Examining Hiv-aids Denial

It is important to understand what we are talking about when we say “HIV” and “AIDS”. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus gets into your body and reproduces inside your cells destroying your immune system. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the condition that results from HIV. The immune system is broken, leaving room for a host of opportunistic diseases to attack the body.

The Myths

The central contentions of AIDS denialists are that “HIV exists but it isn’t harmful” and “AIDS does not exist,  AIDS is series of diseases, a sociopolitical construct”

Denialists rely on the ignorance of the public to promote their beliefs. They assert that the HIV virus has never been isolated and that AIDS diagnoses are arbitrary. One argument is that HIV is a natural passenger virus in the body and that when doctors detect the presence of HIV along with some common illness (pneumonia, diarrhea, etc) they automatically diagnose AIDS. In reality, AIDS is diagnosed when a person has one or more “indicator diseases”- which are rare in uninfected people- in addition to a positive HIV test and a low CD4 count.

A History of AIDS and HIV

The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5, 1981, when the CDC published a report about a group of five men who were suffering from a rare form of pneumonia in Los Angeles. Originally, the disease was called “GRID”- gay-related immune deficiency- until doctors realized that half the people infected weren’t homosexuals. By 1982, the disease had a new name: AIDS.

AIDS was originally identified by the rare diseases that began showing up with increasing frequency.  In the beginning, it was just a series of weird diseases popping up in the bodies of people in the prime of life.

Koch’s Postulates: How to Match A Disease With Its Cause

Robert Koch was the German physician who isolated the Tuberculosis bacillus, among other accomplishments. In 1890, Koch published a series of rules for determining the cause of a disease. Koch’s postulates provide a framework for scientists who need evidence of a cause and effect when it comes to epidemics. Even prominent AIDS denialists have agreed with these postulates- and claimed that HIV didn’t fit the bill.

1. The suspected pathogen must be found in all cases of the disease.

   The criteria for diagnosing AIDS requires that HIV be present. So, AIDS cases recognized as such by doctors, HIV is present along with AIDS. Keep in mind that there are millions of HIV/AIDS cases worldwide- about 36 million people currently living with disease and 25 million who have died since 1981.
2. The suspected pathogen must be isolated.

   The HIV virus has been isolated and propagated all over the world. Denialists often claim that this isn’t true, despite the disease having been isolated, photographed and it’s genome mapped.
3. The transmission of the suspected pathogen causes the illness, particularly in experiments.

   Remember Ryan White?

   He was the little boy who became the 1980s face of AIDS. As a hemophiliac who needed blood transfusions, he received tainted blood and became an advocate for the rights of AIDS victims when he was banned from going to school. There are many Ryan Whites in the world- people who contracted the disease through means other than sex or intravenous drug use. Researchers and health care workers who were exposed to HIV have contracted the disease as well. Exposure that results in the illness has been observed multiple times and not just in unintended victims- in laboratories, as with other illnesses, HIV has been introduced into animals (chimpanzees). In one infamous Florida case, a dentist transmitted AIDS to his patients.
4. Scientists must be able to retrieve the pathogen from the animal.

   This has also been done in a laboratory setting and in cases of human infection.

The Effects of Denialism

Thabo Mbeki is the former president of South Africa who was also an AIDS dissenter. An estimated 330,000 people died and 35,000 babies were born with the infection because of his suppression of treatment. He held an International conference, inviting 44 AIDS denialists, the most prominent being Peter Duesberg, a professor of cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley who isolated the first true oncogene in 1970.

In response to the conference, 5,000 scientists signed the Durban Declaration, demanding that South Africa acknowledge the truth about AIDS- that it is caused by HIV. 11 of them were Nobel Prize winners. To avoid accusations of conflict of interest, only scientists without connection to pharmaceutical companies were allowed to sign.

People who believe the denialists stop taking their drugs or stop giving them to sick children. They have unprotected sex.

They spread the disease until it begins to affect innocent people.

Contrarians Aren’t Heroes

People point to well-known AIDS denialists and say “hey, this guy is a prominent scientist who is really smart and doesn’t think HIV causes AIDS”.

But why should the word of one prominent scientist mean more than the words of thousands of scientists- ones who actually work with the AIDS virus in labs and hospitals everyday?

Today, we tend to give credit to anyone who goes against the mainstream. The logic behind it is baffling: he/she opposes thousands of qualified, peer reviewed studies, so they must be right!

At its heart, AIDS denial is a conspiracy theory, claiming that big pharmaceutical companies are responsible for an elaborate fantasy. This is convenient because it allows people to claim that all evidence to the contrary is tainted because it’s associated with the enemy, but like all ad hominem arguments, it doesn’t really answer the evidence itself.

Sometimes, it is brave to oppose a consensus, to stand up to the mainstream. But to continue to do so in the face of  evidence, with tens of millions of people dead and dying, is more than just wrong.

It is evil.

Related articles and resources:

HIV Causes AIDS: Proof Derived from Koch’s Postulates
How HIV Causes AIDS
How is HIV Diagnosed?
World Health Organization
Centers for Disease Control