i) HIV is not in semen.
In fact, it is actually found to a high degree in most investigations.
ii) Viruses work exponentially to
produce new virions and disease.
This statement confuses virus in a cell,
where this is true in many cases, with disease in individual. There are numerous examples of
slow progressive viral diseases.
iii) Viruses do not cause disease
when neutralizing antibody is present.
This is not true. There are examples of diseases which progress in spite of
the presence of antibody.
iv) Fewer than 1 in 10,000 T4 cells
infected.
We now know that the
presence of HIV can cause uninfected cells to undergo apoptosis
v) Few hemophiliacs get AIDS;
instead, they
die of immune suppression by therapeutic blood proteins.
HIV positive
hemophiliacs get immune suppression but HIV negative ones do not.
vi) Transfusion of HIV contaminated
blood not been shown to give AIDS.
In a Mexican study of 39 patients given HIV+ blood, AIDS occurred in 3% of the
recipients within 12 months, 50% after 29 months, 75% after 36 months, 100%
after 48 months. The mean survival time after AIDS onset was 9 months.
vii) HIV does not fulfill Koch's
postulates.
Postulate 1: An infectious
agent occurs in each case of a disease in sufficient amounts to cause
pathology.
It is said that there are many cases of AIDS without HIV. It is to be
expected that there would be other causes of immune suppression and so there
would be AIDS-like diseases without HIV. Nevertheless, the overwhelming
majority of AIDS-like immunosuppressive diseases occur in HIV-infected
persons.
Postulate 2: A specific
infectious agent is not found in other diseases.
This was later abandoned by Koch when it was found that one agent can cause
more than one specific disease.
Postulate 3: After isolation
and culture, the infectious agent can induce the disease in another
individual. The infectious agent can then be isolated from the newly
infected host.
In the case of HIV which only causes disease in humans, this is difficult to
do as there is, naturally, a lack of volunteers. However, this postulate has
been satisfied by the following evidence:
-
Cloned simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) causes an AIDS-like
disease within a year in macaques. Characteristics of the
disease are low CD4+ T4 cell count and opportunistic infections
such as pneumocystis pneumonia.
-
HIV2, which is closely related to HIV1 and cause AIDS in western
Africa, can cause AIDS in some moneys such as baboons. Again
specific CD4+ cell loss was observed.
-
The best evidence comes from a laboratory accident that
occurred in the late 1980's. Three laboratory workers who
worked with the virus became infected with purified cloned HIV1.
After 5 to 7 years, all three had low CD4+ T4 cell counts and
one had developed pneumocystis pneumonia and died. They were
serologically positive for HIV. The HIV from all three patients
was sequenced and found to be the same as the virus with which
they appeared to be infected. One got the virus by a puncture
wound when handling a centrifuge used for HIV concentration, one
through mucous membrane and facial exposure and the other had
direct contact with the virus though the actual route of
infection was not known.
None of the three had lifestyles that would predict the
possibility of AIDS. The report of the accident was published
in 1993 and so the infections clearly occurred several years
before that. The laboratory worker who developed pneumocystis
pneumonia had not received AZT (which Duesberg has implicated
as a possible cause of AIDS).
Thus, all three exposed patients had severe immunodeficiency
(as a result of specific CD4 cell loss) after being infected
with HIV. In 1994, Jon Cohen (Science vol 266, p 1647) asked
Duesberg about his position on HIV as a result of the reports
of the three lab workers. Duesberg did not agree that Koch's
postulates had been satisfied. He pointed out that as of
December 1994, 2 of the 3 lab workers did not have
opportunistic infections but did not address the one person
who did.
With regard to Koch's postulates,
Duesberg has argued that the following criteria must be met to show that HIV
causes AIDS
1. The microorganism must be found
in all cases of the disease.
2. It must be isolated from the host and grown in pure culture.
3. It must reproduce the original disease when introduced into a susceptible
host.
4. It must be found in the experimental host so infected.
It is now apparent that:
1. Virtually all AIDS patients are
HIV-infected
2. HIV can be isolated from virtually all AIDS patients, as well as in
almost all seropositive individuals
with both early- and late-stage disease
3. Laboratory workers accidentally infected with
concentrated purified HIV have developed AIDS
4. HIV has been isolated from these individuals
It should also be noted that:
-
HIV has always preceded AIDS in a population.
-
HIV is the single common factor between AIDS sufferers who are gay San
Franciscans, African female heterosexuals, hemophiliacs, children, intravenous
drug users.
-
Within any risk group only the HIV+ individuals get AIDS. It could be
argued that all members of these groups are subject to immunosuppression but
this is not the case with wives of hemophiliacs.
-
There is a better correlation between HIV and AIDS than between cigarettes
and lung cancer.
1. Before the appearance of HIV,
AIDS-like syndromes were rare, today they are common in HIV-infected people
2. AIDS and HIV are invariably linked
in time, place and population group
3. The main risk factors for AIDS are
sexual contact, transfusions, IV drugs, hemophilia. These have existed for years
but only after the appearance of HIV, has AIDS been observed in these
populations
4. Infection by HIV is the ONLY factor
that predicts that a person will develop AIDS
5. Numerous serosurveys show that AIDS
is common in populations with anti-HIV antibodies but is rare in populations
with a low seroprevalence of anti-HIV antibodies
6. Cohort studies show that severe
immunosuppression and AIDS-defining illnesses occur exclusively in individuals
that are HIV-infected
7. Persistently low CD4+ T4 cell counts are
extraordinarily rare in the absence of HIV or another known cause of
immunosuppression
8. Nearly everyone with AIDS has
anti-HIV antibodies
9. HIV can be detected in nearly
everyone with AIDS
10. HIV does fulfill Koch's postulates
11. New-born infants with no
behavioral risks develop AIDS if infected as a result of the mother being
HIV-infected
12. An HIV-infected twin will develop
AIDS, while the uninfected twin will not
13. Since the appearance of HIV,
mortality has increased dramatically among hemophiliacs
14. Studies of transfusion-acquired
AIDS has repeatedly led to discovery of HIV in recipient as well as donor
15. Sex partners of HIV-infected
hemophiliacs and transfusion patients acquire the virus and AIDS without other
risk factors
16. HIV infects and kills CD4+ T cells
in vitro and in vivo
17. HIV damages CD4 precursor cells
18. Body viral (HIV) load correlates
with progression to AIDS
19. HIV is similar in its genome and
morphology to other lentiviruses that often cause immunodeficiency, slow wasting
disorders, neurodegeneration and death
20. Baboons develop AIDS after
inoculation with HIV2 that also causes AIDS in humans
21. Asian monkeys develop an AIDS-like
disease after
inoculation with simian immunodeficiency virus
