[John Valentine]

"...a detailed summary of the evidence that HIV is the cause of AIDS...."

And for you, compelling and exhaustively referenced and footnoted evidence that it it NOT:

http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html

[megatherium]

A scan of the Duesberg paper discloses various errors. For example, they assert that AIDS is associated with malnutrition in Africa; in fact, urban professionals have been hard hit in certain countries in Africa. The tone of the paper is strident, and it ends with the argument that the peer-review process is corrupt. I am not impressed.

I do not understand why Duesberg cannot let the AIDS denialist theory go. I suspect it is because of his key role in retroviral research -- perhaps he cannot believe a retrovirus can do this kind of damage. It certainly can: It is of course unethical to prove HIV is the cause of AIDS by injecting a healthy volunteer with the virus. But very similar viruses cause similar diseases in apes and cats, and this has been shown by doing the obvious experiments.

AIDS denialists need to consider what they are doing: Duesberg is asserting that antiviral medicines are part of the cause of AIDS. Given the strong evidence that these medicines are extending lives, it is terrible to suggest to patients to not take these. I remember vividly what happened in the mid 1990s, when the protease inhibitors first appears: people started to talk about the Lazarus effect -- desperately sick people staged dramatic recoveries. I myself have met people who have had this happen.

Please do not stake your own health on the medical equivalent of UFOs or Bigfoot. You can find highly credentialed scientists who advance those theories too.