Reprinted from the Weekly Dig, June 4, 2003
Africa: Treating Poverty with Toxic Drugs
By Liam
Scheff
“What's the use of potentially deadly AIDS pharmaceuticals for people
suffering from poverty-related diseases like chronic tuberculosis, or to
pregnant mothers whose blood cross-reacts with the nonspecific HIV tests?”
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, 42 million people
around the world are infected with HIV, and nearly 22 million people in Africa
have died of AIDS. But AIDS isn't a single disease; it's a collection of
diseases. When people are said to die of AIDS, they're known to die of a
particular disease or condition, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria or
basic malnutrition. AIDS researchers claim that HIV plays a role in the
development of these illnesses, but in spite of this claim, 20 years of AIDS
research has failed to prove causation between HIV infection and any so-called
AIDS disease (as explored in “The AIDS Debate” parts one and two). So why do we
call them AIDS deaths?
In the US, AIDS is defined as a collection of 29 previously-known conditions
including yeast infections, hepatitis, the flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis and
Kaposi's Sarcoma. These conditions are not known to be caused by HIV.
Nevertheless, the one thing that classifies any one of these conditions as AIDS
is a positive HIV-antibody test.
But even if HIV was found to cause these previously known conditions, a problem
remains. The HIV-antibody tests do not diagnose actual HIV-infection. Instead,
they look for non-specific antibody reactions in your blood to proteins in the
HIV-test. The test manufacturers claim that the proteins stand in for HIV, but
in reality, none of the test proteins have been proven to be specific to HIV.
These tests are, in fact, so nonspecific that they cross-react with nearly 70
other documented conditions, including the flu, previous vaccinations, blood
transfusions, arthritis, alcoholic hepatitis, drug use, yeast infections and
even pregnancy, as well as conditions endemic in Africa: tuberculosis, parasitic
infection, leprosy and malaria. Because no HIV test can actually find HIV, not a
single HIV-test has been approved by the FDA for diagnosing HIV-infection.
In light of this nonspecific, cross-reacting test, how does the World Health
Organization (WHO) diagnose AIDS in Africa?
Simple: they don't require any test at all. In 1985, the WHO created a new
definition of AIDS for African nations and third world countries. The WHO's
“Bangui Definition” allows Africans with common physical symptoms including
diarrhea, fever, weight loss, itching and coughing to be automatically
designated as AIDS patients, with no HIV test. But these very symptoms define
life for the majority of Africans who lack essentials like sufficient food, safe
drinking water, proper sanitation and basic medical care. These symptoms are
also synonymous with the biggest killers on the continent: malaria, infectious
diarrhea and tuberculosis.
Western AIDS organizations are working to get toxic AIDS drugs into the hands of
African governments, but what's the use of potentially deadly AIDS
pharmaceuticals to people suffering from poverty-related diseases like chronic
tuberculosis and malaria infection, or to pregnant mothers whose blood
cross-reacts with the nonspecific HIV tests?
To answer these questions, I spoke with AIDS researchers who've worked in Africa
and studied the African AIDS epidemic.
Dr. Christian Fiala is a medical doctor and specialist in obstetrics and
gynecology in Vienna. He's worked extensively in Uganda and Thailand researching
AIDS.
Dr. Rodney Richards was one of the founding scientists for the biotech company
Amgen where he helped develop some of the first HIV tests. Richards currently
works full-time researching AIDS.
The interviews were conducted separately and integrated into a dialogue.
Individual points-of-view belong to individual speakers.
How is AIDS diagnosed in Africa?
Christian Fiala: Your readers may be surprised to learn that AIDS in Africa is
diagnosed completely differently than in Europe or the US. In Africa, an AIDS
diagnosis can be made based on commonly occurring physical symptoms alone. This
is ironic, because AIDS is a collection of diseases, and has no uniform
symptoms. Even the co-founder of HIV theory, Luc Montagnier, admits that AIDS
has no specific clinical symptoms.
How was this new AIDS definition devised?
