Hotep!!
http://www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/3593.aspx³As to diseases, make a habit of two things-to help, or at least to do no
harm.² -Hippocrates, 5th Century B.C.E. Greek Physician, regarded as the
father of medicine.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, 42 million
people around the world are infected with HIV, and nearly 22 million people
in Africa have died of AIDS. But AIDS isn't a single disease; it's a
collection of diseases. When people are said to die of AIDS, they're known
to die of a particular disease or condition, such as pneumonia,
tuberculosis, malaria or basic malnutrition. AIDS researchers claim that HIV
plays a role in the development of these illnesses, but in spite of this
claim, 20 years of AIDS research has failed to prove causation between HIV
infection and any so-called AIDS disease (as explored in ³The AIDS Debate²
parts one and two). So why do we call them AIDS deaths?
In the US, AIDS is defined as a collection of 29 previously-known conditions
including yeast infections, hepatitis, the flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis and
Kaposi's Sarcoma. These conditions are not known to be caused by HIV.
Nevertheless, the one thing that classifies any one of these conditions as
AIDS is a positive HIV-antibody test.
But even if HIV was found to cause these previously known conditions, a
problem remains. The HIV-antibody tests do not diagnose actual
HIV-infection. Instead, they look for non-specific antibody reactions in
your blood to proteins in the HIV-test. The test manufacturers claim that
the proteins stand in for HIV, but in reality, none of the test proteins
have been proven to be specific to HIV. These tests are, in fact, so
nonspecific that they cross-react with nearly 70 other documented
conditions, including the flu, previous vaccinations, blood transfusions,
arthritis, alcoholic hepatitis, drug use, yeast infections and even
pregnancy, as well as conditions endemic in Africa: tuberculosis, parasitic
infection, leprosy and malaria. Because no HIV test can actually find HIV,
not a single HIV-test has been approved by the FDA for diagnosing
HIV-infection.
In light of this nonspecific, cross-reacting test, how does the World Health
Organization (WHO) diagnose AIDS in Africa?
Simple: they don't require any test at all. In 1985, the WHO created a new
definition of AIDS for African nations and third world countries. The WHO's
³Bangui Definition² allows Africans with common physical symptoms including
diarrhea, fever, weight loss, itching and coughing to be automatically
designated as AIDS patients, with no HIV test. But these very symptoms
define life for the majority of Africans who lack essentials like sufficient
food, safe drinking water, proper sanitation and basic medical care. These
symptoms are also synonymous with the biggest killers on the continent:
malaria, infectious diarrhea and tuberculosis.
Western AIDS organizations are working to get toxic AIDS drugs into the
hands of African governments, but what's the use of potentially deadly AIDS
pharmaceuticals to people suffering from poverty-related diseases like
chronic tuberculosis and malaria infection, or to pregnant mothers whose
blood cross-reacts with the nonspecific HIV tests?
To answer these questions, I spoke with AIDS researchers who've worked in
Africa and studied the African AIDS epidemic.
Dr. Christian Fiala is a medical doctor and specialist in obstetrics and
gynecology in Vienna. He's worked extensively in Uganda and Thailand
researching AIDS.
Dr. Rodney Richards was one of the founding scientists for the biotech
company Amgen where he helped develop some of the first HIV tests. Richards
currently works full-time researching AIDS.
The interviews were conducted separately and integrated into a dialogue.
Individual points-of-view belong to individual speakers.
How is AIDS diagnosed in Africa?
Christian Fiala: Your readers may be surprised to learn that AIDS in Africa
is diagnosed completely differently than in Europe or the US. In Africa, an
AIDS diagnosis can be made based on commonly occurring physical symptoms
alone. This is ironic, because AIDS is a collection of diseases, and has no
uniform symptoms. Even the co-founder of HIV theory, Luc Montagnier, admits
that AIDS has no specific clinical symptoms.
How was this new AIDS definition devised?
Fiala: In 1985 the WHO held a meeting in Bangui, the capital of the Central
African Republic. A WHO official, Joseph McCormick, wrote about it in his
book Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC.
He wrote: ³If I could get everyone at the WHO meeting in Bangui to agree on
a single, simple definition of what an AIDS case was in Africa, then,
imperfect as the definition might be, we could actually start counting the
cases...²
This is what's known as the Bangui Definition.
How does the Bangui definition define AIDS?
Fiala: There are two categories of symptoms, major and minor. A patient is
given an AIDS diagnosis when they have two major symptoms and one minor
symptom. The major symptoms are weight loss, chronic diarrhea and chronic
fever. The minor symptoms include coughing and generalized itching.
