frankly this disease scares the hell out of me because it has the potential to wipe out a large portion of the earth's inhabitants, Armaghedden style. To me, it is much scarier than terrorism and has the potential to do more human, economic and environmental damage than a 911 every month unless serious measures are taken to slow it down. I am less concerned with the intellectual bantering as I am for those nations living the reality of it. I know sub-Saharan Africa is and always has been in shambles. It always be now because of this disease and my heart breaks for these families. We are talking about not just poor people, but professionals too, those charged with trying to make peace with their neighbors and get the economic house in order. Their tax base is literally dying a little more each day at a time when they need money to fight this. They can't even afford to take care of the AIDS orphans and tragically, children born with HIV. Even if the numbers are inflated, it is still a tragedy beyond comprehension. We should make a HIGE deal about HIV, not play down the seriousness of it.
"Keep reading and you'll see that many here on Free Republic suffer from the very same mental limitations."
There you go again. If we disagree we have "mental limitations?"
-----She walked in, looked at him and said "You have AIDS." He did."
How could anyone possibly know. THERE IS NO TEST FOR 'AIDS'. ----
She's a nurse. He was diagnosed by a physician and given drugs. He went into remission.
There's a test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
And my whole purpose here is to reassure you that your fear has no basis whatsoever, since AIDS is NOT contagoius. HIV is contagious, for certain, but HIV does not cause AIDS and never has. Right now, this is a minority view, and anyone who holds this view is open to ad hominem attack. But mark my words, the truth will prevail.
Meanwhile, you need never fear an "Armaghedden" from AIDS.
And we need not, can not, "play up the seriousness of HIV". HIV is totally benign. It's "seriousness" is already nothing more than hype, please don't add to it.
Meanwhile, it is obvious that you haven't read word one of the peer-reviewed publication I recommended to you. How can you pretend to be concerned if you won't even educate yourself?
'MEDS' not 'HIV' - The real killer
Don't believe what the drugs companies tell you.
WITHOUT HAART 'MEDS"
“These long-term nonprogressors [Hiv+ people who remained healthy] are a heterogeneous group with respect to viral load and HIV-1 responses…none had been treated with antiretroviral agents.”
AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 12: 585 (1996)
– Harrer, Thomas, et al, Aids Researchers
NOT ONE USED HAART
“Subjects: homosexual men in Amsterdam. “None of the LTAs [long-term asymptomatics–people who remained healthy]…received any antiviral drugs during the study [7 years].”
“Ten HIV+ people; 11-15 years infected; non-progressors [i.e., healthy]; maintained stable T-cell counts above 500. “These long-term nonprogressors…all showed the same risk factor (sexual exposure), and all had...virus...and none had been treated with antiretroviral agents.”
AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 12: 585 (1996)
– Harrer, Thomas, et al, Aids Researchers
Journal of Infectious Diseases, 171:811 (1995)
– Hogervorst E, et al, Aids Researchers
_________
__________
WITH HAART
“…Choosing between many of these [HAART] combinations is, therefore, increasingly dependent upon knowledge of antiretroviral toxicities...[which include] myopathy [gross muscle atrophy] (zidovudine [AZT]), neuropathy (stavudine, didanosine, zalcitabine; hepatic steatosis and lactic acidaemia (didanosine, stavudine, zidovudine); and possible also peripheral lipoatrophy and pancreatitis (didanosine)...drug hypersensitivity... lipodystrophy...[including] peripheral fat loss (Presumed lipoatrophy in the face, limbs and buttocks) and central fat accumulation (within the abdomen, breasts and over the dorsocervical spine [so-called buffalo hump]...[and prevalent in] about 50% [of patients] after 12-18 months of therapy...Metabolic features significantly associated with lipodystrophy and protease-inhibitor therapy include hypertriglyceridaemia, hypercholesterolaemia, insulin resistance...and type 2 ...diabetes mellitus. Dyslipidaemia at concentrations associated with increased cardiovascular disease occurs in about 70% of patients. These metabolic abnormalities are more profound in those receiving protease inhibitors...Most cases of diabetes have been identified in recipients of protease inhibitors...Anemia and granulocytopenia affect about 5-10% of patients who receive zidovudine...Virtually all antiretroviral medications can cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhoea early in therapy...Diarrhea is probably most common with protease inhibitors...Most antiretroviral agents have been associated with hepatic [liver] toxicity...Most protease inhibitors seem to result in increased rates of spontaneous bleeding (bruising, haemarthrosis, and rarely intracranial haemorrhage) in haemophiliacs... 25-35% of patients cannot tolerate [AZT monotherapy] or triple combination therapy for 4 weeks...”
