I failed miserably. I could not possibly keep this list to just ten papers. There are simply too many papers that compellingly illustrate why the HIV=AIDS theory needs to be rethought. Or, maybe it was never thought through from the very beginning. Rethinking is not needed – just thinking.
Here then, are my ‘Top Ten’. I have made each paper available online via a link for personal research purposes only – so that skeptics of skeptics can verify that these papers really do show what I say they do. Click the title of the paper to access the full text.
- WHO case definitions for AIDS surveillance in adults and adolescents. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 1994 Sep 16; 69(37): 273–5.
“WHO case definition for AIDS surveillance
For the purposes of AIDS surveillance an adult or adolescent (>12 years of age) is considered to have AIDS if at least two of the following major signs are present in combination with at least 1 of the minor signs listed below, and if these signs are not known to be due to a condition unrelated to HIV infection.
Major signs
- weight loss >= 10% of body weight
- chronic diarrhoea for more than 1 month
- prolonged fever for more than 1 month (intermittent or constant)
Minor signs
- persistent cough for more than 1 month
- generalized pruritic dermatitis [itchy skin rash]
- history of herpes zoster
- oropharyngeal candidiasis
- chronic progressive or disseminated herpes simplex infection
- generalized lymphadenopathy
The presence of either generalized Kaposi sarcoma or cryptococcal meningitis is sufficient for the diagnosis of AIDS for surveillance purposes.Advantages of the WHO case definition for AIDS surveillance are that it is simple to use and inexpensive since it does not rely on HIV serological testing.”According to the World Health Organization you do not need a positive HIV test to be considered to have AIDS, just generic symptoms like weight loss, diarrhoea, fever, cough or rash.
- Revised classification system for HIV infection and expanded surveillance case definition for AIDS among adolescents and adults. MMWR. 1992; 41(RR-17): 1–17.
“The inclusion in the AIDS surveillance definition of persons with a CD4+ T-lymphocyte count of less than 200 cells/microliter or a CD4+ percentage less than 14 will enable AIDS surveillance to reflect more accurately the number of persons with severe HIV-related immunosuppression and those at highest risk for severe HIV-related morbidity.”
By 1997 almost two-thirds of new diagnoses of AIDS in America (and only in America) were in the low CD4 count category (which, by definition, was not associated with any AIDS-defining diseases and could be used in perfectly healthy people). This immediately gave these people access to the wonders of modern pharmacology.
Note the contrast with the African definition. In Africa people had to be sick (albeit with generic symptoms) but did not need a positive HIV test. In America most people had a positive HIV test but did not need to be sick. Yet the same word “AIDS” continued to be used to describe both situations.
- Piatak M Jr et al. High levels of HIV-1 in plasma during all stages of infection determined by competitive PCR. Science. 1993 Mar 19; 259: 1749–54.
"Circulating levels of plasma virus determined by QC-PCR also correlated with, but exceeded by an average of nearly 60,000-fold..., titers [amounts] of infectious HIV-1 determined by quantitative endpoint dilution culture of identical portions of plasma.”
<p">This means that viral load overcounts the number of infectious particles by a factor of 60,000 – if culturing is taken as a ‘gold standard’ for the detection of HIV.
- Wolday D et al. Treatment of Intestinal Worms Is Associated With Decreased HIV Plasma Viral Load. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2002 Sep 1; 31: 56–62.
“56 clinically asymptomatic HIV-1-infected individuals [from Ethiopia], 31 (55%) of whom were also infected with helminths [intestinal worms], were studied...At baseline, HIV plasma VL [viral load] was strongly correlated to the number of eggs excreted and was higher in individuals infected with more than one helminth. After treatment of helminths, the 6-month change in HIV plasma VL was significantly different between the successfully treated group and the persistently helminth-positive group”
So, do anti-worm medicines kill HIV, or does so-called viral load not actually measure HIV?
- Harper ME, Marselle LM, Gallo RC, Wong-Staal F. Detection of lymphocytes expressing human T-lymphotropic virus type III in lymph nodes and peripheral blood from infected individuals by in situ hybridization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986; 83: 772–6.
