Need a Break from AIDS Denialism? How about some plain old HIV risk denial?

British women 'in denial' over growing HIV risk

Unprotected heterosexual sex is not seen as a danger to health, survey finds

By Amelia Hill, The Guardian / The Observer, Sunday 28 February 2010

British women are putting themselves at increasing risk of HIV infection,ccording to experts, with a new survey revealing that almost three-quarters have never been tested for the virus and a significant proportion admitting that nothing could persuade them to be examined. The poll of 1,000 adults in the UK has revealed that a false sense of security is seeing women neglecting to protect themselves against catching the virus.

Killing the AIDS Denialist's Montagnier Rant: In His Own (unedited) Words

Nobel Lecture

25 years after HIV discovery: Prospects for cure and vaccine

Luc Montagnier

World Foundation AIDS Research and Prevention, UNESCO, Paris, France

Published February 2010 in Virology 397 (2010) 248–254

The impressive advances of our scientific knowledge in the last century allow us to have a much better vision of our origin on earth and our situation in the Universe than our ancestors. Life has probably started on Earth around 3 and half billion of years ago and a genetic memory has early emerged, based on an extraordinary stable molecule, the DNA double helix, bearing a genetic code identical for all living organisms, from bacteria to men. We are thus the heirs of myriads of molecular inventions which have accumulated over millions–sometime billions–of years. The environmental pressure has of course both maintained these inventions and also modulated them over the generations, through death of the individuals and sexual reproduction. For the last 30,000 years, our biological constitution has not changed: a hypertrophic cortical brain, a larynx to speak and a hand to manipulate. But for the last 10,000 years, another memory has emerged, which makes our species quite different from the others: this is the cultural memory which transmits knowledge and societal organization from generation to next generation, through the use of language, writing and more recently virtual communication means.

Mass Delusion in San Francisco

This week I attended the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Illnesses (CROI). There were over 5000 scientists from around the world at CROI, all sharing the mass delusion that HIV causes AIDS. These poor suckers have obviously not been persuaded by Peter Duesberg and his cronies that all retroviruses are harmless. It was apparent that these people are conspiring to keep the status quo. They obviously have everything to lose by telling the truth. There was not one single session on Loch Ness Monsters, UFOs, CIA conspiracies, Aneuploidy, or leaky guts.  And they call themselves scientists!

Want to see for yourself? All of the major sessions are available for webcast. 

Also check out POZ Magazine’s coverage and Thebody.com’s coverage.

A most interesting time was spent having lunch with one of Peter Duesberg's old graduate teaching assistants. I kid you not. Old stories from this former student confirm the Duesberg chapter of Denying AIDS. 

Here is the Big Story from CROI….

Researchers: Antiretroviral Drugs May Prevent HIV Infection (San Francisco)

2/19/2010, 8:11 p.m. EST David Brown The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO-The antiretroviral drugs that revolutionized the care of people with AIDS are on the threshold of a new life-as tools to prevent infection in individuals and brake the epidemic in populations as a whole.

Studies are under way testing whether periodic use of the drugs, either as pills or as vaginal or rectal gels, can prevent transmission of HIV in high-risk sexual encounters. At the same time, it's becoming clear that the incidence of HIV infection declines over time in places where most infected people know their status and are on treatment, and thus are less likely to pass the virus to others.

AIDS Denialists Meet the Press

A few weeks ago Pride Chigwedere and Max Essex of Harvard University published a paper in the journal I edit, AIDS and Behavior. The article offered their perspective on AIDS Denialist Peter Duesberg and his outrageous comments about the impact of HIV treatments on South Africa's AIDS epidemic. The article is available free online and I posted excerpts on this blog.

The article gained some press coverage in the US and Europe.
Here are a few samples... 

Call for AIDS denialists to be held accountable

USA Today, January 19, 2010

AIDS denialists refute that HIV causes AIDS, that antiretroviral drugs are useful, and lastly, that millions of people worldwide have died from AIDS. AIDS denialists represent a growing movement that has considerable visibility on the Internet. Despite their views, it is estimated that from 2000 to 2005, at least 330,000 South Africans died prematurely and 35,000 babies were infected with HIV as a result of former president Thabo Mbeki's decision to withhold antiretroviral drugs, based on advice from American AIDS denialists.

Kill a Child Lately? Not to Worry, Call Dr. Al-Bayati

I am sure you are familiar with ‘Dr.’ Mohammed Ali AL-Bayati.

You know, the 'pathologist/toxicologist' who wrote the reinterpretation of three year old Elisa Jane Scovill's autopsy report (Eliza Jane was AIDS denialist Christine Maggiore's baby). When the LA Coroner concluded that Eliza Jane died of AIDS, it was Al-Bayati who  re-examined the records and said she died of antibiotic poisoning. His conclusions were used in Maggiore's case against the LA coroner. More importantly, Al-Bayati provided Maggiore with what she needed to hear - that she was not responsible for her baby's death.

  

Last year when Christine Maggiore died of complications from AIDS (disseminated herpes and pneumonia), Al-Bayati did it again. He re-examined the official records and concluded that  Maggiore died of – yes that is right – antibiotic poisoning.

Something you may not know about Al-Bayati is that he is a longtime associate of AIDS Denialist Professor Peter Duesberg. They go way back. Al-Bayati would have examined the blood and tissues of the mice in Duesberg’s failed NIH grant from the 1990's that would have tested poppers as the cause of AIDS. Tax payers would have paid Al-Bayati over $93,000 for his expertise. If Duesberg would have gotten that grant the total costs that would have gone to Al-Bayati's Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Health would have been $281,050.

  

A less known fact is that Al-Bayati is a hired gun for the defense of a lot of people accused of killing children - not just those who withhold HIV treatments. One such case involves the story of Matthew Watson, a man charged with the death of his 7 week old baby.  Defense attorney Jesse Quackenbush (seriously, that is his name) hired Al-Bayati to re-examine the medical records.