Lancet. 2000 Oct 21;356:1423-0.
– Carr A, Cooper DA, Aids Researchers
BLINDNESS
“This study was conducted to determine the likelihood of the development of [immune recovery vitritis, IRV], which causes vision loss in AIDS patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis, who respond to HAART. We followed 30 HAART-responders…Symptomatic IRV developed in 19 (63%) of 30 patients.”
J Infect Dis. 1999 Mar;179(3):697-700
CASTLEMAN'S DISEASE
“Recently, we observed an unusual cluster of cases of rapidly progressing multicentric Castleman’s disease. Fever, weakness, generalized enlargement of lymph nodes, and marked polyclonal gammopathy developed in three patients with AIDS...Two of these patients died within one week after the diagnosis, with generalized involvement of the lymphatic system, liver, and bone marrow at autopsy. A fourth patient with AIDS who died equally rapidly after the diagnosis of multicentric Castleman’s disease had been seen in our hospital 14 months earlier... symptoms…started after the initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in these three patients.”
N Engl J Med. 1999 Jun 17;340(24):1923-4
– Zietz C, et al, Aids Researchers
– Karavellas MP, et al, Aids Researchers
DEATH
“…Of the 70 patients studied, 84% were still alive after the 3-month study period...17 surviving patients (24%) had HAART regimens discontinued due to drug intolerance and 11 (16%) expired [died] during the study period...”
J Pain Symptom Manage. 2001 Jan;21(1):41-51
NERVE DAMAGE
“The antiretroviral drugs currently licensed in the United Kingdom [June 1996] are zidovudine (azidothymidine [AZT]), zalcitabine (ddC) and didanosine (ddI). All three are nucleoside analogues...All are very toxic. Suppression of bone marrow elements can occur with any of the three, as can peripheral neuropathy [nerve damage].”
Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin. 1996 Jun;178:675-8.
– Ellis C.J., Leung D., Aids researchers
“A decrease in mtDNA [DNA of the mitochondria; the energy regulating entities within every cell] content was found in HAART-treated HIV-infected patients with peripheral fat wasting in comparison with subjects in the control cohorts...Lipodystrophy with peripheral fat wasting following treatment with NRTI [Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor]-containing HAART is associated with a decrease in subcutaneous adipose [under the skin fat] tissue.”
AIDS. 2001;15:1801-9
– Shikuma CM, Hu N, Milne C, et al, Aids Researchers
‘These drugs are as dangerous as chemotherapy,’
“7 HIV patients presenting LD [Lipodystrophy, all taking antiretroviral therapy] and 5 HIV non-LD controls participated in the study…Structural muscle abnormalities, mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction or mtDNA deletions were detected in all HIV lipodystrophic patients. The mitochondrial abnormalities found suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction could play a role in the development of antiretroviral therapy-related lipodystrophy. ”
AIDS. 2001 Sep 7;15(13):1643-51
– Zaera MG, et al, Aids Researchers
“Combination drug therapy, or the triple-drug ‘cocktail’…often provokes severe side effects… ‘These drugs are as dangerous as chemotherapy,’ warned Dr. James Kahn, UCSF associate professor of medicine…”
– Science Daily, Sep 4, 2001
SEXUAL DIFFICULTIES - Body distortions
“[Chapters in this guide to HIV drugs are entitled Introduction, Appetite loss, Body distortions (lipodystrophy), Bone death and destruction, Cardiac concerns, Diarrhea, Fatigue, Gas and bloating, Hair loss, Headaches, Insulin resistance and diabetes, Kidney stones, Liver toxicity, Muscle aches and pains, Nausea and vomiting, Nightmares, daymares and sleeping difficulties, Pancreatitis, Peripheral neuropathy, Skin problems, Sexual difficulties, The end]”
– A Practical Guide to HIV Drug Side Effects, CATIE, 2002
HEART ATTACKS
“Use of protease inhibitors was strongly associated with the likelihood of having a myocardial infarction [heart attack] and correlated with diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidaemia.”