“Primary tissue samples were obtained from 20 individuals previously diagnosed with AIDS or ARC. Of seven lymph node suspensions hybridized with the HTLV-III probe R3, six (86%) showed the presence of infected cells expressing HTLV-III RNA...Labeled cells were very rare, constituting <0.01% [1 out of 10,000] and, in some cases, <0.001% [1 out of 100,000] of the cell populations. Hybridization of probe R3 to peripheral blood mononuclear cells also resulted in labeling of very rare cells that represented HTLV-III-expressing cells. However, a lower percentage of the peripheral blood samples studied were positive for labeled cells (7 of 14, or 50%) as compared to lymph node.”
Yes, this is Robert Gallo saying that only a miniscule fraction of cells in the lymph nodes are positive for HTLV-III (now known as HIV).
- Gallo RC et al. Frequent Detection and Isolation of Cytopathic Retroviruses (HTLV-III) from Patients with AIDS and at Risk for AIDS. Science. 1984 May 4; 224: 500–3.
“we found HTLV-III [HIV] in…13 of 43 of adult AIDS patients with KaposiÕs sarcoma, and 10 of 21 adult AIDS patients with opportunistic infections”
Gallo again admitting, in one of his seminal papers, that they only found evidence for HIV (however questionable the evidence is, and however questionable Gallo's research in general) in a minority of patients with “AIDS".
- Concorde Coordinating Committee. Concorde: MRC/ANRS randomised double-blind controlled trial of immediate and deferred zidovudine in symptom-free HIV infection. Lancet. 1994 Apr 9; 343(8902): 871–81.
“A total of 172 (96 Imm [Those who Immediately went on AZT at the start of the study], 76 Def [Those who were on placebo until AIDS was diagnosed and then went on AZT]) participants died [169 who had taken some AZT, 3 who had only taken placebo]...The results of Concorde do not encourage the early use of zidovudine in symptom-free HIV-infected adults. They also call into question the uncritical use of CD4 cell counts as a surrogate endpoint for assessment of benefit from long-term antiretroviral therapy...Representatives of the Wellcome Foundation [Glaxo Wellcome manufactured AZT then, it is now known as GlaxoSmithKline] who were also members of the Coordinating Committee have declined to endorse this report.”
3 patients in this trial NOT taking AZT died. 169 died who WERE taking AZT.
- Bird AG. Non-HIV AIDS: nature and strategies for its management. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1996; 37(Suppl B): 171–183.
“The CDC definition of idiopathic CD4 lymphocytopenia [HIV-free AIDS] does not include any clinical parameters. [One group] comprises a series of individuals...who have CD4 counts which are low but in whom there is no clinical evidence suggestive of immunodeficiency...[Some of these are] individuals whose CD4 counts are below the lower end of the normal range and who have constitutionally low CD4 blood levels consistently over a period of time without ill effect...their low CD4 counts may have no prognostic significance”
The CDC has defined AIDS (in America only) since 1993 as a combination of low CD4 counts and a positive HIV test yet it is known that there are healthy people with low CD4 counts. In fact, in HIV-negative people, low CD4 counts are generally ignored although it is known that they are often found in people very sick with infections (not AIDS) probably because it is also known that they occasionally found in completely healthy people.
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 HIVAB HIV-1 EIA. Abbott Laboratories. 1997 Jan.
“both the degree of risk for HIV-1 infection of the person studied and the degree of reactivity of the serum may be of value in interpreting the test”
"the EIA [this test] was designed to be extremely sensitive. As a result, non-specific reactions may be seen in samples from some people who, for example, due to prior pregnancy, blood transfusion, or other exposure, have antibodies to the human cells or media in which the HIV-1 is grown for manufacturer of the EIA. The risk of an asymptomatic person with a repeatably reactive serum sample developing AIDS or an AIDS-related condition is not known.”
"At present there is no recognized standard for establishing the presence and absence of HIV-1 antibody in human blood.”
This is just representative of the many disclaimers on HIV tests that casually note that the test might be meaningless. Of course everyone knows (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that these disclaimers should be ignored. Otherwise people might not get the benefits of antiretroviral therapy (which you can find elsewhere in this document).
- Newschaffer CJ et al. Prenatal Zidovudine Use and Congenital Anomalies in a Medicaid Population. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2000 Jul 1; 24(3): 249–256.
“Children of study women who were prescribed ZDV [AZT] had increased adjusted odds of any anomaly (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.55; 95% CI, 1.01-2.29) [i.e. more than one-and-one-half times the risk of a birth anomaly than the HIV+ population being studied in general]...The prevalence of major anomalies in the full cohort based on definition 1 was significantly higher than that observed in the general New York State population...the SMR [Standardized Morbidity Ratio] adjusted for race, gender, and location suggests that the risk of a major anomaly in the study cohort was 2.79 times greater than the general population...the lack of data on potential adverse effects of this therapy is still a concern...we compared anomaly rates of subgroups defined by ZDV exposure history within the cohort of HIV-infected mothers. Babies whose mothers had ZDV exposure during pregnancy had a greater incidence of major malformations than those whose mothers did not.”
