The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim, associated with Peter Duesberg, that various non-infectious factors such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use are the cause of AIDS, and that HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a harmless passenger virus. The most prominent defenders of this theory are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick, and journalist Celia Farber. The majority of the scientific community consider that Duesberg's arguments are the result of cherry-picking of scientific data^[1] and selectively ignoring evidence in favour of HIV's role in AIDS.^[2] There is broad scientific consensus that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect, and that HIV is the cause of AIDS.^[3][4][5] Peter H. Duesberg (born December 2, 1936 in Germany) is an award-winning professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational rather than medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. ... Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... Species Human immunodeficiency virus 1 Human immunodeficiency virus 2 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS, a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections). ... A passenger virus is a virus which simply uses its host for the purpose of living, much like a parasite. ... A biochemist is a scientist trained and dedicated to producing results in the discipline of biochemistry. ... Dr. David Rasnick PhD is president of the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis. ... Celia Farber is a writer and journalist who has been chronicling HIV and AIDS since 1987. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Cherry picking, literally meaning harvesting cherries, is used metaphorically to accuse someone of pointing at individual cases which seem to confirm his or her position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases that may contradict it. ... Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of science at a particular time. ...

Role of legal and illegal drug use

Duesberg argues that there is a statistical correlation between trends in recreational drug use and trends in AIDS cases.^[6] He argues that the rapid increase of AIDS cases in the 1980s corresponds to a supposed epidemic of recreational drug use in the United States and Europe during the same time frame. According to the majority of experts, this claim is not supported by epidemiologic data.^[7] Duesberg's claim that recreational drug use, rather than HIV, was the cause of AIDS was specifically examined and found to be false.^[8] Positive linear correlations between 1000 pairs of numbers. ... AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, sometimes written Aids) is a human disease characterized by progressive destruction of the bodys immune system. ... Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ...

Duesberg has also argued that nitrite inhalants were the cause of the epidemic of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in gay men. However, this argument has been described as an example of the fallacy of a statistical confounding effect;^[9] it is now known that a herpesvirus, potentiated by HIV, is responsible for AIDS-associated KS.^[10][11] Nitrite inhalants or Poppers are a class of recreational drugs consisting of alkyl and cycloalkyl nitrites such as amyl nitrite (pentyl nitrite in IUPAC nomenclature), cyclohexyl nitrite and butyl nitrite. ... Look up fallacy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... Kaposis sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the eighth human herpesvirus; its formal name according to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is HHV-8. ...

Moreover, in addition to recreational drugs, Duesberg argues that anti-HIV drugs such as zidovudine (AZT) can cause the syndrome of AIDS. Duesberg's claim that antiviral medication causes AIDS is regarded as disproven by the scientific community.^[12] Zidovudine (INN) or azidothymidine (AZT) (also called ZDV) is an antiretroviral drug, the first one approved for treatment of HIV. It is also sold under the names Retrovir® and Retrovis®, and as an ingredient in Combivir® and Trizivir®. It is an analog of thymidine. ...

Scientific study and rejection of Duesberg's risk-AIDS hypothesis

Several studies have specifically addressed Duesberg's claim that recreational drug abuse or sexual promiscuity were responsible for the manifestations of AIDS. An early study of his claims, published in Nature in 1993, found Duesberg's drug-AIDS hypothesis to have "no basis in fact".^[8] Promiscuity is the practice of making relatively unselective, casual and indiscriminate choices. ... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ...

A large prospective study followed a group of 715 homosexual men in the Vancouver, Canada area; approximately half were HIV-seropositive or became so during the follow-up period, and the remainder were HIV-seronegative. After more than 8 years of follow-up, despite similar rates of drug use, sexual contact, and other supposed risk factors in both groups, AIDS developed only in those patients who were HIV-seropositive. Similarly, CD4 counts dropped in the patients who were HIV-infected, but remained stable in the HIV-negative patients, in spite of similar rates of risk behavior.^[13] The authors concluded that "the risk-AIDS hypothesis... is clearly rejected by our data", and that "...The evidence supports the hypothesis that HIV-1 has an integral role in the CD4 depletion and progressive immune dysfunction that characterise AIDS."^[13] A Study design is a way to set up an epidemiological investigation, as a form of clinical trial. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... This article refers to the city in British Columbia, Canada. ... CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4) is a molecule that is expressed on the surface of T helper cells (as well as regulatory T cells and dendritic cells). ...

Similarly, the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) — which between them observed more than 8,000 Americans — demonstrated that "...the presence of HIV infection is the only factor that is strongly and consistently associated with the conditions that define AIDS."^[14]

Current AIDS definitions

Duesberg argued in 1989 that a significant number of AIDS victims had died without proof of HIV infection.^[15] However, with the use of modern culture techniques and polymerase chain reaction testing, HIV can be demonstrated in virtually all patients with AIDS.^[3] Since AIDS is now defined partially by the presence of HIV, Duesberg claims it is impossible by definition to offer evidence that AIDS doesn't require HIV. However, the first definitions of AIDS mentioned no cause; the addition of HIV positivity to the diagnostic criteria occurred only after a scientific consensus was established that HIV causes AIDS. PCR tubes in a stand after a colony PCR The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a biochemistry and molecular biology technique[1] for exponentially amplifying DNA, via enzymatic replication, without using a living organism (such as E. coli or yeast). ...

AIDS in Africa

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Reported AIDS cases in Africa and other parts of the developing world, where only limited attempts are made to test for HIV infection, include people who do not belong to Duesberg's preferred risk groups of drug addicts and male homosexuals^{[citation needed]}, and it would be difficult to separate the collected data to exclude non-drug users and non-gays. Presence of HIV is not required to designate a person as having HIV, in African populations.^{[citation needed]} In fact, Duesberg writes on his website that "There are no risk groups in Africa, like drug addicts and homosexuals."

According to Duesberg, the majority of African AIDS cases may be explained as malnutrition, parasitic infection, and poor sanitation, even though African AIDS cases have increased in the last two decades as HIV's prevalence has increased and as malnutrition and poor sanitation have declined in Africa.^{[citation needed]}

The diseases developed by people with AIDS differ radically between African and Western populations. For example, tuberculosis is much more commonly diagnosed among AIDS patients in Africa than in Western countries, while PCP conforms to the opposite pattern.^[16] The aggressive, AIDS-associated form of Kaposi's sarcoma is fairly common among heterosexuals in some parts of Africa, but is largely restricted to gay men in the USA and Europe.^[17] Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ...

Duesberg's offer to infect himself

Duesberg's most radical challenge to the HIV-AIDS hypothesis is his offer to infect himself with HIV. However, he claims that it is not permissible for him to do so without the approval of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the university that employs him. Critics regard this as a stunt, because the NIH cannot ethically give "approval" for a person to knowingly infect themselves with HIV. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for medical research. ...

Duesberg claims that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive

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Peter Duesberg argues that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive, because after reverse transcription of their RNA to DNA, they depend on cell division to replicate. They cannot replicate in neurons, for example, because these cells do not divide (after the age of one year).^{[citation needed]} The normal mode of proliferation of retroviruses is from mother to child, thus implying the survival of the infected mother and the child for decades.^{[citation needed]} Humans carry more than 300 different harmless retroviruses in their DNA.^{[citation needed]} For example the gene encoding for amylase production in saliva is due to retroviral DNA inserted just upstream of the body's amylase gene.^{[citation needed]} The retroviral DNA's promoter sequence induces the gene to be transcribed in the mouth.^{[citation needed]} Genera Alpharetrovirus Betaretrovirus Gammaretrovirus Deltaretrovirus Epsilonretrovirus Lentivirus Spumavirus A retrovirus is a virus which has a genome consisting of two identical plus sense RNA molecules. ... Ribonucleic acid or RNA is a nucleic acid polymer consisting of nucleotide monomers that plays several important roles in the processes that translate genetic information from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into protein products; RNA acts as a messenger between DNA and the protein synthesis complexes known as ribosomes, forms vital portions... The structure of part of a DNA double helix Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions for the development and function of living organisms. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Drawing by Santiago Ramón y Cajal of neurons in the pigeon cerebellum. ... Amylase is the name given to glycoside hydrolase enzymes that break down starch into glucose molecules. ...

Most researchers believe that some retroviruses can cause cancer. Peter Duesberg rejects this idea. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...

Scientific response to the Duesberg hypothesis

The current consensus in the scientific community is that the Duesberg hypothesis has been refuted by a large and growing mass of evidence showing that causation of AIDS by HIV is clear, that virus numbers in the blood correlate with disease progression, that a plausible mechanism for HIV's action has been proposed, and that anti-HIV medication decreases mortality and opportunistic infection in people with AIDS but, most importantly, that Peter Duesberg is an enormous douche.^[3] Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of science at a particular time. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Opportunistic infections are infections caused by organisms and usually do not cause disease in a person with a healthy immune system, but can affect people with a poorly functioning or suppressed immune system. ...

In the December 9, 1994 issue of Science (Vol. 266, No. 5191),^[2] Duesberg's methods and claims were evaluated. The authors concluded that: December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Science is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). ...

• it is abundantly evident that HIV causes disease and death in hemophiliacs, a group generally lacking Duesberg's proposed risk factors.^[18][3]
• HIV fulfills Koch's postulates, which are one set of criteria for demonstrating a causal relationship between a microbe and a disease.^[19][20]
• the AIDS epidemic in Thailand cited by Duesberg as confirmation of his hypothesis is in fact evidence of the role of HIV in AIDS.^[21]
• According to researchers who conducted large-scale studies of AZT, the drug does not cause AIDS. Furthermore, researchers acknowledged that recreational drugs do cause immune abnormalities, though not the type of immunodeficiency seen in AIDS.^[22]

Haemophilia or hemophilia is the name of any of several hereditary genetic illnesses that impair the bodys ability to control bleeding. ... Kochs postulates (or Henle-Koch postulates) are four criteria designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a disease. ...

Effectiveness of antiretroviral medication

The vast majority of people with AIDS have never received antiretroviral drugs, including those in developed countries prior to the licensure of AZT in 1987, and people in developing countries today where very few individuals have access to these medications.^[23] Zidovudine (INN) or azidothymidine (abbreviated to AZT) is an anti-retroviral drug, the first antiviral treatment to be approved for use against HIV. It is also sold under the names Retrovir and Retrovis, and as an ingredient in Combivir and Trizivir. ...

In the mid-1980s, clinical trials enrolling patients with AIDS found that AZT given as single-drug therapy conferred a modest (and short-lived) survival advantage compared to placebo. Among HIV-infected patients who had not yet developed AIDS, placebo-controlled trials found that AZT given as single-drug therapy delayed, for a year or two, the onset of AIDS-related illnesses. Significantly, long-term follow-up of these trials did not show a prolonged benefit of AZT, but also did not indicate that the drug increased disease progression or mortality. The lack of excess AIDS cases and death in the AZT arms of these placebo-controlled trials effectively counters the argument that AZT causes AIDS.^[12] In health care, including medicine, a clinical trial (synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical research) is the application of the scientific method to human health. ... “Placebo effect” redirects here. ...

Subsequent clinical trials found that patients receiving two-drug combinations had up to 50 percent improvements in time to progression to AIDS and in survival when compared to people receiving single-drug therapy. In more recent years, three-drug combination therapies have produced another 50 to 80 percent improvement in progression to AIDS and in survival when compared to two-drug regimens in clinical trials.^[24] Use of potent anti-HIV combination therapies has contributed to dramatic reductions in the incidence of AIDS and AIDS-related deaths in populations where these drugs are widely available, an effect which clearly would not be seen if antiretroviral drugs caused AIDS.^{[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]} The term antiretroviral drugs is used to describe drugs used against HIV infection (HIV is an RNA retrovirus). ...

AIDS in Africa

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The Duesberg hypothesis argues that AIDS in Africa is the result of poor sanitation and malnutrition, not HIV. Critics note the following facts:

• AIDS in Africa has increased during the last two decades, in tandem with the prevalence of HIV.^{[citation needed]}
• Sanitation and nutrition, on the other hand, have noticeably improved since the 1980s, when the Ethiopian famine was prominent in the news, yet AIDS case rates continued to increase.^{[citation needed]}
• AIDS in Africa largely kills sexually active working-age adults.^{[citation needed]}
• The groups that have HIV are the ones dying from AIDS. For example, in areas where surveys show 50% of people with HIV are women, that area will show that 50% of people dying from AIDS are women. In areas where 20% of HIV+ people use recreational drugs, then 20% of the people dying from AIDS use recreational drugs.^{[citation needed]}

Opponents claim that nearly all HIV-positive people will develop AIDS

Duesberg claims as support for his idea that many drug-free HIV+ people have not yet developed AIDS; other scientists note that many other drug-free HIV+ people have developed AIDS, and that if they wait long enough, it is very likely that nearly all of the HIV+ people will develop AIDS. Mainstream scientists also note that drug-using HIV-negative people do not seem to suffer from immune system collapse.

Quotations

• Warren Winkelstein Jr., a Berkeley AIDS researcher, characterized Duesberg's continued publicizing of his theory as "irresponsible, with terribly serious consequences".^[2]

• Dr. Helene Gayle, a former director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), has said that Duesberg's message has been "very damaging" to AIDS prevention projects.^[2]

• According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, "The vast majority, 99.99999 percent of the scientific community, is convinced that the data is overwhelming that it causes AIDS. When people like Duesberg come and say, 'You haven't proven this; you haven't proven that,' the fact is we have."^[35]

• Former IAS president Dr. Mark Wainberg has suggested that Duesberg is "probably the closest thing we have in this world to a scientific psychopath."^[36]

• Nature's editor John Maddox wrote in 1993 that, "Duesberg has forfeited the right to expect answers by his rhetorical technique. Questions left unanswered for more than about ten minutes he takes as further proof that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. Evidence that contradicts his alternative drug hypothesis is on the other hand brushed aside."^[37]

• 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."^[2]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, is recognized as the leading United States agency for protecting the public health and safety of people. ... The International AIDS Society (IAS) is the worlds professional society for scientists, health care and public health workers, and others engaged in HIV/AIDS prevention, control and care. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. ... Mark A. Wainberg (born April 21, 1945) is a Canadian scientist and AIDS researcher. ...

See also

• AIDS reappraisal

The AIDS reappraisal movement or AIDS dissident movement, pejoratively referred to as AIDS denialism, is a loosely connected group of activists, journalists, scientists, and HIV-positive persons who dispute the scientific consensus that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). ...

References

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for medical research. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta is recognized as the lead United States agency for protecting the public health and safety of people by providing credible information to enhance health decisions, and promoting health through strong partnerships with state health departments and other organizations. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for medical research. ... October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for medical research. ...

External links

• Peter Duesberg's website
• The Evidence That HIV Causes AIDS: from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• How HIV Causes AIDS: National Institutes of Health fact sheet.
• Koch's Postulates and the Etiology of AIDS: An Historical Perspective.