Lancet. 2002 Nov 30;360(9347)
– Holmberg SD, et al, Aids Researchers
Unreliable Tests
A September 2004, San Francisco Chronicle article considered the "beauty" of testing. It told the story of 59 year-old veteran Jim Malone, who'd been told in 1996 that he was HIV positive. His health was diagnosed as "very poor." He was classified as "permanently disabled and unable to work or participate in any stressful situation whatsoever."
In 2004, his doctor sent him a note to tell him he was actually negative. He had tested positive at one hospital, and negative at another.
Nobody asked why the second test was more accurate than the first (this was the protocol at the Veteran's Hospital). Having been falsely diagnosed and spending nearly a decade waiting, expecting to die, Malone said, "I would tell people to get not just one HIV test, but multiple tests. I would say test, test and retest."
In the article, AIDS experts assured the public that the story was "extraordinarily rare." But the medical literature differs significantly.
The Numbers
In 1985, at the beginning of HIV testing, it was known that "68% to 89% of all repeatedly reactive ELISA (HIV antibody) tests [were] likely to represent false positive results." (New England Journal of Medicine. 1985).
In 1992, the Lancet reported ("HIV Screening in Russia") that for 66 true positives, there were 30,000 false positives. And in pregnant women, "there were 8,000 false positives for 6 confirmations."
In September 2000, the Archives of Family Medicine stated that the more women we test, the greater "the proportion of false-positive and ambiguous (indeterminate) test results."
The tests described above are standard HIV tests, the kind promoted in the ads. Their technical name is ELISA or EIA (Enzyme-linked Immuno-sorbant Assay). They are antibody tests. The tests contain proteins that react with antibodies in your blood.
False Positives
In the U.S., you're tested with an ELISA first. If your blood reacts, you'll be tested again, with another ELISA. Why is the second more accurate than the first? That's just the protocol. If you have a reaction on the second ELISA, you'll be confirmed with a third antibody test, called the Western Blot. But that's here in America. In some countries, one
ELISA is all you get.
It is precisely because HIV tests are antibody tests that they produce so many false-positive results. All antibodies tend to cross-react. We produce anti-bodies all the time, in response to stress, malnutrition, illness, drug use, vaccination, foods we eat, a cut, a cold, even pregnancy. These antibodies are known to make HIV tests come up as positive.
The medical literature lists dozens of reasons for positive HIV test results: "transfusions, transplantation, or pregnancy, autoimmune disorders, malignancies, alcoholic liver disease, or for reasons that are unclear..." (Archives of Family Medicine. Sept/Oct. 2000).
"[L]iver diseases, parenteral substance abuse, hemodialysis, or vaccinations for hepatitis B, rabies, or influenza..." (Archives of Internal Medicine, August 2000).
The same is true for the confirmatory test the Western Blot. Causes of indeterminate Western Blots include: "lymphoma, multiple sclerosis, injection drug use, liver disease, or autoimmune disorders. Also, there appear to be healthy individuals with antibodies that cross-react...."
(ibid).
Pregnancy is consistently listed as a cause of positive test results, even by the test manufacturers." [False positives can be caused by] prior pregnancy, blood transfusions...and other potential nonspecific reactions." (Vironostika HIV Test, 2003).
Inflated Africa Numbers
This is significant in Africa, because HIV estimates for African nations are drawn almost exclusively from testing done on groups of pregnant women.
In Zimbabwe last year, the rate of HIV infection among young women decreased remarkably, from 32.5 to 6 percent. A drop of 81 percent overnight. UNICEF's Swaziland representative, Dr. Alan Brody, told the press that, "The problem is that all the sero-surveillance data came from pregnant women, and estimates for other demographics was based on that."
(PLUS News, August, 2004).
Flawed Samples
When these pregnant young women are tested, they're often tested for other illnesses, like syphilis, at the same time. There's no concern for cross-reactivity or false-positives in this group, and no repeat testing. One ELISA on one girl, and 32.5 percent of the population is suddenly HIV positive.
The June 20, 2004 Boston Globe reported "the current estimate of 40 million people living with the AIDS virus worldwide is inflated by 25 percent to 50 percent." It said that HIV estimates for entire countries have, for over a decade, been taken from "blood samples from pregnant women at prenatal clinics."