Let me clarify, based on the WHO's definition, if you have a fever, a cough
and diarrhea in Africa, then you have AIDS?
Fiala: That's correct.
That seems absurd.
Fiala: It is. It's more absurd when you understand how common these symptoms
are in resource-poor settings like sub-Saharan Africa. To begin with, less
than 50 percent of Africans have access to safe drinking water. Over 60
percent have no sanitation. Most African villages don't have sewage systems.
Human and animal excrements mix with the water supply. People drink this
water and ingest infectious parasites and bacteria. As a result, dysentery
is endemic.
When your intestines are full of infectious microbes, you'll likely develop
a fever. Your body will try to purge itself by expelling the bacteria as
quickly as possible. This is infectious diarrhea, and it's incredibly common
in Africa.
Diarrhea drains liquid, salts, minerals and nutrients from the body. It
weakens the immune system. When you have no safe water, you'll have diarrhea
chronically. When you have chronic diarrhea, you can't help but to lose
weight.
At this point, you've fulfilled the major symptom criteria in the African
definition for AIDS. So you need one minor symptom, like generalized itching
or coughing. In Uganda, a so-called ³AIDS epicenter,² 80 percent of houses
have floors made of packed soil or cow dung. An entire family lives on this
floor. There are, on average, seven children per family, all living in this
room. This is not what we in the US and Europe call proper housing, and it's
easy to see how a problem like ³generalized itching² might come up. At this
point, an African suffering from itching, diarrhea and weight loss should be
- according to the WHO - officially reported as an AIDS patient. The Bangui
Definition simply relabels symptoms of poverty as AIDS.
The second problem with the Bangui Definition is Tuberculosis. TB is very
widespread in Africa. It's a bacterial infection that infects the lungs. TB
is spread by coughing, and it's highly infectious. The typical symptoms of
Tuberculosis are fever, weight loss and coughing. This is exactly what is
required for an AIDS diagnosis.
So if you have Tuberculosis in Africa, you can be diagnosed with AIDS?
Fiala: That's correct. According to the WHO, the typical symptoms of TB
define AIDS in Africa.
Another problem with the Bangui Definition is malaria. Malaria is the most
widespread disease in Africa and tropical countries. It's the leading cause
of death in Uganda. It's spread by mosquitoes, so people are reinfected
several times a year. A great many people die every year, while the rest
develop a relative immunity, even though it's wearing away at them. The
symptoms of malaria include fever, weight loss and fatigue. If you have a
cough or itching, and you have malaria in Africa, you can be diagnosed with
AIDS.
As if this wasn't problematic enough, in some African countries, such as
Tanzania, health authorities have decided that a one-criteria diagnosis is
all they need. A patient exhibiting just one of the major symptoms -
diarrhea, fever or weight loss - can be given an AIDS diagnosis.
This is hardly scientific, and it's very different from what people are told
about AIDS in Africa. The idea that there should be a different kind of AIDS
for Africans or Europeans or Americans defies the scientific definition of
viral infection. A single virus doesn't cause different diseases in
different people or in different countries. A viral infection doesn't vary
so wildly so as to create pelvic cancer in women, Kaposi's sarcoma in gay
men, and tuberculosis in Africans. But this is what we're asked to believe
about HIV.
What's the treatment for TB and Malaria?
Fiala: The best treatment is prevention. The most effective way to reduce
all of these infectious diseases is to improve the standard of living and
hygiene for local residents - to provide safe, clean water; plentiful,
healthy food; proper housing and basic medical care. This is exactly how the
incidence of TB and other infectious diseases was dramatically reduced in
the US and Europe.
The treatment for malaria is well known and simple: treated mosquito nets
that protect villages; clean, safe, non-stagnant water; and the inexpensive,
highly efficient drugs that effectively fight the disease.
Why don't African Countries have clean water systems?
Fiala: You could've asked that question 100 years ago in the US and Europe.
Sewage and water systems rely on economic development. We have these things
in the West because we know they're absolutely essential, so we've invested
money and energy in them.
Many African nations don't have the money to develop this infrastructure and
modernize the villages. The money they have is being re-routed into AIDS.
These countries are being pressured by international AIDS organizations to
take money out of rural development and put it into AIDS education, condom
distribution, abstinence campaigns and toxic AIDS pharmaceuticals.
We're told that there are nearly 30 million African AIDS patients. This is
an enormous number of people. How are these cases counted?