- The Italian Register for HIV Infection in Children. Rapid disease progression in HIV-1 perinatally infected children born to mothers receiving zidovudine monotherapy during pregnancy. AIDS. 1999 May 28; 13: 927–33.
“Comparison of HIV-1-infected children whose mothers were treated with ZDV [AZT] with children whose mothers were not treated showed that the former group had a [1.8 times] higher probability of developing severe disease or severe immune suppression [2.4 times higher risk] and a lower survival (72.2% versus 81.0%).”
- Bong CN et al. Risk factors for early mortality in children on adult fixed-dose combination antiretroviral treatment in a central hospital in Malawi. AIDS. 2007 Aug 20; 21(13): 1805–1810.
“A total of 439 [Malawian] children started on ART [anti-retroviral therapy]...By September 2006, 49 children (11%) had died, of whom 35 (71%) died by 3 months and 44 (89%) by 6 months. The cumulative incidence of death at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after ART was 8, 12, 13 and 15%, respectively...CONCLUSION:: Although children do well on ART, there is high early mortality”
The operation was successful but the patient died…
- Lawn SD et al. Early mortality among adults accessing antiretroviral treatment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS. 2008 Oct 1; 22(15): 1897–908.
“Immunological and virological responses to ART [anti-retroviral therapy] are similar to responses in patients treated in high-income countries. Despite this, however, early mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa are very high; between 8 and 26% of patients die in the first year of antiretroviral treatment, with most deaths occurring in the first few months...leading causes of death appear to be tuberculosis [AIDS], acute sepsis, cryptococcal meningitis [AIDS], malignancy [some cancers are AIDS-defining} and wasting syndrome [AIDS]...Symptomatic disease (WHO stages 3 and 4) was associated with mortality in some but not all studies...Low body mass index and anaemia were independently associated with mortality in some studies. Anaemia may be associated with a variety of conditions such as extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB), gastrointestinal KaposiÕs sarcoma and severe malnutrition”
AIDS drugs kill and the underlying true (but boring) causes of illness are identified, but continue to be ignored.
- Kagaayi J et al. Survival of Infants Born to HIV-Positive Mothers, by Feeding Modality, in Rakai, Uganda. PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(12): e3877.
“182 infants born to HIV-positive mothers [in Rakai, Uganda] were followed at one, six and twelve months postpartum [after birth]. Mothers were given infant-feeding counseling and allowed to make informed choices as to whether to formula-feed or breast-feed. Eligible mothers and infants received antiretroviral therapy (ART) if indicated. Mothers and their newborns received prophylaxis for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (pMTCT) if they were not receiving ART. Infant HIV infection was detected by PCR...75 infants (41%) were formula-fed while 107 (59%) were breast-fed. Exclusive breast-feeding was practiced by only 25% of breast-feeding women at one month postpartum. The cumulative 12-month probability of infant mortality was 18% among the formula-fed compared to 3% among the breast-fed infants. There were no statistically significant differentials in HIV-free survival by feeding choice (86% in the formula-fed compared to 96% in breast-fed group...Formula-feeding was associated with a higher risk of infant mortality than breastfeeding in this rural population. Our findings suggest that formula-feeding should be discouraged in similar African settings.”
It is not just AIDS drugs that kill African, the advice that mothers should formula feed is just as likely to kill. This paper shows a dramatically higher death rate in formula fed babies (as breastfeeding advocates have known for decades) but ironically not even a significantly higher risk of the development of HIV-antibodies in breastfed babies (for people who consider these antibodies deadly).
- Darby SC et al. Mortality before and after HIV infection in the complete UK population of haemophiliacs. Nature. 1995 Sep 7; 377(6544): 79–82.