But numbers about "AIDS deaths, AIDS orphans, numbers of people needing antiretroviral treatment, and the average life expectancy" are all taken from that one test.
I've certainly never seen this in a VH1 ad.
At present there are about six-dozen reasons given in the literature why the tests come up positive. In fact, the medical literature states that there is simply no way of knowing if any HIV test is truly positive or negative:
"[F]alse-positive reactions have been observed with every single HIV-1 protein, recombinant or authentic." (Clinical Chemistry. 37; 1991). "Thus, it may be impossible to relate an antibody response specifically to HIV-1 infection." (Medicine International. 1988).
Ambiguous Results
And even if you believe the reaction is not a false positive, "the test does not indicate whether the person currently harbors the virus."
(Science. November, 1999).
The test manufacturers state that after the antibody reaction occurs, the tests have to be "interpreted." There is no strict or clear
definition of HIV positive or negative. There's just the antibody reaction. The reaction is colored by an enzyme, and read by a machine called a spectro-photometer.
The machine grades the reactions according to their strength (but not specificity), above and below a cut-off. If you test above the cut-off, you're positive; if you test below it, you're negative. So what determines the all-important cut-off? From The CDC's instructional material: "Establishing the cutoff value to define a positive test result from a negative one is somewhat arbitrary." (CDC, 2003)
I've read a few articles that attribute African AIDS to miscounts of cases of endemic diseases. Poor diagnostic testing and favorable payment schemes contribute to the overcounting in Africa.
It doesn't matter if there is not a test that proves conclusively that a person has HIV. Other factors are present that contribute to the diagnosis, as with countless other conditions and diseases, even in the western world.
I did do some research on homosexuality in Africa. I still believe the vast majority of HIV transmissions occur through herterosexual contact.
My brother told me that when he was in in Saudi Arabia he heard that the men do each other because the girls can't have sex until marriage. I extrapolated (with a question mark) that to African and other cultures who require virginity of the bride. Also, in American prisons, men do other men but only the recipient (the one on the "down low") is considered gay. I am pasting in some excerpts from an article I found supporting this theory. There are many different cultures in Africa and we can't say the entire continent engages in this behavior.
"Some of the best known work exploring homosexuality in Africa is that of Evans-Pritchard and his studies of the Azande of present day Zaire, beginning in the 1920s. Evans-Pritchard found repeated examples of adolescents prior to the age of 17-18 serving as "boy wives" to older men. They were expected to help their "father-in-law" and "mother-in-laws" to cultivate the fields, build huts and would often sleep with their father-in-laws.
According to Evans-Pritchard, "if a (Azande) man has sexual relations with a boy he is not unclean. The Azande say, 'A boy does not pollute the oracle.'" Moreover, the boy wife and his father-in-law would often refer to each other "my love" and "my lover."
`````
"Accounts of homosexuality in traditional African cultures often find such practices accepted among adolescents, but discouraged among adults. Tessemann, writing in the 1913 about the Fang people of present day Gabon, states:
In adults such conduct is regarded as something immoral and unnatural, simply unheard of. In reality, however, it is frequently heard of that young people carry on homosexual relations with each other and even older peoples who take boys...readily console them by saying, "we are having fun, playing a game, joking." Adults are excused with the corresponding assertion, "he has (the) heart (that is, the aspirations) of boys," which is, of course, by no means flattering to them."
````
"Probably the best documented cases of homosexuality in Africa are among the mine workers of South Africa. Living in all male compounds and separated from girlfriends and wives for months at a time, it is very common for adolescent boys to visit these compounds and provide sexual service to its inhabitants. Such can be thought of as situational homosexuality, based upon the extenuating circumstances of an all male setting.
Yet far less consideration has been given to those miners and their partners who admit to enjoying sexual contact with other men beyond obtaining sexual release in the absence of women. Writing in DEFIANT DESIRE, Linda Ngcobo and Hugh McLean interviewed twenty African men who have sex with other men about gay sexuality in the townships around Johannesburg."
```
"A skesana is a boy who likes to get f----," explains Ngcobo, himself one of the first black gay men in South Africa to publicly declare his homosexuality. "An injonga is the one who makes the proposals and does the f------."