Fiala: The United Nations AIDS organization (UNAIDS) and the WHO use various
computer modeling programs to come up with their numbers.
Rodney Richards: When you read about the millions of HIV-infected in Africa,
you may notice that the word ³estimated² precedes the number in the official
publications.
What does ³estimated² mean?
Richards: All WHO/UNAIDS reports of HIV-infection in Africa are "estimates"
based on HIV tests performed on blood samples taken at pregnancy clinics.
These global reports are created jointly by the WHO and UNAIDS.
Why is blood taken from pregnancy clinics?
Richards: In countries with little infrastructure, medical care is very
limited, and is generally reserved for the most vulnerable segment of the
population, such as infants and pregnant women. Even in the poorest
countries, there are pregnancy clinics serving expectant mothers and women
who've just given birth.
Pregnant women regularly line up at these clinics for a check-up that
includes a blood screening for syphilis. Syphilis infection is common in
many African countries, and must be treated before a baby's birth, or the
child could die or be severely damaged.
Once a year, UNAIDS researchers collect leftover blood samples from these
clinics, and test them with a single HIV-antibody test called the Elisa. The
resulting number of HIV-positive results is fed into an epidemiological
computer modeling program (Epi-model) at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. The
Epi-model program then extrapolates the HIV-positive test results onto the
entire population - young and old; men, women and children. When we hear
about the number of people infected with HIV, it's this number that's being
reported.
How do reported numbers of HIV-infection correspond to actual number of
people tested?
Richards: The WHO/UNAIDS tells us that there are currently 30 million
HIV-positive Africans, yet less than one in a thousand of these people have
ever been tested. In South Africa, the WHO/UNAIDS reports 5 million people
are infected with HIV, but this number is based on only 4,000 actual
HIV-positive test results from pregnant women.
But even these positive test results are hardly indicative of HIV-infection.
The HIV-antibody tests used in these surveys are known to come up positive
based on cross-reactions with antibodies produced from malaria, TB and
parasitic infection - all common conditions in Africa. The test
manufacturers themselves warn that pregnancy is a known cause of false
positives.
Fiala: Testing pregnant women for HIV-infection is a self-fulfilling
prophecy, but pregnant women are the only people regularly tested for
HIV-infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
We're told that 28 million people worldwide and 22 million Africans have
died of AIDS. How are AIDS deaths counted in Africa?
Richards: AIDS deaths are also estimates. The number of deaths is projected
from the Epi-model estimate of HIV-infections. It is assumed that if a
certain number of people are HIV-infected, then a certain number will die of
AIDS. This assumption is based on what researchers know historically about
disease progression in AIDS patients, primarily from studies done on
HIV-positive IV drug abusers and male homosexuals in the US and Europe.
Are these numbers accurate?
Richards: No, the numbers have been greatly inflated. For example, the
WHO/UNAIDS says that there has been 2.2 million AIDS deaths in Uganda so
far, but the Ugandan Ministry of Health records a cumulative total of only
56,000 AIDS deaths since the beginning of the epidemic. The WHO's report is
33 times higher than the actual number of recorded, verified deaths.
As of the end of 2001, official government bodies in the developing world
have managed to account for only 7 percent of the cumulative AIDS deaths
that the WHO/UNAIDS claim have occurred. The Russian Federation can only
account for only 3 percent of the UNAIDS estimate of AIDS deaths. India has
2 percent of the UNAIDS estimate. China has only 1 percent.
If I understand correctly, the number of people we're told have HIV and AIDS
in Africa is actually an inaccurate computer extrapolation based on test
results from non-specific, cross-reacting antibody tests given to pregnant
women?
Fiala: That's correct.
And the number of AIDS deaths in Africa is a projection based on the
previous estimation, and is also greatly inflated?
Richards: That is also correct.
What does an AIDS diagnosis mean for an African with TB or malaria?
Fiala: In many African clinics, basic medical supplies like antibiotics are
extremely limited. A clinic may only have 10 bottles of antibiotics. AIDS
patients are frequently refused antibiotic treatment, because it's assumed
that they'll die, no matter what. Western doctors have made it clear that
AIDS is a fatal disease. Helping them is considered a waste of scarce
resources.
What's the main AIDS organization in Uganda?
Fiala: TASO - The AIDS Support Organisation. They claim to be independent,
but they're heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry. They're currently
constructing buildings to prepare the ground for massive HIV testing, with
this non-specific, cross-reacting test, and to distribute toxic AIDS drugs.