“[In a study of British hemophiliacs with a median seroconversion date of late 1982] The annual death rate in patients with severe haemophilia remained steady at 8 per 1,000 during 1977-84, but then rose progressively to 38 in 1991-92. This increase was confined to patients who tested seropositive for HIV and among whom the death rate increased steeply from 1985, reaching 81 in 1991-92. Among moderate/mild patients [who were HIV-positive]...the death rate again rose steeply during 1985-92...Treatment, by prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or with zidovudine [AZT], has been widespread for HIV-infected haemophiliacs since about 1989 [actually, since 1987 when AZT was first approved for treatment of AIDS], However, the steady increase in the excess death rate from 1985 to 1992 suggests that in this population the increasing impact of HIV-associated mortality has not been halted by these treatments [but no consideration of whether the treatments might be causing some or all of the excess death rate]. This study includes deaths only until 1992, and so does not permit examination of data following widespread use in the UK of high purity factor concentrate...During 1985-92, 403 deaths occurred in seropositive patients and for 235 of these the certified cause was AIDS. For the remaining 168 deaths...there were significant excesses for many causes indicative of AIDS [but also associated with the therapy used], including infections, non-HodgkinÕs lymphoma and pneumonia, and also significant excesses for causes associated with haemophilia.”
AZT wiped out a generation of hemophiliacs. This paper is a classic example of self-censorship with the toxicity of AZT no more mentionable than possible pre-marital sexual relationships of Mary in the Vatican.
- Retrovir product monograph. GlaxoSmithKline. 2005 Sep 21.
“It was often difficult to distinguish adverse events possibly associated with administration of RETROVIR¨ (AZTª) from underlying signs of HIV disease or intercurrent illnesses”
Translation: AZT can cause AIDS.
- Chemicals listed effective December 18, 2009 as known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity: wood dust, Zidovudine (AZT), Tert-Amyl Methyl Ether (TAME) and Ethyl-Tert-Butyl Ether (EBTE). OEHHA. 2009 Dec 18.
“Effective December 18, 2009, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) of the California Environmental Protection Agency is adding the chemicals identified below to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, for the purposes of Proposition 65...zidovudine (AZT) [is] being added to the list as known to the state to cause cancer.”
Translation: AZT can cause cancer.
- May MT et al. HIV treatment response and prognosis in Europe and North America in the first decade of highly active antiretroviral therapy: a collaborative analysis. Lancet. 2006 Aug 5; 368(9534): 451–8.
“The results of this collaborative study, which involved...over 20 000 patients with HIV-1 from Europe and North America, show that the virological response after starting HAART has improved steadily since 1996. However, there was no corresponding decrease in the rates of AIDS, or death, up to 1 year of follow-up. Conversely, there was some evidence for an increase in the rate of AIDS in the most recent period.”
So AIDS drug improve so-called viral load numbers but do not reduce the rate of AIDS or death.
- Piketty C et al. Marked increase in the incidence of invasive anal cancer among HIV-infected patients despite treatment with combination antiretroviral therapy. AIDS. 2008 Jun 19; 22(10): 1203–11.
“Among 86 322 patients included in the analysis, 132 had a diagnosis of anal cancer...102 occurred in the recent cART [combination Anti-Retroviral Therapy] period (1999– 2004)...The median CD4 cell count at anal cancer diagnosis increased with time from 188 cells/µl in the precART period to 288 cells/µl in the recent cART period. Nearly one-quarter of the patients had not received cART before the onset of anal cancer [i.e. more than three-quarters had received AIDS drugs]...In the precART, the early cART and the three sub-periods of the recent cART era (1999–2000, 2000–2001 and 2002–2003), the incidences of anal cancer were 10.5, 18.4, 43.1, 36.3 and 39.3 per 100 000 person-years, respectively.”
- Rodriguez B et al. Predictive Value of Plasma HIV RNA Level on Rate of CD4 T-Cell Decline in Untreated HIV Infection. JAMA. 2006 Sep 27; 296(12): 1498–1506.
“Presenting HIV RNA level predicts the rate of CD4 cell decline only minimally in untreated persons. Other factors, as yet undefined, likely drive CD4 cell losses in HIV infection.”
Theoretically, HIV RNA represents the amount of virus, and CD4 cells are the type that HIV likes to kill. So there should be a correlation.
- Morgan D et al. HIV-1 infection in rural Africa: is there a difference in median time to AIDS and survival compared with that in industrialized countries? AIDS. 2002 Mar 8; 16: 597–603.
