NEW COLUMN REGUSH (DEC '00)

"It was only a matter of time. But sadly, it has taken the federal government and so-called AIDS �experts� four years to do a flip-flop on what has become conventional AIDS treatment." A new column by Nicholas Regush for abcnews.com.

MBEKI-BASHING (DEC. '00)

"The year 2000 saw the birth of a new international sport. It became known as Mbeki-bashing. Newspapers, broadcast media, doctors and scientists, charities, UN agencies, financial institutions and politicians even up to the level of the White House joined in the fun." Read the article by Neville Hodgkinson for New African

See also this article by Baffour Ankomah, and this other article from New African.

GARRETT INTERVIEWS GESHEKTER ( '01)

"Laurie Garrett of Newsday interviewed African History Professor Charles Geshekter. Garrett is one of the world�s most influential AIDS reporters; Geshekter is an outspoken critic of press reports that describe an African epidemic of sexually transmitted "AIDS." Read the interview.

GERMAN PROF QUESTIONS ISOLATION (DEC. '00)

"During the past 20 years HIV-AIDS research has shown to a line of critical scientists again and again that the existence of HIV has not been proven without doubt, and that both from a aetiological (causal), and a epidemiological view, it can not be responsible for the immunodeficiency AIDS. In view of the general accepted HIV/AIDS hypothesis this appeared to me so unbelievably that I decided to investigate it myself. After three years of intensive and, above all, critical studies of the relevant original literature, as an experienced virologist and molecular biologist I came to the following surprising conclusion: Up to today there is actually no single scientifically really convincing evidence for the existence of HIV. Not even once such a retrovirus has been isolated and purified by the methods of classical virology."

Dr. Heinz Ludwig S�nger, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Virology and a former director of the Department of Viroid Research at the Max-Planck-Institutes for Biochemy near M�nchen, wrote a letter (in German) to the S�ddeutsche Zeitung. Prof. S�nger was in 1978 rewarded with the prestigious Robert Koch Award. He also wrote the foreword (in German) for the book 'Mythos HIV' written by the German journalist Michael Leitner.

DRUG EFFECTS UNDER REPORTED (DEC. '00)

"Investigators at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, found that the overall prevalence of indinavir-caused [kidney] stones was 28% -- seven times higher than the 4% manufacturers claim in the product insert." Read the Reuters report.

AIDS ACTIVISTS (DEC. '00)

"Kai Thorup doesn�t believe HIV causes AIDS. Nor does the 28-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident believe AIDS is an infectious disease, or that the drugs doctors prescribe to keep it at bay do anything more than make you very sick." Read more about this AIDS activist in this article from Citylink.

FDA ON TRIAL (DEC '00)

"Once a wary watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration set out to become a "partner" of the pharmaceutical industry. Today, the public has more remedies, but some are proving lethal." Read the articles from the Los Angeles Times.

NO MORE COCKTAILS (DEC. '00)

"Four years of "hit hard, hit early" HIV treatment may be on the way out in the US, as evidence mounts of the drugs' serious side effects." Read the article from New Scientist.

UNRELIABLE HIV TESTS (NOV. '00)

"The use of an HIV-1 RNA assay as a diagnostic tool in patients suspected of having acute retroviral syndrome may lead to a significant number of false-positive results in a large patient population, according to Texas-based researchers." See this Reuters report.

Read more about the HIV tests.

DRUG HOLIDAYS (NOV. '00)

A new monkey study published in Science supports the finding that treatment interruptions help the immune system. See this report from USA Today.

BURDEN OF PROOF (NOV. '00)

"The controversy about whether the human immunodeficiency virus causes AIDS has opened up a potential legal loophole, according to the authors of an article in the current edition of the South African law journal, De Rebus." See also this SAPA report.

AIDS SCIENCE CORRUPTED (NOV. '00)

"Researchers say the biotech company that funded their study tried to put a positive spin on the results, then, when that failed, attempted to block publication altogether." See this article from the Boston Globe, and this one from the San Francisco Chronicle. See also this AP report, and this item also from AP.

HIV DISBELIEVERS (NOV. '00)

"To many, it seems improbable. Thoroughly wild. Heresy even. But 20 years after the first gay men died from the condition we now know as AIDS, a growing chorus of people have banded together to question the very basis of the epidemic itself." Read this article from Sacramento News and Review.

CHOMSKY DEBATES AIDS (NOV. '00)

Noam Chomsky has been discussing the related subjects of AIDS, medical research, and the controversy surrounding President Mbeki of South Africa on the Z magazine website. Mike Chappelle has written to him, arguing against his position. Read the exchange.