In Africa, 50 percent of the population has no access to clean drinking
water and the vast majority lack even basic medical care. And the response
from multimillion dollar AIDS organization is to promote HIV testing, give
out condoms and to implement treatment with deadly AIDS drugs. These drugs
are similar or identical to chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment.
They work by stopping cell growth. They kill your body from the inside out.
Which AIDS drugs are being used in Africa?
Fiala: Boehringer, a pharmaceutical company, has been doing studies in
Uganda with a drug called Nevirapine. The FDA refused approval of Nevirapine
in the US for so-called mother to child transmission because it's
ineffective and has deadly side effects, but this is exactly how the drug is
being used in Africa - on pregnant women and unborn children.
In one drug trial, 17 percent of patients taking Nevirapine developed liver
problems. A US health care worker taking Nevirapine had to have a liver
transplant to save his life as a result of drug toxicity. Five women in
South Africa died and dozens developed severe liver problems in a
combination AIDS drug trial that included Nevirapine.
The manufacturer's warning label for Nevirapine itself states that patients
taking the drug have experienced: ³Severe, life-threatening and in some
cases fatal hepatotoxicity [liver damage],² and ³severe, life-threatening
skin reactions, including fatal cases.²
These are the most toxic drugs known to medicine, and they're being applied
to the most vulnerable part of the population - pregnant mothers, unborn
children and newborns - all based on a faulty test, or no test at all, while
their actual food, shelter and water needs continue to be ignored.
What would actually help Africans is infrastructure development: proper
sanitation, safe water, basic medical care and plentiful, nutritive food.
This is simple, clear and logical. What's astounding is that the UN is
recommending just the opposite.
In 1999 the UNAIDS commission gave its official recommendations to a meeting
of finance ministers representing various African countries. The UN's exact
recommendations to African nations: to redirect billions of dollars from
health, infrastructure and rural development into AIDS - condoms, safe sex
lectures and deadly pharmaceuticals. This is not what these already
suffering people need to be healthy and successful. This is exactly how to
propagate death, disease and poverty.
Afterword:
If the AIDS story in Africa feels like a parody of a bureaucratic blunder,
take note: In April of this year, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
announced a new HIV testing strategy for the United States. Rather than
relying on voluntary HIV-testing, federal officials are urging the testing
of all pregnant women in the US, and are implementing measures to make
HIV-testing a routine part of hospital visits. The CDC is promoting a rapid
HIV-test for use in all federally funded clinics, as well as homeless
shelters, prisons and substance abuse treatment centers.
The HIV-antibody tests are known to cross-react with antibodies produced
during pregnancy, drug abuse and nearly 70 other common conditions, and no
HIV test is FDA approved to diagnose HIV infection. The standard medical
treatment for HIV infection is a combination of the most toxic drugs ever
manufactured.
³The AIDS Debate² series has explored the scientific and sociological
process that formed HIV theory, and the ramifications of a speculative
theory enforced upon a trusting, uninformed public.
We must ask ourselves, are we doing the best we can for sick people? Is the
best we can offer impoverished Africans AZT and Nevirapine? Is the best we
can do for drug-addicted mothers is force more drugs into their system? And
what about people unlucky enough to register HIV positive on these
scientifically unvalidated tests. Do they deserve to be told that they have
a fatal illness?
³As to diseases, make a habit of two things-to help, or at least to do no
harm."
As for human beings, one thing's for sure. We can always do better.
=====
This is the last in a series ofpowerful, concise, and highly informative articles written for the Weekly
Dig by Boston journalist Liam Scheff.
Liam's commitment to covering the issue does not end here: The next story he
will tell is that of a New York mother whose adopted children were taken
away after doctors reported "suspected lack of compliance" in administering
their prescribed AIDS drugs regimen. Both children were remanded to a group
foster home for HIV positive minors where young people who refuse their
drugs are force fed treatments through surgically installed
gastro-intestinal tubes.
In approaching the organization Alive and Well - AIDS Alternatives for help, this woman told them of a 12
year-old former resident of the group home who died of an AIDS-drug induced
stroke.
Alive & Well's best efforts to assist her legal battle have failed to gain
back custody of her children, I approached Liam with the idea of sharing her
harrowing and heartbreaking experiences with the public through an article.
Courageously, he's agreed and is shopping for a publication to run it.
Please support reporting on the untold issues of AIDS with a letter to the
editor of the Weekly Dig. Your notes will encourage more coverage of this
topic. Write your letters to: