Duesberg hypothesis

From TheBestLinks.com

The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim that recreational and pharmaceutical drug abuse, and not HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), is the primary cause of AIDS. AIDS is taken to be a name for a group of unrelated diseases caused by abuse of recreational drugs such as heroin and cocaine, malnutrition, and/or DNA chain terminator drugs such as AZT that are frequently prescribed to fight HIV infection, whereas HIV is seen as an opportunistic passenger virus, thereby bringing into question the issue of whether HIV infection ever actually occurs.

Proponents of the Duesberg hypothesis

The most prominent defenders of this theory are virologist Peter Duesberg and biochemist David Rasnick.

In support of the Duesberg hypothesis, Duesberg points to a statistical correlation between decreases in recreational drug use and decreases in reported AIDS cases. Likewise, the rapid increase of AIDS in the 1980s corresponded to epidemics of recreational drug use in the United States and Europe. Moreover, Duesberg asserts that treating AIDS with drugs such as AZT has proven to be more fatal than the recreational use of drugs such as heroin and cocaine. AZT is also problematic in that it induces abortion, generates birth defects, and causes cancer in animals born to AZT-treated mothers. Because of problems with AZT treatment, most AIDS patients are now treated with a cocktail of protease inhibitor and transcriptase inhibitor drugs. However, these drug cocktails fail to work in 53% of reported cases.

Duesberg explains the prevalence of AIDS among male homosexuals in Western countries such as the United States by pointing to the prevalence of recreational drug use among male homosexuals in such countries. As reported in medical literature, male homosexuals in such countries use a great deal of sexual stimulants, including "poppers" (nitrate inhalants), amphetamines, ethyl chloride, cocaine, and heroin. Many of these drugs are known to inhibit the functioning of the body's immune system.

Duesberg also points to the fact that a significant number of AIDS victims die without any trace of HIV infection, and that reported AIDS cases in Africa, where no attempt is made to test for HIV infection, are not limited to risk groups such as drug addicts and male homosexuals. According to Duesberg, these AIDS cases are more readily explained by malnutrition, parasitic infection, and poor sanitation.

Duesberg's most radical challenge to the HIV-AIDS hypothesis is his offer to infect himself with HIV. However, it is not possible for him to do so without the approval of the American National Institutes of Health and the university where he works. Moreover, there are already some one million HIV-positive people in the United States without any AIDS symptoms, as well as some 34 million otherwise healthy people who test HIV-positive throughout the world.

Opponents of the Duesberg hypothesis

The current consensus in the scientific community is that the Duesberg hypothesis has been refuted by the huge mass of available evidence, showing that Koch's postulates have been fulfilled by HIV, that virus numbers in the blood correlate with disease progression and that a plausible mechanism for HIV's action has been proposed.

An issue of Science which evaluated Duesberg's methods and claims found that

it is abundantly evident that HIV causes disease and death in hemophiliacs
the AIDS epidemic in Thailand cited by Duesberg as confirming his theories in fact is evidence tending to confirm the role of HIV in AIDS.
AZT and illicit drug use, contrary to Duesberg's claims, do not cause an immune deficiency to or similar to that seen in AIDS

Warren Winkelstein Jr., a Berkeley AIDS researcher, characterized Duesberg's continued publicizing of his theory as "irresponsible, with terribly serious consequences".

Helene Gayle, who was associate director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) office in Washington, D.C., characterized Duesberg's message as "very damaging" to AIDS prevention projects.

Martin Delaney, of Project Inform, has been an active opponent of Duesberg's "continuing public campaign" "to convince the public, people at risk of HIV infection, and people already infected that they are in no danger from this virus, that AIDS is solely a behavioral disease, and that current treatments for the disease and recreational drug abuse are in fact the cause of the disease."

Science's special news report, which followed a 3-month investigation, found that "Mainstream AIDS researchers argue that Duesberg's arguments are constructed by selective reading of the scientific literature, dismissing evidence that contradicts his theses, requiring impossibly definitive proof, and dismissing outright studies marked by inconsequential weaknesses."