PRESIDENT BACKS OFF? (OCT. '00)

"President Thabo Mbeki has told the ANC's highest decision-making body that he is withdrawing from the public debate on the science of HIV and AIDS," reports the SA Sunday Times. But Mbeki declared he was "still in debate", according to this article from SAPA.

Update: SAPA reports The President "re-opened the debate".

DEATH BY PRESCRIPTION (OCT. '00)

Vivienne Vermaak makes documentaries for African TV. In her latest report she is exposing South Africa's Kalafong AIDS drug trials. Read the transcript.

ZIMBABWEAN DISSENT (OCT. '00)

"Some Zimbabwean scientists have started questioning whether the human immuno deficiency virus (HIV) is the sole cause of AIDS." Read the article from South Africa's Financial Gazette.

INTERVIEW DAVE RASNICK (OCT. '00)

"Recently, South African president Thabo Mbeki sought out AIDS dissident Dr. David Rasnick to offer alternative views regarding his nation's epidemic." Read the interview Gene Mahoney made for the San Francisco Herald.

BETTER ON FEWER PILLS (OCT. '00)

"Based on an analysis of more than 3,000 patients involved in triple-drug combination trials to treat HIV infection, researchers at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., say that patients who take fewer pills tend to do better than those who have more complex medication regimens." See this report from USA Today.

MBEKI VS. DRUGS INC. (OCT '00)

At a 'closed' ANC meeting "President Thabo Mbeki has accused the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of working with drugs manufacturers to promote the link between the HIV virus and AIDS to boost profits." See this BBC article, this article from the Mail and Guardian, and this one from South Africa's The Sunday Times.

Mbeki "said one of the big drug companies (which he did not name) had confessed to him that it had wasted vast amounts of money trying to produce an anti-AIDS vaccine but had given up after it had failed to isolate the HI virus; but this company was hiding this fact in order to prevent its share price falling through the floor." (Mail and Guardian)

See also this SAPA report, about bugs in South African parliament.

ANC BACKS MBEKI (OCT '00)

"A senior official of South Africa's ruling African National Congress stoked more controversy over AIDS by backing President Thabo Mbeki's view that the disease could not be caused by a single virus." says this Reuters article. Read the article by Smuts Ngonyama from Business Day. And see this article from AFP, and this one from SAPA.

DR. KREMER ANSWERS QUESTIONS (SEPT '00)

Heinrich Kremer M.D. was Medical Director of the Federal Clinics for Juvenile and Young Adult Drug Offenders for five German counties, including Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg. Dr. Kremer has been studying AIDS since 1988, and has been member of Prof. Alfred Hässig's Study Group Nutrition and Immunity.

In this article he answers questions about AZT, raised by South Africa�s President Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshambalala-Msimang earlier this year. In this article he answers some more questions, and explains more about his nitric oxide research.

REPLIES TO DURBAN DECLARATION (SEPT '00)

Nature has published a respons to the Durban Declaration (see also below), signed by several dissident scientists. A reply by the Perth Group was rejected by Nature.

See also this rebuttal by Robert Johnston, Matt Irwin and David Crowe.

ACT UP SF UNDER FIRE (SEPT '00)

AIDS Inc. started a campaign against Act Up San Francisco. See this report from Reuters, and this item from AP. Read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, and this one from San Francisco Examiner. And see their reply, a full-page ad.

See also this portrait of Act Up SF from POZ, and this article by Act Up's David Pasquarelli and Michael Bellefountaine.

TIME INTERVIEWS MBEKI (SEPT '00)

Time interviewed President Thabo Mbeki. "TIME: Are you prepared to acknowledge that there is a link between HIV and AIDS? Mbeki: No, I am saying that you cannot attribute immune deficiency solely and exclusively to a virus..." Read the interview. See also this report by Reuters, and this article from South Africa's The Star. Read about his remarks to parliament too.

DISSIDENT SYMPOSIUM UGANDA (SEPT '00)

An International Holistic AIDS Conference was held at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi, Uganda, involving delegates from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Irish Republic, United Kingdom, Australia and United States of America. See this announcement from AFP, and this statement. See also this story from South Africa's Mail and Guardian, and this report from SAPA.

WE'LL TAKE YOUR KIDS! (SEPT. '00)

"Jane Doe in Montreal refuses to give toxic, lifelong medication to her two healthy sons, and loses custody of them. Another woman in Montreal hears this and decides to have an abortion." Read this article by David Crowe of the Alberta Reappraising AIDS Society, Canada.

