Since When Is the Expression of Fear and Ignorance a Basic American Right?

AIDS Denialists' Movie Does a Better Job in Spreading Fear than an Insurance Company Lobbyist.

All these conversations about health care just keep me going back to two words -- fear and denial. Remove these two words, and we would easily have a health care system that could work for every single American. Keep these two words in the equation, and you have the quagmire that we are currently engaged in. Keep these two words in the conversation, and people will continue to get ill unnecessarily. Keep these two words in the conversation, and we all lose precious ground.

I can speak from personal experience about fear and denial. I held off treatment, rather seeking the truth about my own diagnosis until it was almost too late. I was caught up in my very own mix of fear and denial -- I was completely scared that people would abandon me, simply because I had HIV. I had to be dragged almost kicking and screaming to the hospital, to find out my news. When I had stabilized, my doctor told me that I would have lived only a few days had I stayed home. Fear, denial, and a strong dose of stubbornness would have won, and I would have lost. All of this because I was scared out of my mind and was willing to do absolutely anything, including putting myself at risk, in order to avoid the potential of being alone and isolated from the people I loved.

Recently, I dated a man who practiced his own version of fear and denial. When things seemed to be getting a bit more serious, I shared with him my status. I mistakenly assumed by his silence that he was negative. He did nothing to change my mind. I shared my fears with him about losing my health coverage, being too sick to care for myself, and other nightmares that come with being a person living with AIDS.

He never said a word.

One night he finally revealed his truth. He first said he had something to tell me, something that would probably cause me to kick him out. We had been dating for a few weeks at that point, and I could honestly not imagine what he could say that would do that. I would soon find out.

He bluntly stated that he was positive and had tested in 1997. My mind could not process this information at all. It was as if he was speaking in some foreign tongue. I instantly went through every single conversation we previously had in my head and kept coming up with the same conclusion -- how could I have missed a statement like that?

He explained further that he was part of the movement that did not believe HIV causes AIDS. Instead, AIDS was variety of diseases, and that the drugs and their toxicity levels that caused most of the suffering. My mind went blank. How could anyone possibly believe this nonsense in 2009? He shared with me that upon testing positive a friend told him about this other way of thinking -- that if you did not believe HIV causes AIDS, it did not. It was all started by this woman, Christine Maggiore, who had tested positive and was, herself, initially actively involved in the "standard" AIDS movement. However, she had come to question it when people were getting sicker because of the first round of anti-virals.

This man I was dating went on to tell me that he had never done anything after learning the initial news. He never got his t-cells checked, his basic blood counts explored, his viral load discovered. He simply just tested positive and hid this knowledge from pretty much everyone in his life. And now he was passing this information on to me, and wanted me to keep his secret.

After my head stopped spinning, I told him that I originally thought I was putting him in harm's way -- but now the tables had turned, and I was the one in harm's way. Without any knowledge of what was going on his system, he could easily have passed on a number of infections, including another version of HIV, however innocently, to me. His own version of fear and denial was poised to destroy my many years of hard work maintaining my own health status.

The first question I asked him what he possibly thinking of dating me -- me, who everyone knows is HIV positive? If he was living in such denial of the virus, why did he choose to allow someone as outspoken about his status into his life?

In the middle of our moment together, Christine Maggiore died. I had heard of her in passing from time to time, but as I never gave the "Denialist" movement much credence, I never took the time to get to know the players. However, the man I was dating knew her personally and was completely stunned to hear of her passing. The City said she was being treatment for pneumonia, but her husband's hired hand said died of a toxic reaction to antibiotics. A few years before her own passing, Maggiore's six year old daughter died. In Los Angeles County, when a child death is under suspicion an autopsy is automatically ordered. Maggiore's own daughter died of AIDS related causes -- again with the Maggiore's own doctor insisting it was something completely different. Maggiore's could have easily kept her daughter alive if she had simply followed a drug regimen that would prevent mother to child transmission. Instead she allowed her own beliefs to shorten her daughter's life span considerably. Many people I know would have considered this murder. Others have done less to children and have found themselves inside a jail cell for a considerable amount of time. Maggiore was allowed to spread her toxic information freely.

