6.3. Is HIV the cause of AIDS? Doubts Based On Epidemiological Data
Description
This article is from the AIDS FAQ, by Dan Greening with numerous contributions by others.
6.3. Is HIV the cause of AIDS? Doubts Based On Epidemiological Data
First, HIV and HIV-antibodies are undetectable in a significant
percentage of AIDS cases. The exact number of such cases is
disputable, and many AIDS cases are simply never tested for HIV or
HIV-antibodies: estimates of HIV-negative AIDS cases generally range
between 2% and 10% of AIDS cases. Furthermore, Duesberg and others
argue that AIDS-defining diseases themselves occur in a large number
of people who are not defined as AIDS-cases because of their HIV-
negative status. From a philosophical point-of-view it doesn't matter
what the exact percentages are: If both AIDS itself, and AIDS-
defining diseases, occur without HIV, then HIV cannot be the sole
cause of AIDS, though it is possibly one among many contributing
causes in those who are HIV+.
Second, virtually all, if not all, of those who suffer from AIDS have
been exposed to MANY immunosuppressive risks besides HIV, even if most
have, indeed, also been exposed to HIV. Many pathogens such as
Hepatitis viruses, Herpes viruses including Cytomegalovirus, Herpes
simplex, Treponema pallidum, the cause of Syphilis, Epstein-Barr
Virus, Mycobacteria, and others, are just as prevalent in AIDS-
patients as is HIV. Further, simultaneous infection with a broad
spectrum of these pathogens occurs only in those populations at high-
risk for AIDS. HIV-skeptics do not believe that any epidemiological
evidence exists to single out HIV from the other pathogens
characteristic of AIDS. It is likely, they argue, that AIDS-defining
immune-suppression is caused by the cumulative effect, or by specific
synergistic interactions, of these other pathogens. In addition,
virtually all AIDS-patients have been exposed to drugs with known
immunosuppressive effects, whether medically indicated, recreational,
or both. These exposures include the usage of opiates (medically and
recreationally), nitrites, cocaine, chronic high-dosage antibiotics,
and chemotherapeutic agents. Finally, virtually all AIDS-patients have
been exposed to large amounts of foreign antigenic tissue, whether
blood products, lymphocytes or semen. Such exposure is known to
trigger auto-immunities similar to those present in AIDS.
DQuestion 6.3. Is HIV the cause of AIDS? Oubts Based On Immunological And Virological Data
First, HIV is non-viremic and chemically inactive in those infected,
even those suffering acute immune-suppression. Skeptics argue that the
rate of infection of T-cells by HIV is so low that even were HIV to
kill every cell it infects, the human body would have no difficulty
replenishing those cells. Even so, retroviruses, including HIV which
has been continuously grown in the same cell-line since 1984, have
never been shown consistently to kill host-cells. Estimates of the
exact rate and location of T-cell infection vary, but no estimates
place the rate of infection high enough to suggest a serious HIV
threat to the immune system, even in the lymphatic system where HIV
may be present in higher numbers than in blood.
Second, in response to skeptics' objections about rates of T-cell
infection, HIV-scientists have proposed a pathogenesis of AIDS in HIV
triggered auto-immunities, caused by the similarity of HIV surface
proteins to those of immune system cells. However, CD4 homologies by
which HIV is alleged to cause auto-immunity or immune-system
malfunction also exist for many other pathogens/foreign tissue than
HIV -- including many pathogens common in AIDS-patients. No basis has
been demonstrated, nor plausibly hypothesized, which singles out
HIV/T-cell homologies from other homologies as a mechanism of auto-
immune reactions.
Third, the long "latency period" between HIV infection and the
development of AIDS is unlike the behavior of all other viruses, and
contradicts established retrovirology. To skeptics, this latency is
little more than an article of faith by HIV/AIDS hypothesizers. Put
simply, viruses don't cause disease after long latencies, except when
reactivation of a latent virus is triggered by external immune-
suppression. In all known viruses, production of antibodies
neutralizes the action of the virus, and the virus is eliminated or
brought into remission. Exactly the opposite is postulated for HIV;
but since no mechanism has been plausibly described for this, little
can be argued about it than one's prior convictions about HIV/AIDS
causation.
Continue to:
My Books
