AIDS origins opposed to scientific consensus
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- This article contains hypotheses not supported by scientific evidence. For current scientifically based hypotheses, see AIDS origin.
AIDS origins opposed to scientific consensus are claims or hypotheses about the origins and/or nature of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS that differ radically from the scientific consensus.
These alternative ideas range from suggestions that AIDS was the inadvertent result of experiments in the development of vaccines, to claims that HIV was developed by scientists working for the U.S. government. While a few reputable mainstream scientists once investigated some of these theories as reasonable hypotheses, this is no longer the case, as continuing research has invalidated the alternative ideas. Recent evidence indicates that AIDS originated in Africa in the mid 1930s from the closely related Simian immunodeficiency virus, today found in monkeys and chimpanzees. (see AIDS origin).
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[edit] Man-made or iatrogenic origins of AIDS
- Edward Hooper, a former BBC correspondent, has advanced the "contaminated polio vaccine" theory for the origins of HIV and AIDS. In his book, The River,[1] Hooper suggests that HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a mutation or variant of, or the result of animal-to-human transmission of, SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), a virus found in the chimpanzee. He states that Hilary Koprowski, a virologist working for Philadelphia's Wistar Research Institute, allegedly used hastily concocted chimpanzee kidney culture medium from a Stanleyville research laboratory to create millions of doses of oral polio vaccine for a mass vaccination program in the Belgian colony of the Belgian Congo. Hooper alleges that Koprowski compromised safety in what he considers to be a single-minded drive to beat Salk and Sabin in developing the first commercially-available polio vaccine.
- Scientific research has found no support for the OPV hypothesis, and scientific consensus has rejected the hypothesis. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that HIV originated in the late 19th or early 20th century,[2] well before the oral polio vaccine was distributed in the late 1950s. Independent laboratories have tested archived samples of Koprowski's vaccine and found no evidence of contaminating SIV or HIV. Other molecular tests have found no evidence that chimpanzee cells were used to make the vaccine.[3][4] Scientists have also questioned whether any HIV contaminating an oral vaccine could cause sufficient infection to support an epidemic, given the protective lining of the digestive tract.
- In an interview by Time magazine with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and environmental activist Wangari Maathai, it was alleged that Maathai had said that "AIDS is a biological weapon manufactured by the developed world to wipe out the black race".[5] Maathai subsequently rejected that in a written statement issued in December 2004: "I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive."[6]
- Jakob Segal, a former biology professor at Humboldt University in communist East Germany, proposed that HIV was engineered at a U.S. military laboratory at Fort Detrick, by splicing together two other viruses, Visna and HTLV-1. According to his theory, the new virus, created between 1977 and 1978, was tested on prison inmates who had volunteered for the experiment in exchange for early release. He further suggested that it was through these prisoners that the virus was spread to the population at large. He has been accused, however, by KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin as having been disseminating disinformation on behalf of the Soviet Union.[7]
- Alan Cantwell, in self-published books entitled AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic and Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot, says that HIV is a genetically modified organism developed by U.S. Government scientists and that it was introduced into the population through Hepatitis B experiments performed on gay and bisexual men between 1978–1981 in major U.S. cities. Cantwell claims that these experiments were directed by Wolf Szmuness, and that there was an ongoing government cover-up of the origins of the AIDS epidemic. Similar theories have been advanced by Robert B. Strecker, Matilde Krim and Milton William Cooper.
- Leonard G. Horowitz, author of the self-published works Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola. Nature, Accident or Intentional? and Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare, advances the theory that the AIDS virus was engineered by such U.S. Government defense contractors as Litton Bionetics for the purposes of bio-warfare and "population control."