One would think that with the advent of all of the drugs, the drops in death rates, the seemingly reduction of suffering of people with AIDS globally, beliefs such as Maggiore's would die like other snake oil treatments. One would be very wrong. The Denialist Movement is in strong force and picking up numbers, much like the Klu Klux Klan did in Post 9/11 America. They currently have a movie out -- House of Numbers -- a documentary that dismisses all of the currently held science in HIV and its treatments, continuing the conversation that HIV does not cause AIDS. Many prominent scientists were interviewed for this movie -- and quoted severely out of context. You see the one thing I learned quickly about scientists -- they are geeks, they are not social animals like us Hollywood types that come seemingly born with media training skills. They like to deal with their research and their data. They do not know how to work a camera - therefore they can easily be caught of guard and may not be the best representative for their own cause. But that's why God gave us publicists.

This movie is currently on the circuit to potentially be considered for an Oscar nomination in the Best Documentary category. I heard of the movie when it was screening at the Nashville Film Festival. Upon contacting the festival, they stated their support of the movie and they believed it presented the facts in a fair and accurate manner. My response was simply, "Would you present a movie that stated that the Holocaust never occurred?" The Chairman of the Board of the Film Festival declared that this was not the same thing.

Millions of people have died globally, people continue to die in our own country, the Reagan administration did not acknowledge this disease until the end of his tenure and only then when it had become far to obvious to avoid, and this Film Festival decides that it was okay to present a movie filled with misinformation on such a sensitive public health issue - and then decides that comparing it to the Holocaust is completely off base.

It will never, ever cease to amaze me how much ignorance runs rampant in this country. In 2009, we are still fighting the same battles we fought in 1985, except now we do so with seemingly better health. This movie just continues that fear that we fought so hard and thought were well behind us. It lives in a past that no longer exists and expands on it much farther than what is good for public health in general, and instead of providing an alternative theory for the AIDS crisis, it helps spread the AIDS crisis.

I think if we remove the strength that fear and denial have on the conversation regarding health care, we could move through this movement without a second thought. However, the insurance companies are in fear of losing their clout, and individuals are scared of paying for a disease of a person they never met, and elected officials are just plain scared of being without a title. Without someone leading us through this moment, beyond the fear and denial, we will not get to the promised land of health coverage for all.

I am not asking for you to pay for my own mistakes. I take responsibility for them each and every day. Part of this responsibility is writing this blog. Sharing my own experiences with you, so you do not make my mistakes is something I am compelled to do, for if I can get one person to question their own practices, then I know I have accomplished something. What I really want is an America where people can live truly free. When something as tiny as a virus can knock out your entire life's savings in a few months, we have a moral responsibility to help these people out. We need to give people a true safety net and that something was really there to hold onto instead of just false promises and misleading statements of hope. We gave it to the banks, and the auto industry, why cant' we give it to people?

That guy I was dating, well that eventually came to an end. I finally asked myself the very same question I asked him -- why was someone as out with his status dating someone who was not taking responsibility for his own virus -- and it was then I left him.

Now I am seeing this very wonderful man, who owns up to his status with a fearsome responsibility that I admire each and every day. Instead of fear and denial, he gives me nothing but strength to continue my own fight. He, too, wishes for an America with health care for all. He could not make the activist in me happier when he becomes enraged from the politics that become all to easily entangled with this health care discussion. Somehow, in spite of all of the curve balls life has thrown me, I got lucky and found him. I could not cherish him more and thank the universe for bringing him into my life.

So to all of you in Washington, D.C., I ask this simple question. If you were left without the health care coverage that your positions bestow upon you, what would you do? Where would you go for your own health care? Who would take care of you if you got sick and could no longer care for yourself? Would you be able to wait in line at a local clinic for even the most basic of care? How would you cover the costs your prescriptions if you were not able to work? How would the very same fear and denial that each and every one of us goes through every day effect the very life that we currently depend on to lead us through this storm?

Think of all these questions when you opt to delay health care even longer for an American people that can use it now more than ever. Think of yourself without your Congress provided health care system, and then, and only then, cast your vote.

