Still looking into the ongoing controversy surrounding the science behind
AIDS - arguably the most serious of all modern science controversies.
President Mbeki continues to throw doubt on the link between HIV and AIDS -
in a country where 1 in 5 adults are HIV positive.
Here is an account of someone prepared to risk his life and the life of his
partner, rather than accept scientific advice. It makes an interesting case
study for anyone else looking into levels of trust modern science:
"Until last January, Sean Current was an ardent member of the dissident
movement.... He introduced himself as "someone who was HIV-positive for a
long time and had never been sick" despite shunning anti-HIV drugs - living
proof that HIV was harmless... Because he had used recreational drugs only
rarely and in the distant past and never took anti-retrovirals except for a
five-week stint on AZT in 1990, Current believed he was not at risk for
AIDS. And because he believed that HIV was harmless, he was certain that he
and his lover Sebastien, who was HIV-negative when they met, did not need to
always practice safe sex...
The turning point came when Current had trouble breathing and was diagnosed
as having K.S. in his lungs. He turned to other dissidents for advice and,
receiving nothing he considered an adequate answer, sought conventional
treatment. In October he began highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART)
- taking a combination of drugs to attack his HIV.
"After two weeks of HAART and the chemo, my lesions had all flattened out
and I could breathe again," Current says. "I feel much, much better. Within
the first month my energy level increased."
Now Sebastien has begun to suffer some of the same symptoms Current
experienced. Current says his lover never used drugs and has none of the
behavioral risk factors the dissidents claim cause AIDS - but they did at
times have unprotected sex.
"I brought Peter Duesberg [Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the
University of California, Berkeley; chief dissident] into my home, my town,
to speak," Current says with obvious pain. "I had just met Sebastien and I
introduced him to Peter, and over a few months Sebastien became a believer.
I have to live with that.""
For full article see: http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/17/hiv.html
David
Ps I can shut up about AIDS if people are beginning to find it boring...
_____________________
David Steven
River Path Associates
61a West Borough
Wimborne
Dorset UK
BH21 1LX
E [log in to unmask]
T +44 (0)1202 849993
M +44 (0)7939 038832
W www.riverpath.com/aids
_____________________
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|