Well, I’m supposed to be working, so I scanned the article, instead of reading it carefully :)
The paper hypothesized that recreational/illegal drug use is associated with AIDS related symptoms. It also hypothesizes that drugs currently used to treat HIV infection are related to AIDS symptoms.
With my admittedly limited attention to the subject I can say that AIDS-related deaths were very common prior to the release of AZT and the other drug(s). AIDS was a death sentence, causing some people to clamor for increased research funding.
Now, people still die, albeit at a slower rate, and not always predictably. The effects of the disease and treatment drugs combined are not always pretty, and some genetic differences in predisposition to problems are likely.
My wife’s experience is often with people who are non-compliant in their treatment of their HIV infections. These people often die in the 20’s and 30’s. In her experience of an admittedly limited sample, people who are HIV+, 50+, and non-compliant with meds are rare in the ICU. So, they are either dead, or comparatively “healthy”.
If the complainers think the treatments are causing them problems, it is within their right to terminate treatment. Their actions speak more about their opinions than their words - kinda like Huckabee’s “Tax me more” program /OT.
Concerning the hypotheses in article 2, people who exhibit extreme drug use and other behavioral disorders probably don’t eat their vegetables, get enough sleep at night, exercise, say their prayers, go to the dentist, etc, They will be prone to many and diverse problems.