“The median time from seroconversion to death [in this group of rural Ugandans] was 9.8 years...the median time from seroconversion to AIDS was 9.4 years and from AIDS to death was [0.77 years] 9.2 months [This is very similar to times to AIDS seen in Western countries]...The cumulative probability of survival in each age group at 7 years was 79% [15-24 years old at time of seroconversion], 72% [25-39 years old] and 20% [40 or older]”
Given that Africans (especially back before 2002) did not have the benefits of AIDS drugs one would have expected considerably shorter survival from the time of HIV infection to death but a virtually identical interval (about 10 years) was found. This actually means that survival in America is worse given the lower lifespan in Africa due to malnutrition, lack of primary health care, polluted drinking water, parasitic infections and so on.
- Padian NS et al. Heterosexual Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Northern California: Results from a Ten-Year Study. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Aug; 146(4): 350–7.
“We followed 175 HIV-discordant couples over time, for a total of approximately 282 couple-years of follow-up...The longest duration of follow-up was 12 visits (6 years). We observed no seroconversions after entry into the study...only 75% reported consistent condom use in the 6 months prior to their final follow-up visit. Forty-seven couples who remained in follow-up for 3 months to 6 years used condoms intermittently, and no seroconversions occurred among exposed partners.”
The best ever study of natural transmission between sexual partners, one positive, one negative, simply could not find a single case of such transmission.
- Pettifor AE et al. Young people's sexual health in South Africa: HIV prevalence and sexual behaviors from a nationally representative household survey. AIDS. 2005 Sep 23; 19(14): 1525–1534.
This study found that 23.3% of young black women surveyed were HIV-positive versus 6.4% of young black men. Yet the study also showed (unsurprisingly) that men were more promiscuous. It showed that 3.8% of female virgins and 2.5% of male virgins were HIV+. Other anomalies include a lower rate of HIV seropositivity in people who first had sex before they were 14 and higher seropositivity among those who last had sex with a regular partner (versus a casual partner), higher seropositivity among men who had never used a prostitute and virtually no additional risk with every additional lifetime sexual partner. This is in line with many studies from Africa that show that patterns of HIV seropositivity (and AIDS) are incompatible with sexual transmission.
- Burgener A et al. Identification of Differentially Expressed Proteins in the Cervical Mucosa of HIV-1-Resistant Sex Workers. J Proteome Res. 2008 Aug 16.
“A subset of 140 women out of a total of over 2000 participants from the Pumwani Sex Worker cohort have been identified to be relatively resistant to HIV-1 infection. Previously described resistance mechanisms, such as delta-32-CCR5 polymorphisms, have been discounted in this population as their cells are readily infected in vitro and this genotype has not been detected in this group”
Studies among non-drug-using prostitutes have consistently shown that they are remarkably resistant to becoming HIV-positive. Prostitutes are not a risk group for AIDS anywhere in the world (although in countries like the USA where drug use is common diseases of drug use, named AIDS if they are HIV-positive, are also common).
- Bruneau J et al. High rates of HIV infection. Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Dec 15; 146(12): 994–1002.
Table 5 in this paper shows that the risk of an IV drug user becoming HIV-positive is 10.2 to 22.9 times greater among consistent needle exchange program users versus non-users. Frequent users were 2.2 to 3.9 times more likely and infrequent users had about the same risk as non-users. It is notable that needle exchange program users tend to be the more hard core drug users. Could it be that the illnesses they experience are due to the completely unregulated substances that they regularly inject into their veins?
International Development Policy — In a rarified and politically correct discussion of African health policy, which always ends with Western NGOs demanding more money to save Africa (which somehow never happens), Rethinking AIDS board member Helen Lauer addresses the reality that Health SWAT teams and vaccines aren’t going to solve the development problems of Africa. If Africans don’t get access to simple things like clean water, no high tech health interventions can bring real change. While the discussion is mostly about Ebola, it equally applies to AIDS and other epidemics blamed on infectious agents ignoring all signs of social, environmental and economic factors.
January 2016 — A review of Joan Shenton's book, Positively False: Exposing the Myths around HIV and AIDS:
February 24, 2015 — The highest U.S. military court's reversal of a Kansas airman's aggravated assault conviction for exposing multiple sex partners to HIV at swinger parties in Wichita will effectively end such prosecutions in the armed forces, his attorney said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces unanimously ruled Monday that prosecutors failed to prove that any of David Gutierrez's acts were likely to transmit HIV to his partners. That decision overturns a 25-year precedent that had allowed military personnel to be convicted of aggravated assault solely on the basis of a positive HIV test, attorney Kevin McDermott said Tuesday. Gutierrez was not accused of infecting anyone with HIV.
