What is HIV?
Aids Dissident Scientific Summary Analysis
No laboratory has ever obtained an undisputed sample of human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), despite countless attempts. Most
laboratories, clinics and medical corporations have come to accept
indirect signs, or 'markers', such as antibody reactions, proteins,
genetic fragments, 'virus-like' particles, enzymes - that could
suggest a virus but also other things - as proving the presence and
existence of an 'HIV'.
If such a virus were ever isolated by standards applicable until the
late 1970s, the expectations are that it would be a retrovirus - a
concept of viruses adopted in the early 1970s. The genetic code of a
retrovirus would work 'backwards' - 'retro' - transforming RNA to
DNA. Most retroviruses are known as harmless passenger viruses a part
of all of endogenous or naturally occuring genetic make-up. 'HIV' has
never been found in suficient quantities to kill T-Cells and in fact
there is no concensus even after 21+ years as to 'HIV's cytotoxic or
cell killing mechanism. For a decade, researchers thought cancer was
caused by a retrovirus. Professor Peter Duesberg, UC Berkeley,
isolated the first retrovirus and is a Father of Retrovirology
says 'HIV' is a harmless passenger virus that does not cause the
syndrome known as 'AIDS.'
In 1984 some signs suggesting a possible new virus were detected in
cell cultures by the scientific teams of Frenchman Luc Montagnier in
Paris, and American Robert Gallo in Washington, who were trying to
explain a single cause for 'AIDS'. The French called their findings
Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV), the Americans called theirs
Human T-cell Lymphotrophic Virus III (HTLV-III). The US Government
announced at a press conference in 1984 that a new virus was "the
probable cause of AIDS," yet before any scientific papers inviting
peer scrutiny were published. When such papers appeared in Science
some weeks later, a dispute erupted between Montagnier and Gallo.
Gallo was found guilty of scientific misconduct by a Senate Ethics
Committee, for misappropriating material and photographs of 'virus-
like' particles from the French. Because of the financial stakes -
Gallo and the US government applied for a patent for tests for 'HIV'
the day of the press conference - the matter was eventually solved
only by a closed meeting between the scientists which produced an
official history of events, and a meeting between the US and French
Presidents.
However, neither Gallo nor Montagnier ever managed to purify samples
of the virus they claimed to have detected. Many scientists believe
that without fulfiling this traditional primary requirement of virus
isolation, multiple confusions at the molecular biological level are
inevitable over what or whether anything has actually been found. To
this day, primary purification of 'HIV' has never been achieved. The
last attempts, published in 1997 in Virology, revealed proteins and
genetic fragments from microvesicles - sub-cell particles - but no
virus.
HIV antibody tests
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/epcurmedres98.htm
Over the years of the HIV/AIDS theory, different types of test have
been used to try to detect such a virus in patients. These have
included (1) antibody tests, which look for a reaction in a person's
blood between their natural antibodies and synthetic proteins said to
belong to HIV, and (2) Polymerase Chain Reaction - PCR - or 'viral
load' genetic tests, which purport to use part of the virus' genetic
code to detect its presence.
All these tests are indirect, or surrogate. They do not claim to
detect any whole virus. Rather, they use markers to infer whether a
virus might be present. Unfortunately for the accuracy of these
tests, these same markers can be found in a variety of non-HIV
situations. No HIV test of any kind has ever been validated against
the one measure that is not indirect - the gold standard: physical
virus isolation. This is because isolation of HIV by the previously
conventional standards of viral isolation has never been achieved,
despite numerous attempts.
Of the antibody tests for HIV, there are two main types - called
ELISA, and Western Blot. Neither was designed especially for HIV, but
are examples of laboratory methodologies used in many investigations.
Around the world many companies market their versions of the ELISA
and Western Blot antibody tests for HIV.
However, the uncertain, unvalidated nature of these tests is
reflected in the product literature supplied by their manufacturers.