RIGHT TO BREAST-FEEDING (AUG '00)

A joined statement by International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, International Forum for Accessible Science (IFAS), Joint Action Council Kannur (JACK) India and Integrated Science for African Community 2000 (ISAC2000) Kenya and Mothering magazine, USA, was made before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Read more about breastfeeding and HIV.

NEW ARTICLES DR. GIRALDO (AUG '00)

Roberto Giraldo M.D. is a specialist in internal medicine, infectious and tropical diseases, and an independent AIDS researcher. He is living in New York City, is the current president of The Group, and member of Mbeki's advisory panel. Read this new article by him about cofactors and AIDS, and this article about the origin of the 'transmission' of AIDS

THE SOUTH AFRICAN "EPIDEMIC" (AUG '00)

The president of South Africa's Medical Research Council, Prof. William Makgoba presented new evidence for a South African AIDS epidemic to Mbeki's panel. See this article from SA's Sunday Times. See also this reply by Noseweek.

"Melanie is doing a project for school on AIDS. She and a classmate have to look at facilities and the cost of running these in the JHB area (South Africa). They were doing a video on this, and you can't believe just how difficult its been to get someone willing to be video taped by grade 9 students - for a class project." Read the e-mail sent by Melanie's mother to Leon Louw.

NEWSWEEK SLAMMED MAGGIORE (AUG '00)

Newsweek did an interview with Alive and Well's Christine Maggiore. See also Maggiore's reply.

Read also this report about Christine's San Francisco meeting.

SUPPORT FROM U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE (JULY '00)

U.S. Senate candidate Rick Lazio has been aggressively lobbying the federal government on behalf of a fringe group that claims AIDS isn't caused by the HIV virus, says the New York Post in this article. See also this article by Newsday.

NEW STUDIES CONFIRM HAART FAILURE (JULY '00)

"Triple therapy for HIV-infected patients, including regimens containing a protease inhibitor, do not have any unique effects on CD4 cell counts independent of reductions in plasma viral load, according to findings reported in the July issue of AIDS." See this Reuters report.

"There's no hope for a cure for AIDS with current drugs, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said at the 13th International AIDS Conference. ''Eradication is not possible,'' Anthony Fauci said." Read more in this article from Biotechnology Newswatch, and see this Reuters report.

See also this comment on drug holidays by Prof. Peter Duesberg.

Update: an article from AP, and an article, and another one, from Reuters. See also this article from the New York Times.

SPERMICIDE WORSENS RISK (JULY '00)

"Researchers hoping to find a way for women to protect themselves from AIDS have said they were dismayed to find that a product they thought may prevent infection actually increased the risk." See this Reuters report. See also this article from Wall Street Journal.

PANEL PRESENTATIONS (JULY '00)

Prof. Peter Duesberg is a member of the South African government advisory panel on AIDS. Read his presentation about the South African AIDS "epidemic", presented at the second panel meeting in Pretoria.

The Perth Group does also participate in the presidential panel. Read their presentation about "HIV Testing and Surveillance".

Update: The contributions made by Dr. David Rasnick.

MBEKI-BASHING CIRCUS (JULY '00)

President Mbeki opened the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban. "As I listened and heard the whole story about our own country, it seemed to me that we could not blame everything on a single virus." Watch part one / part two of his opening speech (Real player needed), or read it. See also this report from Reuters. Of the 10.000 people who attended the opening session, "hundreds walked out" during Mbeki's speech, lies the Washington Post. Scientists behind the socalled "Durban Declaration" (see below) had been due to hold a news conference before the start of the conference but it was canceled. See this article from the New York Times by EIS correspondent Lawrence Altman. Health Minister "Manto Tshabalala-Msimang... said South Africa was a proud nation that would devise its own health policies and would not bend to pressure to conform to the expectations of the industrialised world." See this SAPA report. "Thabo Mbeki... is fiddling while his country dies", writes CNN-Time. The conference has become a "Mbeki-bashing circus", says this SAPA article. "The President of this country is a man of great intellect who takes scientific thinking very seriously and he leads a government that I know to be committed to those principles of science and reason," said former president Nelson Mandela at the conference closing address. See also this Time Magazine article, this article from the Ghanaian Chronicle, this article from South Africa's Citizen, and this Reuters article.

DUESBERG ON DEMOCRACY NOW (JULY '00)

Listen (Real player needed) Prof. Peter Duesberg and Dr. Costa Gazi, head of the Department of Public Health at Cecilia Makiwene Hospital in South Africa, discuss AIDS on Democracy Now, WBAI/Pacifica radio.

