HIV is not the cause of AIDS.

The following scientific facts support the assertion that "HIV is not the cause of AIDS":

5.1. Most people believe that AIDS scientists know the mechanisms by which HIV destroys the immune system and causes AIDS. However, after more than a decade of "HIV science", no one has the answer for this basic question. The ways in which HIV supposedly destroys the immune system (1,3,140) are highly speculative (74,77,92,103,141-143).

In a recent survey done by the journal Science, it was found that the main question that bothers most of the mainstream AIDS researchers is how it is that HIV destroys the immune system and causes AIDS (144).

5.2. Within both lay and scientific circles it is virtually unknown that for more than a decade, there has been a scientific debate about the etiology or cause of AIDS. In the March 1987 issue of the journal Cancer Research, Peter Duesberg from the University of California wrote his first article questioning the infectious model of AIDS (141). Since then many scientific articles, documents, and books have been written in different countries by dissident researchers and AIDS activists, trying to get a reappraisal of the unproven viral hypothesis for AIDS (75,88,92,105,106,113,141,143,145-151).

5.3. There are many scientific facts which show that HIV fails to fulfill the epidemiological, biological, even the common sense requirements to be the cause of AIDS (73,75,113,143,148-153).

5.4. HIV is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause AIDS, nor does it always precede the development of the syndrome (94,104,154). This is demonstrated by thousands of AIDS cases that are HIV negative (131,133,155). It is also demonstrated by a host of HIV-positive people who are absolutely healthy and have never developed AIDS (74,104,113,146,154,156,157).

5.5. There are many individuals who first develop immunodeficiency and only later they become "HIV-positive" (158-162). It is however, a natural law that in all situations, including human diseases, the effect comes after cause.

5.6. The scientific data do not prove that HIV preferentially destroys T4 cells or has any cytopathic effect; they do not demonstrate that T 4 cells are preferentially destroyed in AIDS patients, they do not demonstrate that T 4 cell destruction is either necessary or sufficient as a prerequisite for the development of AIDS (92,103).

5.7. HIV like all retroviruses, has never been proven to be a pathogenic agent; therefore it cannot explain the immunological alterations, pathogenesis, natural history nor different clinical forms within the groups of people that develop AIDS (77,92,94,103,104,141,146).

5.8. Since it has never been proven that HIV can cause AIDS, the investigators that enthusiastically defend HIV as its cause have proposed a vast variety of agents as helpers or "cofactors" in the genesis of AIDS (1,140). However, these "cofactors" are by themselves causal agents of immunodeficiency and can generate AIDS with or without the presence of HIV (77,81,92,137,146). Again, it is for more accurate to call the "cofactors" primary immunological stressor agents (74,77,83,87,104,137,154). They are the real risk factors for AIDS. They are the etiological or causal factors of AIDS. They are the cause of AIDS.

5.9. It simply goes against common sense to propose an infectious cause of AIDS. The new and real circumstances that surround all the groups of people that develop AIDS with the greatest frequency is their exaggerated exposure in the last decades to a variety of stressor agents that have a chemical, physical, biological, mental or nutritional origin (77,104,137). People who develop AIDS are exposed both voluntarily and involuntarily to immunological stressor agents that are unique to either their conditions of life, or to their style of life (81-83,94,163).

5.10. The toxic and non-infectious nature of AIDS has been suspected since 1981, when the very first publication on it announced the first 5 cases (164).

6. The so-called "AIDS virus", HIV, may not even exist.

Biophysicist Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos and her group of researchers at Royal Perth Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, were the very first scientists to mention the fact that HIV has never been isolated (38). For several years Papadopulos-Eleopulos and co-workers have been publishing papers where they have described in detail the scientific facts that support the assertion that "the so-called AIDS virus, HIV, may not even exist" (38-40,46,56,57,73,76,168,175,177,179):

6.1. The correct procedures (57) employed for over half a century to achieve isolation of a retrovirus are: a) to find in infected cell cultures particles with a diameter of 100-120 nM that contain the so-called condensed inner bodies or cores and that have surfaces studded with projections - spikes, knobs - b) In sucrose density gradients the particles band at a density of 1.16 gm/ml; c) At the density of 1.16 gm/ml there is nothing else but particles with the morphological characteristics of retroviral particles; d) The particles contain only RNA and not DNA, and the RNA consistently has the same length [number of bases] and composition no matter how many times the experiment is repeated; e) When the particles are introduced into secondary cultures they are taken up by the cells, the entire RNA is reverse transcribed into cDNA, the entire cDNA is inserted into the cellular DNA, and the DNA is transcribed back into RNA which is then translated into proteins; f) As a result of e the cells in the secondary cultures release particles into the culture medium; g) The particles released into the secondary culture medium have exactly the same characteristics as the original particles, that is, they must have identical morphology, band at 1.16 gm/ml and contain the same RNA and proteins (57).

None of these procedures have been achieved in the case of HIV (38,40,57,73).

6.2. None of the researchers who claim to have isolated HIV have shown the presence of particles with the morphological characteristics of retroviruses banding at 1.16 gm/ml (57).

Even the word "isolation" as used by the most noted researchers (165-167) is incorrect and misleading since neither Montagner, Gallo nor Levy isolated HIV particles, particles of any other human retrovirus, or even virus-like-particles at all (38-40,56,57,73,142,168-174).

6.3. Since no "retroviral particles" [retroviruses] have ever been isolated from any culture (38-40,57,73,168-177), the existence of HIV has been established indirectly: by the presence in blood cultures of AIDS and "HIV-positive" individuals, proteins/glycoproteins such as gp 160/150, gp120, gp41/45/40, p34/32, p24, and p18/17, each claimed to belong to HIV; by the presence of enzymes such as reverse transcriptase that supposedly belongs to HIV; and by the presence of RNA or DNA fragments that supposedly belong to HIV (38-40,57,73,168-175).

However, none of these substances have been proven to belong to HIV at all (38-40,57,73,168-175). How can anybody prove that the substances found in those cultures belong to a viral particle that has never been found at 1.16 gm/ml? To prove that those substances are part of a retrovirus named HIV, it is absolutely necessary that the retroviral particles have been previously separated - isolated - from everything else. This has never been done with HIV (57).

6.4. It is interesting to note that the substances listed in 6.3. are claimed to appear exclusively when one co-cultures supposedly infected blood with abnormal cells from leukemic patients, or from umbilical cord lymphocytes (57). The problem is that the same substances can be obtained from the same cultures in the absence of the supposedly HIV-infected blood (57).

6.5. The cultures where the above substances have been found are cultures that have been heavily stimulated with substances such as phytohemagglutinin, IL-2, antiserum to human interferon, and other agents (57). These culture stimulants are oxidizing agents (57,73). The problem is that the same type of material can be observed in stimulated cultures of lymphocytes from healthy persons (57,178).

It is interesting to note than in the presence of antioxidants, no HIV phenomena can be observed in culture; nor can HIV substances be found (38,178,179).

6.6. The substances listed in 6.3. are not specific to HIV at all (57). For instance, it is currently known that reverse transcriptase can be found associated with entities other than retroviruses, including eukaryote cells, some animal and plant DNA viruses, and even some introns (180).

Gallo and co-workers have claimed that the cell-free supernatants from "infected" cultures have HIV-DNA (181,182). They forgot that by definition retroviruses are infectious particles which contain only RNA. When retroviruses enter a cell the RNA is reverse transcribed into DNA, which is then integrated into cellular DNA as a provirus, which means that "HIV DNA" will be present only in the cell and no where else (57).

There is also ample evidence that any RNA or DNA present in the supernatant of the cultures is there as an effect of stimulation by polycations and oxidizing agents, rather than as an effect of the presence of a retrovirus (57).

"HIV cloning" is likewise misleading. Without isolating a retroviral particle containing RNA inside its core, the cloning of that "specific HIV-RNA" is not possible (57).

6.7. To date nobody has presented evidence that the so-called HIV proteins or antigens [gp160/150, gp120, gp41/45/40, p34/32, p24, p18/17], are constituents of a retrovirus particle or even retrovirus-like particle let alone a unique retrovirus, HIV (57).

6.8. The proteins or antigens derived from stimulated cultures form the basis for the ELISA and Western blot HIV antibody tests (57,173). Fragments of RNA from stimulated cultures form the basis of the HIV viral load test (57,173). This is the main reason why the current tests used for the diagnosis of HIV are not specific for it (38-40,57,168,175).

6.9. In the January 1997 issue of the journal Virology, two independent groups of researchers published experiments claiming to isolate HIV. Now and for the first time in the history of HIV, the researchers followed the internationally accepted procedures to isolate retroviral particles. Not surprisingly, in the sedimented bands at 1.16 gm/ml of sucrose, where retroviruses are known to be located, nothing was found but cellular debris. At 1.16 gm/ml there was nothing that even looked like a retroviral particle (183,184). They could not have isolated HIV simply because HIV was not there to be isolated.

It has been proposed that all those substances that indicate the existence of HIV are nothing more than non-viral material altogether, induced by the agents to which the AIDS patients and cultures are exposed (57). When found in people, these substances would be seen as regular products of the stress response (185), secondary to exposure to chemical, physical, biological, mental, and nutritional stressor agents (74,77,83,87,104,137, 148,154).

6.10. It is therefore possible to conclude that the entire model of AIDS as an infectious and transmissible viral disease has its basis on a non-existing organism. The foundation stone for the HIV-AIDS model then, is a ghost.

7. "AIDS" is a toxic and nutritional syndrome.

The following scientific facts support the assertion that "AIDS is a toxic and nutritional syndrome":

7.1. The toxic nature of AIDS was suspected since the announcement of the very first five cases of AIDS in Los Angeles: "All 5 reported using inhalant drugs" (164).

7.2. In the early 80’s, researchers proposed the possibility that drugs were the cause of the new disease first diagnosed in young drug-using gay males (186-189). Nitrite inhalants or "poppers" were the recreational drugs suspected of being the culprit (186,190).

This logical hypothesis was supported by studies demonstrating the immunotoxic and carcinogenic effects of nitrite inhalants (158,191-193). Also the first epidemiologic studies both in Europe and the United States linked AIDS to inhaled nitrites and to other recreational drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines (194,195).

7.3. The hypothesis that street drugs could cause AIDS was then known as "the lifestyle hypothesis" (189).

In 1983, just a year after the first cases of AIDS were announced, researchers from the CDC abandoned the lifestyle hypothesis in favor of a transmissible agent (196). They even conducted research to try to prove that the lifestyle hypothesis was wrong (195,197).

7.4. Early during the HIV era, John Lauritsen and Frank Buianouckas were some of the first who began to warn about the possibility that recreational drugs were the real cause of AIDS (147,163,198).

Peter H. Duesberg, the retrovirologist from the University of California at Berkely named this possibility the "drug-AIDS hypothesis" and has used very elegant and detailed arguments to describe it (81,82,94,145,146,156,199,200).

Supporters of the HIV-AIDS hypothesis have recently published attempts to falsify the drug-AIDS hypothesis (201,202). However, neither of these efforts was able to show a single case of AIDS without previous exposure to recreational or antiretroviral drugs in the developed countries (201,202) The HIV believers have gone even further in their attempt to diminish the etiologic role of drugs with assertions such as "heroin is a blessedly untoxic drug" (203).

7.5. Almost 100% of the gay male AIDS cases occur within gay male drug users (82,153,204,205).

Many reports link AIDS and more specifically Kaposi’s sarcoma to the use of nitrite inhalants, otherwise known as "poppers" or the "gay drug" (152,163,192,193,201, 206,207).

Also, a large proportion of gay men are now using steroids cosmetically (208).

About 30 % of the AIDS cases in Europe and the United States occur in intravenous users of cocaine, heroine, and other drugs (82,209). Practically all of the female and heterosexual AIDS cases in the developed world are intravenous drug users (82,210).

Supporters of the HIV-AIDS hypothesis reject drug use as a risk factor for AIDS, going only so far as to accept it as a risk factor for "unsafe sex" (211,212).

7.6. About 1% of all AIDS patients in the developed countries are intoxicated babies born to drug addicted mothers (209,213-218).