All of our lives are counting on it.

Follow Thomas DeLorenzo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TDeLorenzo

Comments

[LukeLincoln]

You had a post on Ryan White. Are you aware that Ryan took high dosage AZT monotherapy until he died from internal bleeding and organ failure and AZT wasting?

Re: Christine Maggiore's death:

Surely, you are aware that her daughter died a day after taking amoxicillin for lingering earache. Are you aware tthe coroner didn't find EJ died of aids until informed by the Times aids reporter that Christine was an "aids denialist" who wrote a book about it and breast fed her children? Did that have something to do with finding the kid died of aids?

Christine was attacked by nonstop phone calls and emails accusing her of murdering her daughter. She was portrayed on LAW and ORDER as a murderous mother weeks before she died. She was to face down the LA coroner in court a few days after she died. She knew she, not the coroner, would be on trial. She knew the jury likely saw the Law & Order episode.

How much stress/grief did she suffer over the death of EJ, the threats to take away her child, the nonstop emails and calls accusing her of murder, the case she tried to make against the coroner, the Law & Order episode portraying her as a killer of her own child?

How much stress can one take before they break or their health gives out? Could your mom could have handled it and stayed healthy going thru what Christine Maggiore went thru?

[TeeDUK]

A list of some of the cohort studies of exposed uninfected individuals as of 2001:

http://www.aegis.org/pubs/iavi/2001/IAVI2001-0708.html

Some other examples of recent studies from PubMed (there are many more):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18356602

HIV-neutralizing immunoglobulin A and HIV-specific proliferation are independently associated with reduced HIV acquisition in Kenyan sex workers.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15821391?

Distinct patterns of HIV-specific memory T lymphocytes in HIV-exposed uninfected individuals and in HIV-infected patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15166527

Correlates of resistance to HIV-1 infection in homosexual men with high-risk sexual behaviour.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10823757

Influence of HLA supertypes on susceptibility and resistance to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection.

[LukeLincoln]

Hi TeeDuk!

Isn't it amazing how much bull crap 250 billion in tax dollars can buy?

Are you yanking some of those BS studies out in some strange attempt to convince us that we need to give you more money for more BS studies?

If so, first explain to us, TeeDuk, why the aids and hiv cohort studies all fail to show what was really going on with those who came in as sick or dying patients.

Why do yoru studies fail to show who was nearly starved to death, or were nearly stressed to death, or were poisoned from working in mines, or poisoned from drinking toxic water, or died from the aids drugs given to them like candy? Why do the African studies leave out how the patients were formerly living lives of hopelessness with no food, no jobs, no clean water, and no future, while trying to raise half a dozen starving babies in a mud shack in a ghetto with sewers running down the street? Why do your African studies leave out that those who are diagnosed as hiv or aids are stressed to death by the diagnosis? Why do your studies leave out that they are often stressed further to death after being banished from their homes and families?

Continued to next...

[LukeLincoln]

Why do the American studies on gays fail to take note of how stressed out the patients were by the diagnosis of HIV? Why do your studies not show how devastated many hiv positives were when they were disowned by their own families for being gay? Why do your studies not show how they were made to feel like a leper and how they were abandoned by friends and loved ones? Why do your studies not show how many of them felt so emotionally devastated by either the diagnosis or by the difficulties in dealing with their hiv positivity or even by their homosexuality that they had wished they were dead? Why do your studies not show how many of them were totally self destructive or strung out for days/weeks­/months/ye­ars on meth and crack? Why do your studies not show how they died of toxic effects of AIDS drugs? Why do your studies not show how stressed and devastated they were after losing friends or lovers who succumbed to the fear, stress, or drugs? Why do your studies fail to show how chronically scared and stressed to death and toxed out that the American patients were?

Why TeeDuk, is all of this information, the most important information, left out of ALL of your BS hiv research?

Do your hiv/aids studies leave all this out because we Americans would no longer waste our tax dollars on your hiv boogeyman, and would be solving the real problems instead?