Much of the sex between miners and those who service them is "thigh sex", a relatively accepted sexual practice between members of the same sex in many African cultures.
Yet the authors argue that anal sex is far from unknown. Moreover, the definition of what constitues "sex" for African men who have sex with other men, is anal penetration. "Remember that skesanas who 'play with each other' even to the point of orgasm, do not consider this to be sex. Sex happens when amanjonga wa kwabo baba-ayinela, when their injongas penetrates them."
..To much information...
"And my whole purpose here is to reassure you that your fear has no basis whatsoever, since AIDS is NOT contagoius. HIV is contagious, for certain, but HIV does not cause AIDS and never has. Right now, this is a minority view, and anyone who holds this view is open to ad hominem attack. But mark my words, the truth will prevail."
My fear has ample basis, and those diagnosed with HIV end up with aids. What's the explanation iof HIV does not lead to aids? My fear is well founded, because heterosexuals can and do transmit HIV, and there is no cure. It is deadly.
"Meanwhile, you need never fear an "Armaghedden" from AIDS."
Why not? Africa is being wiped out by aids.
"Meanwhile, it is obvious that you haven't read word one of the peer-reviewed publication I recommended to you. How can you pretend to be concerned if you won't even educate yourself?"
I read another article, 10 minutes ago, from other "dissidents" and though they may have a few points, they have not convinced me that aids is a fraud, any more than those who say diet can cure metastisized cancer. As far as educating myself, why is it that those who don't believe the vast minority are called uneducated about the disease?
If aids tests were totally useless, then insurance companies wouldn't cover the costs. One aids dissident told me to follow the money trail. That money trail leads to insurance companies and if there was any credibility to what you say, they would refuse to pay for aids testing.
You know, you ought to read authoritatve information. That's why I gave you a link to the latest, most comprehensive, peer-reviewed article I could find.
If you are to lazy to do so, all you can do is parrot the same tired line that the newspapers sell.
"Africa is being wiped out by AIDS!" Give me a break! That's just the lie I was trying to educate you against.
Until you decide to actually your God-given intelligence to use, don't bother me again. I'm not interested in a discussion at this level.
My outrage is fully justified. However, I did list several links. You can choose to ignore the science and risk you life or be smart. However, advocating non-science that potentially puts people in jeopardy is beyond malicious.
THE SCIENCE PROVES 'AID$' IS A MYTH
"If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document."
Dr. Kary Mullis, Biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
"Up to today there is actually no single scientifically really convincing evidence for the existence of HIV. Not even once such a retrovirus has been isolated and purified by the methods of classical virology."
Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Virology, Max-Planck-Institutes for Biochemy, München.
By: - Dr. Etienne de Harven
In conclusion, and after extensive reviewing of the current AIDS research literature, the following statement appears inescapable: neither electron microscopy nor molecular markers have so far permitted a scientifically sound demonstration of retrovirus isolation directly from AIDS patients.
This conclusion fully confiens the recent reports published in Continuum by E. Papadopulos and by S. Lanka.
Dr. Etienne de Harven is emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Toronto. He worked in electron microscopy (EM) primarily on the ultrastructure of retroviruses throughout his professional career of 25 years at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York and 13 years at the University of Toronto. In 1956 he was the first to report on the EM of the Friend virus in murine (mouse) leukemia, and in 1960, to coin the word "budding" to describe steps of virus assembly on cell surfaces. He will deliver a speech at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva (June 28-July 3) at the session "HIV-testing: Open Questions about Specificity".
No evidence for the existence of HIV
By: - Stefan Lanka Ph.D. studied Virology at the University of Koblenz, Germany.
Such evidence has up till now never been produced for HIV. No photograph of an isolated HIV particle has ever been published nor of any of its proteins or nucleic acids. No control experiments as mentioned above have been published to date. What has been shown are photographs of virus-like particles in cell cultures, but none of isolated viruses, let alone of a structure within the human body having the shape ascribed to HIV. What the whole world has seen are models representing HIV with dish aerials, said to be receptors with which the virus attaches itself to cells.
The existence of HIV is inferred from an antibody test, but how this is supposed to work, when the virus has never been shown to exist and obtained free of contaminants, remains a mystery.
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