A typical example for the ELISA reads:
"At present there is no recognised standard for establishing the
presence or absence of antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2 in human
blood." - Axsym System, Abbott Laboratories
A typical example for the Western Blot reads:
"Do not use this kit as the sole basis of diagnosis of HIV-1
infection." - Epitope, Organon Teknika
"Of course we looked for it [HIV]... We saw some particles but they
did not have the morphology [shape] typical of retroviruses. ... I
repeat we did not purify."
~ Dr. Luc Montagnier, the "discoverer of HIV"
(see French transcript of quote from the interview
http://healtoronto.com/lmfrench.html
Did Luc Montagnier Discover HIV?
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/dtinterviewlm.htm
or video)
"No one believed we really had that many isolates... No one believed
we really meant that..."
~ Dr. Robert Gallo, also discovered "HIV"
(see Gallo Investigated
http://healtoronto.com/galloindex.html)
'viral load' / PCR test
Polymerase Chain Reaction - PCR - or the 'viral load' test, purports
to detect, and quantify, blood-borne HIV in patients. However, the
genetic fragments it amplifies have never been proved to originate in
HIV, or in any virus. The accuracy of PCR viral load is estimated by
leading doctors at plus or minus 300% - i.e. a reading of 90,000
could be 30,000 or 270,000!
The PCR was not invented for HIV. Its Nobel Prizewinning inventor, Dr
Kary Mullis, calls the use of PCR in AIDS medicine, "a tragedy in the
practice of Western medicine."
The uncertain unvalidated nature of the PCR for HIV is reflected in
the product literature supplied by manufacturers. A typical example
reads:
"The Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor test is not intended to be used as a
screening test for HIV or as a diagnostic test to confirm the
presence of HIV infection." - Roche, Amplicor
VIRAL LOAD OF WHAT?
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/chjppcrap.htm
t-cells
Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS theory, it has been suggested
that a virus kills a certain type of cell of the immune system -
called T-cells, or CD4 cells. 'T' refers to the maturing of these
cells in the gland of the Thymus, after their birth in the bone
marrow. CD4 is short for Cluster Differentiation 4, referring to a
method by which scientists group subsets of these cells according to
protein markers on their surface.
In fact there has never been any proof that an HIV kills these cells,
or indeed that even when they seem in low numbers in a person's
blood, cells have not instead migrated out of the blood to bone
marrow and elsewhere. Despite common assumptions, even by doctors,
CD4/T-cell counting remains a poor predictor of wellness and illness.
Since the Berlin World AIDS Conference of 1992 considerably less
scientific importance has been attached to T-cell counting. T-cell
counts are naturally variable, within an individual over time,
between individuals, and between communities. The technology for
counting T-cells is accurate only to approximately plus or minus 100
cells. The cells sampled for counting are taken from a person's
peripheral blood, where it is widely accepted, less than 10% of a
healthy person's T-cells will ever be found.
CD-4 T-cells: What Do They Count For? [index of articles/papers]
http://healtoronto.com/cd4counts.html
what is aids?
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a medical diagnosis
applied since 1984 in some branches of medicine and the wider public
when a person perceived as infected with a human immunodeficiency
virus ('HIV') experiences one of 29 conditions. But all of the 29
conditions exist or occur in persons diagnosed 'HIV' antibody
negative and are only redefined as 'AIDS' when someone tests antibody
positive.
'Acquired' specifies that the diagnosis does not apply to people with
inherent immune deficiencies. 'Immune Deficiency' is conventionally
taken to be the inability of a person's body to protect against
illness. Syndrome is a group of symptoms or conditions which seem to
be more or less linked.
The growing list of conditions defined 'in the presence of HIV
infection' since 1984 as AIDS, have already all been known for
decades. Thus TB plus 'HIV' is AIDS, TB without 'HIV' is TB. Cervical
cancer plus 'HIV' is AIDS, without is cervical cancer. Etc.
In the early 1980s the 'AIDS-indicator' conditions numbered two:
pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (thought to be caused by an
opportunistic protozöon, now thought to be fungal), and Kaposi's
Sarcoma (a quasi-cancer of the skin and other membranes, first
reported in 1887). These two conditions were found increasingly
frequently in the early 1980s in the USA and Europe in men having sex
with men, and were hypothesised as resulting from infectious immune
deficiency, inferred from counting people's peripheral T-cells.