DISSIDENTS IN DURBAN (JULY '00)

Activists started a hungers strike in front of the congres hall to demand proof of the existence of "HIV". See their press releases.

Other dissidents held a press meeting "Breaking the Science: A 30-Minute Reality Check" (see announcement), it was disrupted by drug promotors, see this SAPA report.

NEW ARTICLE HODGKINSON (JULY '00)

Neville Hodgkinson, formerly medical and science correspondent of the London Sunday Times, is the author of AIDS: The Failure of Contemporary Science. He was an observer at last week's hearing of the AIDS Advisory Panel. An new article by him was printed in South Africa's the Sunday Independent.

PERTH GROUP VS. PROF. MAKGOBA (JULY '00)

The Perth Group had some e-mail exchange with Prof. William Makgoba, President of South Africa's Medical Research Council. Prof. Makgoba is, like the Perth Group, member of President Mbeki's advisory panel. Read the exchange.

DIRTY TRICKS PHARMA INDUSTRY (JULY '00)

"Evidence of dirty tricks in the AIDS drug campaign emerged... after a top pharmaceutical company admitted to funding an activist group that has been aggressively lobbying for greater access to drugs to treat the disease." Read the SAPA story.

CONTROVERSY OVER BREASTFEEDING (JULY '00)

Many AIDS experts still belief HIV positive mothers should not breastfeed their child, but not all researchers agree on this, as became clear during a debate on this issue in Durban. See this article from the Toronto Star. "This controversy has enforced the suspicion by lay people, especially here in Africa, that the experts may not know very much..."

Read more about breastfeeding and HIV.

INTERVIEW PROF. SAM MHLONGO (JULY '00)

Prof. Mhlongo is Chief Family Practitioner and Head of Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care in South Africa. He is also a member of President Mbeki's advisory panel. Joan Shenton did two short interviews with him for New African. "I am as confident as I was when I left South Africa in 1963 that one day we will defeat apartheid. I feel AIDS - and I�m not talking about HIV - AIDS would be defeated in Africa just as much as serious infectious diseases were defeated in Europe."

HIV CAUSES SEX, ALMOST... (JULY '00)

"Infection with the AIDS virus could make men more amorous, which could make them more likely to pass on the virus, United States researchers said..." See this Reuters report.

ACCIDENTS & VIOLENCE KILL, NOT HIV (JULY '00)

"The [South African] Home Affairs Department has denied blaming HIV/AIDS for a significant rise in the number of deaths of South Africans younger than 50 over the past 10 years... South African adults overwhelmingly die of accidents and violence." See the SAPA story.

MBEKI DEBATES AIDS (JULY '00)

President Mbeki discusses AIDS with Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Party, and member of the South African Parliament.. "The cost of AIDS in human lives is too high to allow that we become blind defenders of the faith." The discussion was published in SA's Sunday Times.

PANEL QUESTIONS RELIABILITY TESTS (JULY '00)  

The panel advising the South African government, met for the second time. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang opend the follow-up meeting in Durban. See this article from Reuters.

The panel concluded that there is no scientific data to validate the ELISA antibody tests. New studies will be setup to validate the reliability of these tests. See this Reuters report, this article from the New York Times, this SAPA article, this article from AFP, and this article from Village Voice. Read also this diary by a panel member.

See also this MuM press release, and this open letter by Anita Allen, this report from Huw Christi, and these interviews by Mark Conlan.

CONFESSION OF FAITH (JULY '00)

Scientists and doctors from around the world have started signing an e-mail, by Simon Wain-Hobson from the Institut Pasteur, which states that "the evidence that AIDS is caused by HIV-1 or HIV-2 is clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous." This confession of faith is being marketed as "The Durban Declaration", and has been published in Nature.

See this article from AFP, this article from Reuters, this article from the Washington Post, and this article from the New York Times.

A first reaction by the South African government can be found in this article from Reuters, and this article form SAPA. See this article for a second reaction.

A new dissident website has been set up with a rebuttal written by Robert Johnston, Matt Irwin, and David Crowe. See also this press release by MuM, and the latest column by Nicholas Regush.

GLOBAL BLACKMAIL (JULY '00)

"No wonder the president of South Africa is worried. Mbeki's stand may be only the beginning -- a groundswell of fierce resistance to global AIDS policy, from developing nations who might choose to view it as blackmail." An article by Patricia Nell Warren.