[edit] Alternative ideas regarding causation, origin or treatment
See also: AIDS denialism
- The Duesberg hypothesis promoted by biologist Peter Duesberg argues that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but rather that HIV is a harmless passenger virus, and that AIDS is caused by non-infectious agents like illegal drug usage.[8] The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis has been discredited.[9]
- Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa, along with other prominent members of the ruling African National Congress party, has argued that AIDS is the result of poverty, chronic disease, malnutrition and other environmental factors.[10] Mbeki based his views on the discredited beliefs of AIDS denialists, especially Peter Duesberg. It has been suggested that the ANC leadership adopted this position as a political expedient, intended to deflect criticism that the ANC had not done enough to fight AIDS in South Africa.[11]
In 2000, two statements by government spokespeople, (one later retracted), placed the financial cost of treating pregnant HIV positive women and the subsequent cost to the state of raising the child as central in the decision of whether to provide anti-retroviral drug treatment.[12] Also in 2000, the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian reported that in a leaked text for a speech Mbeki was to give to an ANC caucus, Mbeki claimed that the CIA and Western drug companies were secretly promoting the view that HIV causes AIDS in order to increase sales of anti-AIDS drugs.[13] According to former US President Jimmy Carter, Mbeki once told him that giving antiretroviral drugs to pregnant mothers to prevent HIV transmission was "a plot of white people against black people."[14] An estimated 330,000 premature deaths and 35,000 preventable infections of infants are attributed to the denialist policies of the Mbeki administration.[15]
- Paul Farmer, physician, anthropologist, and author of AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, describes beliefs held by many Haitians that, while official accounts in the United States blame Haitians for the advent of AIDS in the West, the disease was actually sent to Haiti by Americans.[16] A common theme is that the U.S. wanted to get rid of Haitians because too many had immigrated to the States to work and jobs were running low. Assessing these (and other) conspiracy theories with a "hermeneutic of generosity," Farmer finds that they are based on a great deal more truth than many official accounts from the early days of the epidemic. The high rates of poverty, malnutrition, and poor medical infrastructure allowed HIV to spread easily within the Haitian population. By engaging in a macro-level analysis and examining the history and political economy of Haiti, Farmer describes the important role the slave trade, Western (neo)colonial powers, and the United States in particular, played in the current poverty of Haitians. In the words of Farmer, "AIDS, although a new disease, is deeply embedded in social and economic structures long in place... violence, poverty, and inequality are the fault lines along which HIV spreads."[16]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Hooper, Edward, The River : A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS, Boston, MA : Little, Brown and Co., c1999, 1070 pages.
- ^ Worobey M, Santiago ML, Keele BF, et al. (April 2004). "Origin of AIDS: contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted". Nature 428 (6985): 820. doi:. PMID 15103367. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v428/n6985/abs/428820a.html.
- ^ Blancou P, Vartanian J, Christopherson C, Chenciner N, Basilico C, Kwok S, Wain-Hobson S (2001). "Polio vaccine samples not linked to AIDS". Nature 410 (6832): 1045–6. doi:. PMID 11323657.
- ^ Berry N, Davis C, Jenkins A, Wood D, Minor P, Schild G, Bottiger M, Holmes H, Almond N (2001). "Vaccine safety. Analysis of oral polio vaccine CHAT stocks". Nature 410 (6832): 1046–7. doi:. PMID 11323658.
- ^ Faris, Stephan (2004-10-10). "10 Questions: Wangari Maathai". TIME.com/CNN. http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901041018-713166,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ from the Green Belt Movement website- Wangari Maathai's "The Challenge of AIDS in Africa".
- ^ Andrew, Christopher; Vasili Mitrokhin (1999). The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books. p. 319. ISBN 0-465-00310-9.
- ^ Duesberg P, Koehnlein C, Rasnick D (2003). "The chemical bases of the various AIDS epidemics: recreational drugs, anti-viral chemotherapy and malnutrition". J Biosci 28 (4): 383–412. doi:10.1007/BF02705115. PMID 12799487.
- ^ National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease Fact Sheet: The Evidence that HIV Causes AIDS. Accessed via National Institutes of Health website on 2007-03-09.
- ^ "Deadly meddling. Thabo Mbeki shows no sign of giving up his misguided views on AIDS". Economist GB. p. 82 print edition. 2001-11-01. http://speakout.org.za/events/news/archives/news_deadly_meddling.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ "Stop Denying the Killer Bug" Economist, 2002 Feb 23-Mar 1;:49-51 abstract only sighted. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
- ^ "Cost of Treatment: Political Debate". Journ-AIDS. September 2000. http://www.journaids.org/politicsofhiv.php#costoftreatment. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ Barrell, Howard (2000-10-06). "President tells party caucus that Western interests are seeking to discredit him and South Africa". Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg). http://www.aegis.org/news/dmg/2000/MG001005.html. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ Botha, Eddie and Miti, Siya (2008-09-27). "Jimmy Carter pleased to see Mbeki booted out". Daily Dispatch. http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=253039. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
- ^ Chigwedere P, Seage GR, Gruskin S, Lee TH, Essex M (October 2008). "Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa". Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999). doi:. PMID 18931626. Lay summary.
- ^ a b Farmer, Paul (2006). AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (New ed. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24839-2.
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