[TeeDUK]

The supposed dramatic conclusion to "House of Numbers" is based entirely on the ignorance of the filmmakers.

http://matthewbzrebski.blogspot.com/2009/08/house-of-numbers-film-review.html

"If there is one moment of overt theatricality in the film, it is in its final frames when the score serves to highlight a most shocking revelation offered by Luc Montagnier, who just last year was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering HIV. He says that one can be exposed numerous times to HIV and that if they have a strong immune system, their bodies can cleanse it out. He is asked to repeat this notion by Mr. Leung...as if the director cannot believe what was just said. Montagnier does not hesitate. He reaffirms with a simple "yes" - and with that, the ominous piano and minor synth-string chords echo out. But you know, this moment earns a touch of scary music - because the implications are monumental."

But Montaigner is referring to highly exposed uninfected individuals, and associations with particular immune responses and immune response genes. There are tons of scientific studies about this phenomenon, going back over the past two decades, for the obvious reason that identifying ways to duplicate this protection could lead to a vaccine.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8918278

Lancet. 1996 Nov 16;348(903­8):1347-51­.

"We conclude that a small proportion of highly exposed individuals, who may have natural protective immunity to HIV-1, are resistant to HIV-1."

[LukeLincoln]

From Tommy DeLorenzo's bio:

-In 2006, The New York Times chose DeLorenzo as one of the five Unsung Heroes in the Battle Against HIV/AIDS for his Project benefiting the hospice clients of the San Antonio AIDS Foundation. His profile ran in The New York Times World AIDS Day Section. In 2008, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation named him their Angel of the Year. In 2008, DeLorenzo expanded the project to include Joseph’s House, an AIDS Hospice in Washington, D.C., dedicated to serving homeless individuals with AIDS.-

Now we know why his ego can't deal with the reality that he is just a scared little boy inside. His ego is convinced that he is an AIDS hero and AIDS angel!

More like an angel of death if he continues to promote chronic stress and fear to those misdiagnosed as having hiv.

Hey Tommy, go pander your paranoia elsewhere, cause like you said: -Since When Is the Expression of Fear and Ignorance a Basic American Right?- Right back at yah!

[jtdeshong]

Luke Lincoln you are obviously very ignorant.
How would you define "chronic stress"? Where do you get your information that chronic stress is the real cause of AIDS? How about a link to a peer reviewed article? And remember, The Perth Group has never published in a peer reviewed journal. Or do you not even admit that AIDS exists?
You see, Luke, are you the worst thing about society. That is one whose intellect is not sufficient to understand the complexities of subject you discuss, but whose ego is so robust as to think that others cannot see straight thru your bull poop which you try to pass off as knowledge.
May I offer some advice? The next time you make a statement that you believe to be fact, try backing it up with the source.
JTD

[dissident67]

Oh dear, Mr. Liincoln struck a nerve with Todd DeShong, so much that he took off the mask of Maria Angus and said,"bull poop." How complex, and from a simple-minded fear-driven coward no less. Your just as scared as Mr DeLorenzo sitting in your mothers basement counting the days till the HIV boogeyman comes knocking on your door. Mr. Lincoln didn't say that chronic stress, which comes from FEAR I might add, is the real cause of AIDS. However, it definitely isn't good for your health and contributes to a reduction in t-cells convincing you to take poison of your own free will, which then ultimately causes AIDS and Death. But you say, the medications are better now and people are living longer because of it? I say they're living longer because they're poisoning them less. It just takes longer for them to kill you that way so they get to laugh all the way to the bank while you live longer to pop more toxic pills for $20,000 a year, which in turn creates side horrific effects requiring doctor visits and more meds. It's landslide for them, don't you see? Get a clue DeShong or take your poison and call your doctor in the morning like a good boy.


John Hankins

[LukeLincoln]

Actually Mr. Hankins, the body can even tolerate quite a bit of poison, and has a remarkable ability to rid itself of toxins, even arv's, provided one is not suffering chronic stress, or provided one does not have genetic weaknesses.