The syndrome was for a while classified as Gay Related Immune
Deficiency (GRID). The list of 'defining' conditions has increased
substantially since 1984, though the major risk groups for 'AIDS' in
the West have remained men who have sex with men, people with
haemophilia (Haemophilia), and IV drug users (Drugs). Despite early
alarms, HIV/AIDS has never become a heterosexual epidemic in the
West, which does not mean it's a gay disease, but it has failed to
meet the parameters of the infectious model. 'HIV==AIDS' does not
fulfill Koch's Postulates as none of the apes injected with 'HIV'
have developed 'AIDS' conditions.
The international CDC definition of AIDS is specifically founded on
'infection with HIV', assumed or demonstrated. Thus by definition it
is nearly impossible to have 'AIDS' that is not 'correlative'
with 'HIV', though it is widely accepted that 'Immune Deficiency' can
be 'Acquired' in a many ways. There are also many well documented
causes and treatments for all of the 29 'AIDS' redefined conditons or
for addressing aquired immune deficiency.
Between different regions of the globe, the criteria and means for
arriving at an AIDS diagnosis vary. There are at least seven varying
official criteria for diagnosing 'AIDS.'
In Africa, for example, the same official concept of AIDS can be
found, but since a meeting in 1985 in the city of Bangui, Cote
d'Ivoire, the World Health Organisation's Bangui AIDS Definition has
allowed for diagnosis of AIDS in Africa with no test performed
for 'HIV', if a person experiences the relatively common African
symptoms of weight loss, cough, fever and diarrhoea for more than a
month.
It is widely agreed in conventional scientific literature and
elsewhere that the 'antiviral' medical drugs taken by many people
with 'HIV' and 'AIDS' diagnoses in the West are toxic and
experimental. In several cases the drugs are known to produce effects
that mimic or create immune deficiency and 'AIDS indicator'
conditions. The administration of AZT for example at doses at or
greater than 1200mg/day from 1988 to 1993 is acknowledged as
responsible for the deaths of those who took it. An iatrogenic, or
medically induced, aspect remains close to the center of what 'AIDS'
has become. All of these factors, including the changing dosages and
regimens, the lack of placebo controls using those not on drug or
using non-toxic alternative therapies, as well as a shifting
definition of 'AIDS' contributes to the fuzzy math, epidemio-
illogical numbers game.
READ MORE CLINICAL RE-DEFINTIONS SINCE 1993...
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/vknewdef.htm
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
The GROUP for the SCIENTIFIC REAPPRAISAL of the HIV/AIDS HYPOTHESIS
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/find.htm
President of The Group, Roberto Giraldo, MD, New York, NY
INDEX OF PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS
http://www.robertogiraldo.com/eng/papers/papers.html
REBUTTAL TO NIAID/NIH "Evidence for HIV" DOCUMENT
http://www.healtoronto.com/nih
INTERNATIONAL AIDS PANEL, INTERIM REPORT
Synthesis of deliberations by the panel of experts invited by the
President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki and the ten experiments the
Panel designed in attempt to resolve the controversy, endorsed by the
African National Congress
[AIDS Dissidents/'Denialists' and AIDS Apologists/Orthodoxy]
http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/reports/aids/aidspanel.htm
HEAL [Health Education AIDS Liason]
http://www.healtoronto.com
ANOTHER LOOK [Breastfeeding and 'HIV/AIDS']
http://www.anotherlook.org
MOMM [Mothers Opposing Mandatory Medicine]
http://www.informedmomm.com
ALIVE and WELL
http://www.aliveandwell.org
AIDS MYTH EXPOSED
[most active AIDS message board on MSN]
http://www.aidsmythexposed.com
HIV/AIDS ALTERNATIVE VIEWS
[forum on Delphi, About.com sister network]
http://forums.about.com/innocuous