AIDS post-HIV : beat of a different drummer - AltHeal

nicated by our current HIV tests and the
i m p rovement of our disease surveillance
system.” The working party led by Pro f e s s o r
Mhlongo, and including Australian biophysicist
Eleni Eleopulos and colleague Dr Va l e n d a r
Turner, Dr Harvey Bialy, with Dr Helene Gayle of
P retoria had seen little exchange between the
panelists of differing scientific and medical views
via the confidential Government website established
for the purpose. Noting that some scientists
had nonetheless made extensive contributions,
which had mostly gone unanswere d ,
Tshabalala-Msimang commented that
those who had worked tirelessly “will
not be betrayed”. The scientific
website contributions of Eleni
Eleopulos’ Perth Group, of Dr Roberto
Giraldo, of Prof Etienne de Harven and
Prof. Gordon Stewart, and various other
‘AIDS dissidents’ were implied. Plans
w e re announced to make public the
contents of the web discourses in due
course.
Science journalists Neville Hodgkinson from UK, former
medical and science correspondent, the Sunday Ti m e s,
London, and South African Anita Allen confer in the hotel
foyer
the US Centres for Disease Control, and Pro f .
William Makgobe of the South African Medical
Research Council and others Panelists willing to
continue working, have accepted re s p o n s i b i l i t y
for historic experiments to attempt to purify, or
isolate, HIV, and to examine the consequential
issues of the accuracy of all so-called HIV-testing
methodologies. Virus isolation is the thorn in the
foot of the HIV/AIDS marching machine - it has
never been achieved by conventional standards.
Until the mid-1970s, virus isolation used to mean
separating virus particles from everything in the
cell culture that is not virus, and producing an
e l e c t ro m i c rograph of the resulting purified particles.
It’s then not very difficult for virologists to
analyse the particles’ proteins and genetic
material, and to test for infectivity. It’s a care f u l
process however, because all experts agree that
there are abundant particles in nature and in cell
cultures, that in many respects resemble viruses,
but are not. Only once these steps are successfully
completed can any other tests be evaluated
for accuracy.
The two day meeting had begun on a sharp note.
The Health Minister in her opening address noted
that the 6 weeks since the first meeting in
The Panel Secretariat of four civil
servants, thrust into the unchartere d
job of co-ordinating the workings of the
Panel and preparing the report for
P resident Mbeki, was there f o re faced
with the necessity to stimulate debate,
in a way which had not occurred so far.
The structure favoured by the
S e c retariat and implemented by
Canadian Prof. Owen, again the
M o d e r a t o r, allowed for re p re s e n t a t i v e s
of opposing views to speak for half an
hour about their views and data,
including on-screen visual material,
a round the issues set down by the Secre t a r i a t :
(1) aetiology, (2) prevention (3) treatment (4) HIV
testing and surveillance. Following each presentation
there would be approximately half an hour
allowed for two-minute comments on the
presentation from other Panelists.
To begin, a young South African virologist Dr.
C a rolyn Williamson replaced South African Pro f
Hoosen Coovadia, Chairman of the Durban AIDS
C o n f e rence, opening the proceedings with a
s t a n d a rd explanation of the HIV- c a u s e s - A I D S
theory, without proofs, and distinguished mostly
by the puzzling claim that in AIDS “the cause is
neither necessary nor sufficient” for the illness.
She appeared at a loss to defend this statement
against the question, “How then, is it the
cause”, except to say she had been instructed
to include the statement. Such are the unfathomable
pre s s u res on ambitious young South
African scientists, though surely she must have
misunderstood the statement.
Prof. Peter Duesberg next reiterated his condemnation
of pharmaceutical ‘anti-HIV’ drugs,
asserting that in many cases these drugs
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