However, when one is or becomes intensely or chronically stressed, the weakest link in the body will break. That can be any organ such as lungs, heart, kidneys, or liver. Or it can also very well be the immune system. Furthermore, as one ages, their body can not handle chronic stress as well as it could when one is more youthful. Though you are certainly correct that arv's can cause a multitude of other problems due to their toxicity, particularly, as one grows older and the body is slower or less able to repair the damage they cause. Often, it is the liver which has become toxified by years of aids drugs, or additional drug abuse, alcoholism, or additional toxic pharmaceuticals such as many of those given for the eventual side effects of aids drugs. That is why most of those taking the arv drugs do not usually last much past their 40's. As they age, their bodies can no longer clear or tolerate the toxicity of drugs as their bodies did when they were younger..... Something Mr. DeShong and Mr. DeLorenzo shall likely soon enough find out.

[LukeLincoln]

But the ego of our brother, dear Thomas, does not deserve to know any such realities of life, not, at least, until it gains some humility. Thomas deserves his paranoias and his immune suppressing fears and stresses until he is willing to learn and take responsiblity for his health. He does not do so. He simply blames it all on hiv and spreads his fear of the boogeyman to the rest of the world. Hence, Thomas himself, along with all believers and promoters of hiv beliefs, are actually the cause of aids. They are the purveyors of the panic and paranoia and stress that causes aids. For hiv positives like Thomas, the only thing that keeps them from scaring themselves to death is their meds. I hope he, and they, enjoy them.

[LukeLincoln]

The following is not for our angel hero, Thomas, nor for his ego, as his ego has no sincere desire to understand, for to do so would cause Thomas to admit he has been mistaken, but his little ego would rather die than to admit its own ignorance:

It has been well proven that hiv positives who are highly stressed are the ones who come down with suppressed immune systems, illnesses, or deaths. For many, their is nothing more stressful in the world than being diagnosed as hiv positive. Intense and chronic stress, such as Thomas himself was going through, after being labeled as HIV positive, and before becoming ill, is what suppressed his own immune system, almost to the point of death. Yet, he believes it was all about hiv.

Science has known for years the effects of chronic stress on the immune system, and the evidence is overwhelming. The mechanism is through the thymus gland. The thymus is where t-cells are matured and then released to fight any infections. Intense stress first causes a huge release of t-cells from the thymus, but as long as the stress continues, the thymus gland becomes more and more suppressed until no more T-cells are matured. Google the words -stress- and -thymus-.

[AIDSCausesHIV]

Question for Thomas DeLorenzo:

What happened to your ex lover, who you call a "denialist?"

How long had he been HIV positive?

You look pretty healthy. Was he as healthy as you? Did he ever say anything to you that made you think his mind and soul were functioning as opposed to malfunctioning? That he was thinking clearly and for himself? Or was everything he said like a declaration of lunacy? Do you think he had a death wish? If so, why? Do you think he was delusional in other areas of his life? Do you regret in any way calling a former lover a "denialist" on a public blog? I mean, in the case of somebody one was close to, maybe loved (I have no idea) one would hope for such a courtesy at least. Like, I would have liked to see a piece about realizing that people you thought were crazy are actually discovering that they're human, and cry real tears, etc. even if you still disagree. But you labeled him. Your former lover? For the sake of a blog post?

That's cold.

[SteveNagel]

Part 3
I take issue to your point to paint me as a racist or a Nazis because my family fought against the Nazis in WWII, 2) During the Civil War my ancestors died in to set slaves free, and 3) my father who helped make it possible for Japan to be the great country it is today.

As for who paid for this film? My daughter did, the other 9 children did, Kimberly Bergalis and Candace Simon did, and the list goes on and on and on. My daughter’s story has recently been professionally written and is ready to run if the Huntpo has the bollics to run it unedited.

[TeeDUK]

"My daughter’s story has recently been professionally written"

Does it include the virus culture results? Does it include commentary from pediatricians with expertise on diagnosing and treating pediatric HIV infection as to whether the doctors responsible for your daughter's care followed guidelines or completely ignored them? Did you seek to consult with pediatricians outside of Minnesota with more experience of the disease at the time, or did you just contact Peter Duesberg?

Brent Leung is bringing your daughter to film showings as some sort of support for his film, and to the best of my knowledge the virus culture results go unmentioned - please correct me if I'm wrong. Is the use of virus culture in the diagnosis of pediatric HIV infection even mentioned in the film?