Intoxicated babies "used drugs" because their mothers used drugs while carrying the fetus (219,220). It is interesting to note that T-cell levels of these babies went up to "normal" one or two years after birth, despite being HIV-positives. The ones who did not recover were the ones treated with AZT (219).

In Europe, most of the babies born to drug-addicted mothers are able to recover from bacterial infections, pneumonia, yeast and cryptosporidial infections, despite being HIV positive, and stay healthy at 6 years of age (213,221).

In the European study, 40% of the children died. Those who died were exactly the same ones who were treated with AZT (213,214).

7.7. The HIV/AIDS supporters accuse us of not being able to differentiate cause from confounding factors (222). We think that it is time for them to start watching their own epidemiological steps.

The epidemiological association between chemical, physical, biological, mental and nutritional immunological stressor agents and AIDS is easily demonstrable (74,77,83,87,104).

One can always find immunological stressors acting as etiologic factors in AIDS [predisposing, starting, and keeping risk factors]. They are always present in the groups of people developing the syndrome: drug abusing gay men, IV and non-IV drug users and alcoholics, prostitutes, babies born to drug-using or malnourished mothers, hemophiliacs, users of antiretroviral medications, AIDS-phobic people, Central African, Caribbean and similar people, African and Hispanic Americans, and in individuals exposed to immunological stressors in their work places (77,83).

7.8. Malnutrition is known as the world’s first cause of immunodeficiency (223). Poverty is the main risk factor for malnutrition. Economical disparities have increased all over the world, but mainly in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as in the large impoverished strips of the developed cities. Never before has poverty been so prevalent and intense, nor has affluence been so big and concentrated in the hands of so few (87,224,225).

Recreational drugs also induce suppression of appetite and fatigue (81,226-229).

7.9. There is an enormous amount of scientific evidence showing the cytotoxic and immunotoxic properties of all recreational drugs (158,193,226,229-232). Recreational drugs can also act as carcinogens in animals and humans (233).

The immunosuppressive effects of recreational drugs are decreased after stopping their use. This immunological improvement has been recorded for both adults (234-237) and babies after birth (213,219,238).

The degenerative effects of immunological stressors on the immune system network have well known immunotoxic and immunogenic mechanisms (75,77,137). At a molecular level, these immunotoxic and immunogenic effects generate a state of oxidative stress (73,77,179,239), which is generally concentrated in the mitochondria (240,241). A causal relationship between immunological stressors and AIDS has been documented (77).

7.10. The metabolic disturbances, infections, opportunistic infections and tumors seen in AIDS patients are a consequence of the action of immunological stressor agents on the immune and other human systems (75,83Giraldo 1997c).

The varied clinical manifestations of AIDS, otherwise known as "AIDS-defining diseases", are different for each group of people developing the syndrome, simply because different stressors generate different diseases. Each group of people at risk for AIDS is exposed to group specific stressors (75,82,83,89,242-244).

7.11. AIDS is a new syndrome because in developed countries the recreational drug epidemic is new (87,217,218,245-247), and because never before have the people of Central African countries and similar countries in the under developed world been as poor and malnourished as they are now (83,87,224,225).

Street drugs and malnutrition are the main etiologic risk factors for AIDS in both developed and in under developed countries.

The recreational drug epidemic is reaching such a high level in the United States that almost 80% of all one dollar bills have detectable amounts of cocaine, since the bills have been rolled for drug inhalation (248).

7.12. In short, AIDS is a severe acquired immunodeficiency due to multiple, repeated, and chronic exposures to immunological stressor agents, with degenerative immunotoxic and/or immunogenic effects on immunocompetent cells and immunological chemical reactions. These progressive and continuous assaults on the immune system network bring the individual into a functional immunological deficit, with the subsequent appearance of infections, neoplasias, and metabolic conditions, all leading to a probable early death. Therefore AIDS rather than being an infectious syndrome, is a chronic degenerative toxic/nutritional one (83,104).

7.13. At the molecular level, AIDS is caused by an excess of reactive free radicals, specially oxidizing agents (73,77,179).