[SteveNagel]

Part 1
It’s obvious by his rants Mr. Delorenzo has not seen the movie, House of Numbers. It’s quite easy to write a story, if in fact all you’re doing is writing a _story_ but have not seen the film. What next Mr. Delorenzo, a review of a yet unwritten Star Wars sequel?

Since I have been “in the movement” since 1991 and knew Christine Maggiore, your friend and I must know each other – how about a name? Not that I am suspicious of your _story_ but without him your story wouldn’t flow as neatly and have such a happy ending.

You have stated that your friend was diagnosed in 1997 and I guess since he was part of “the movement’” we can safely assume he was not on any medications. This was unheard of in the late 80s and early 90s during the “hit hard/hit early” days of the wonder drug AZT. During this time 80% of HIV+ people were dead in 4 years or less from this treatment and the thought that someone could live 10 years without the wonder drug was in and of itself unthinkable. I really don’t understand how your friend has been harmed. He sounds very healthy to me. If he had been diagnosed in 1990 he would have been dead years ago, and since he has spent his life in denial he my well have been positive in 1990.

[TeeDUK]

"During this time 80% of HIV+ people were dead in 4 years or less from this treatment"

This is completely untrue.

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Understanding/Treatment/AZTandAIDS.htm

Look at the trial sample sizes and the number of people progressing to AIDS or death.

[SteveNagel]

Part 2
My daughter was diagnosed HIV+ in 1991, one of a total of 10 HIV+ children in Minnesota. She was part of the “hit hard/hit early” group. Having just been devastated by the news of her being HIV+ we totally sucked up the AZT/Septra story (believing it was the only way to prolong her life) – and she had a t-cell count of near 4,000! As she continued treatment I watched our child and her t-cells slipping away as was documented by our doctor’s report every 6 weeks. She’d been given a 20% chance of living to 2 years of age. Seeing Kimberly Bergalis and Candace Simon die publicly, I began to recognize that same look in my own child’s eyes, and it was becoming very clear that she was not experiencing a disease, but rather a poisoning.

With the support of Peter Duesberg we got rid of the drugs and then fought off the doctors who threatened to have our child moved to foster care. These would be the same doctors that would oversee the deaths of the remaining 9 children in Minnesota. It might be of interest to you to Google Candace Simon or Kimberly Bergalis to see how these children died. My daughter will be 19 in October. She has not been on _any_ medication since 1993. She has not been seen by any medical doctor as it would relate to HIV since 1993.

See Part 2

[TeeDUK]

Is it true that your daughter's virus culture result was negative, as has been reported?

[TeeDUK]

The Minnesota Department of Health's data also do not match up with your claim about the number of HIV positive children:

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/hiv/stats/pmtables.html#pmtables

[exliberal]

As remarkable as your HuffPost review of the movie is, one can only imagine your talents if you actually SEE a movie you review.

[Thomas DeLorenzo - Huffpost Blogger]

This piece was never intended as a review -- it was my commentary on content - hence its called an op-ed piece. this american school system has apparently fallen apart so bad already that they dont teach you all the difference. it was my opinion and experieces with one denialist in particular. it was a story from the point of view of my life.

but thank you for reading it and i do hope you read more of me. and please keep commenting. i find them all so interesting.

take care and have a great weekend.

[AIDSCausesHIV]

When Christine Maggiore was speaking on behalf of APLA and Shanti Foundation, in the early 90s, she was part of a group of 14 board members called "Women At Risk." Apparently, all eleven women who took anti-HIV drugs died, and the three who survived, including Maggiore, did not. Now Maggiore has died, of causes yet to be established fully, (does anybody know her actual cause of death?) and she is said to be evidence of how "denialism" kills.

What then, Dr. Moore, killed those other 11 women who were more obedient than Christine? They died over a decade ago. Maggiore lived HIV positive and healthy for 16 years, then suddenly succumbed.

EJ Scovill, her daughter, went into cardiac arrest at home, in 2005, and was later found to have had an intact immune system, measured by total lymphocyte counts. I am prepared to accept that amoxycillin MAY not have killed her, but you should admit that this is not what a typical AIDS death looks like, in either case. Isn't it said to be a lingering illness, marked by slow decline of the immune system?

Help me out.

If AIDS "denialism" kills, then what killed the people who did what you wanted them to do? Hundreds of thousands. All those people in the quilt. The 11 women in Maggiore's support group? Etc etc. They didn't "deny" your views yet they're dead.

[TeeDUK]

"you should admit that this is not what a typical AIDS death looks like"

One of the many shocking aspects of AIDS denial for me is the way that ignorance is paraded with such pride. What this person is admitting - while imagining they're in a position to ask for an admission - is that they have absolutely no clue about pediatric AIDS. The most common reason HIV-infected children get admitted to the intensive care unit is acute respiratory failure, and the most common cause is PCP. This was particularly true in the era prior to PCP prophylaxis. Death at first admission was not uncommon. EJ Scovill's case is all too tragically "typical."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14615842

Children with human immunodeficiency virus admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit in the United Kingdom over a 10-year period.

"The most frequent reason for PICU admission was respiratory failure, due either to Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (45% of admissions) or to other respiratory pathogens (32%)."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1896230

Pulmonary manifestations of HIV infection in children.

"In fifty-two percent of all patients, a pulmonary problem was the first symptom of HIV infection. The most common respiratory illness requiring hospitalization was an episode of respiratory distress..­.Bacterial pneumonia, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and pulmonary lymphoid hyperplasi­a/lymphoid interstitial pneumonia occurred in 30%, 32% and 22% of the patients, respectively. Bacterial pneumonia and PCP were associated with a high mortality rate."

tbc...

[DrDuke]

continued.

Many people die despite the best available treatments, but they have greatly extended the lives of the vast majority of people who got on treatment before it was too late.

Your note implies that you know of two other friends of Chrstine's who have never taken any therapy and are still alive and well. But I suspect that you don't really know them, know when they were infected, or anything else about them. It is very sad that 11 of her board members died with therapy, but I suspect that most of them did not get true HAART which became available only in the late 1990s. Although the therapy was rapidly improving from 1996 to 1998, a lot of progress continues to be made in finding which combinations work best, and when to begin for the best odds of a normal lifespan, and least adverse side effects.

As others have already noted, both Eliza Jane and Christine died of very typical AIDS symptoms. Total white blood count says nothing about CD4:CD8 ratio, and not all pneumonias are equal. Many bacterial pneumonias cause a lot of coughing and fever, whereas Pneumocystis causes less obvious symptoms until it is often too late to treat it. Tens of thousands of AIDS patients died with Pneumocystis pneumonia, between 1981 and 1996.

[TeeDUK]

cont...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8320786

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia among US children with perinatally acquired HIV infection.

"In 183 (64%) of 275 PCP cases reported in the special surveillance study, PCP was the first or only AIDS-defining condition diagnosed, and in 44% of cases, the child had not been evaluated for HIV infection before diagnosis of PCP. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8247930

HIV-infected children in the pediatric emergency department.

"Patients with a white blood cell count more than 15,000/mm3 were more likely to be hospitalized (87 vs 62%, P < 0.01), though the white blood cell count was not helpful in identifying patients with bacteremia or serious infections. "

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11003962

[Admissions of patients with AIDS to pediatric intensive care units]

"The most common reason for admission was respiratory failure (six patients)...Two patients died during their stay, one of pneumonia due to Pneumocystis carinii infection and one of septic shock."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17526510

Children with human immunodeficiency virus infection admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit in South Africa.

"poor PICU outcome was significantly associated with HIV status (p = 0.001). Lower total lymphocyte count (p = 0.004) and higher gamma globulin level (p = 0.04) were paradoxically the only findings significantly associated with survival. Acute respiratory failure (ARF) accounted for 76% of admissions, including Pneumocystis jiroveci in 38%."

[Nick Bennett]

We really have no true idea how EJ's immune system was based on her blood work - her total lymphocyte count was normal according to the labs I've seen, but that total includes NK cells, B cells, CD8 T cells, CD4 T cells, and a few others. We don't know her actual CD4 count. In kids especially, the total count can itself be misleading, so a more important value is the percentage of CD4 cells (if the total numbers look ok but they have less that 20% CD4 then they are considered immune suppressed).

EJ looks like a typical pediatric AIDS death. It isn't a 'lingering illness' unless one bounces from one life-threatening opportunistic infection to another. She had classic autopsy findings of pneumocystis pneumonia (the Al-Bayati review basically had to misquote and lie about the coroner's report - I know this because the coroner's report was available online on the ABC news website and I read it). In kids, this is often their first opportunistic infection. Her age is about right too - kids can progress faster than most adults so the oft-quoted 8-10 year average time to AIDS doesn't apply.

It's easy enough to say that "you should admit that this is not what a typical AIDS death looks like" but as someone who knows what pediatrics AIDS should look like, I can say that EJ's case DOES look like a typical AIDS death, for a kid her age.

Bennett

[DrDuke]

AIDScauseHIV wrote:
"If AIDS "denialism" kills, then what killed the people who did what you wanted them to do? "

I don't think Dr. Moore wants anyone to do anything, specifically. He only wants people to avoid getting infected with HIV, HCV, or any other pathogen that they can avoid by taking reasonable precautions. He also wants people to make informed decisions about treatment and prevention, and not listen to such lies as "HIV is very difficult to isolate" or "the tests for HIV are less specific than the tests for CMV".

Sadly, HIV infection is not good for anyone, whether they believe in HIV or not. The best combinations of drugs available today are no picnic. They cost a lot of money, a small but not insignificant percentage of people who take them experience adverse side effects, and they don't work for everyone. Drug resistant virus is just one of the many problems.

[Jesaka Irwin]

Tee regarding your statements that only HIV/AIDS patients are impacted by the negative effects of CMV.

http://jtcs.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/112/2/547

Comments
CMV infection has not been considered to be severe in individuals not affected by immunocompromise, including patients having cardiothoracic operations. 1 However, it has been reported recently that even previously healthy adults may also contract severe CMV infection, such as CMV pneumonia. 5 Moreover, recent reports indicated the possibility that patients might manifest severe CMV infection after heart operations. 2,3 In the present report, two patients who had not been immunocompromised and CMV seropositive before their operations had CMV pneumonia after cardiovascular operations, and both died of multiple organ failure even though CMV culture of the blood became negative. Thus CMV infection should be considered to be a much more severe illness, even in patients who are not immunocompromised.

[TeeDUK]

This study found that CMV caused pneumonitis in 2/10 cases after heart operations. Citation #5, after it says "it has been reported recently that even previously healthy adults may also contract severe CMV infection, such as CMV pneumonia" is for this study:

Severe cytomegalovirus infection in multiply transfused, splenectomised, trauma patients. Baumgartner JD, Glauser MP, Burgo-Black AL, et al. Lancet 1982;2:63-6.

These studies do not show that CMV end organ disease can be caused by any of the things AIDS deniers say cause AIDS. Contact the author of that CMV study you posted and ask them.

[Jesaka Irwin]

I hope you will note that my research has all come from the mainstream. Not once have I "quoted" a dissident website or scientist. Nor has their science been the basis for my beliefs though I find much of it compelling. I am a researcher who has explored these questions from my years spent in Africa, and San Francisco. I have spoken with Hundreds of patients and many doctors. I have remained objective, but upon finding the evidence of the Mitochondrial DNA damage that is a result of the drugs I could no longer deny their Dangers. Upon exploring African Tribal life, Pellagra, and to add the fact that the main causative factor in Pellagra when supplemented can reduce AIDS progression. I could no longer deny that their are many factors harming the African population. Many confused as AIDS.

When I see leaders in the WHO admitting that a blood test is not required for AIDS diagnosis in Africa I have to say Hmmm.

This film is not a Dissident film it is a film that exposes much by asking the right questions in the mainstream establishments. Questions many have wondered and pondered. Something I too have done over the years, and admire that this is the first film of this kind that works to inform objectively. Please don't listen to people who critisize things as if knowledgable when it is well known they have never even see this that they critisize or claim knowledge of.