Fiala: In 1985 the WHO held a meeting in Bangui, the capital of the Central
African Republic. A WHO official, Joseph McCormick, wrote about it in his book
Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC.
He wrote: “If I could get everyone at the WHO meeting in Bangui to agree on a
single, simple definition of what an AIDS case was in Africa, then, imperfect as
the definition might be, we could actually start counting the cases...”
This is what's known as the Bangui Definition.
How does the Bangui definition define AIDS?
Fiala: There are two categories of symptoms, major and minor. A patient is given
an AIDS diagnosis when they have two major symptoms and one minor symptom. The
major symptoms are weight loss, chronic diarrhea and chronic fever. The minor
symptoms include coughing and generalized itching.
Let me clarify, based on the WHO's definition, if you have a fever, a cough and
diarrhea in Africa, then you have AIDS?
Fiala: That's correct.
That seems absurd.
Fiala: It is. It's more absurd when you understand how common these symptoms are
in resource-poor settings like sub-Saharan Africa. To begin with, less than 50
percent of Africans have access to safe drinking water. Over 60 percent have no
sanitation. Most African villages don't have sewage systems. Human and animal
excrements mix with the water supply. People drink this water and ingest
infectious parasites and bacteria. As a result, dysentery is endemic.
When your intestines are full of infectious microbes, you'll likely develop a
fever. Your body will try to purge itself by expelling the bacteria as quickly
as possible. This is infectious diarrhea, and it's incredibly common in Africa.
Diarrhea drains liquid, salts, minerals and nutrients from the body. It weakens
the immune system. When you have no safe water, you'll have diarrhea
chronically. When you have chronic diarrhea, you can't help but to lose weight.
At this point, you've fulfilled the major symptom criteria in the African
definition for AIDS. So you need one minor symptom, like generalized itching or
coughing. In Uganda, a so-called “AIDS epicenter,” 80 percent of houses have
floors made of packed soil or cow dung. An entire family lives on this floor.
There are, on average, seven children per family, all living in this room. This
is not what we in the US and Europe call proper housing, and it's easy to see
how a problem like “generalized itching” might come up. At this point, an
African suffering from itching, diarrhea and weight loss should be - according
to the WHO - officially reported as an AIDS patient. The Bangui Definition
simply relabels symptoms of poverty as AIDS.
The second problem with the Bangui Definition is Tuberculosis. TB is very
widespread in Africa. It's a bacterial infection that infects the lungs. TB is
spread by coughing, and it's highly infectious. The typical symptoms of
Tuberculosis are fever, weight loss and coughing. This is exactly what is
required for an AIDS diagnosis.
So if you have Tuberculosis in Africa, you can be diagnosed with AIDS?
Fiala: That's correct. According to the WHO, the typical symptoms of TB define
AIDS in Africa.
Another problem with the Bangui Definition is malaria. Malaria is the most
widespread disease in Africa and tropical countries. It's the leading cause of
death in Uganda. It's spread by mosquitoes, so people are reinfected several
times a year. A great many people die every year, while the rest develop a
relative immunity, even though it's wearing away at them. The symptoms of
malaria include fever, weight loss and fatigue. If you have a cough or itching,
and you have malaria in Africa, you can be diagnosed with AIDS.
As if this wasn't problematic enough, in some African countries, such as
Tanzania, health authorities have decided that a one-criteria diagnosis is all
they need. A patient exhibiting just one of the major symptoms - diarrhea, fever
or weight loss - can be given an AIDS diagnosis.
This is hardly scientific, and it's very different from what people are told
about AIDS in Africa. The idea that there should be a different kind of AIDS for
Africans or Europeans or Americans defies the scientific definition of viral
infection. A single virus doesn't cause different diseases in different people
or in different countries. A viral infection doesn't vary so wildly so as to
create pelvic cancer in women, Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men, and tuberculosis in
Africans. But this is what we're asked to believe about HIV.
What's the treatment for TB and Malaria?
Fiala: The best treatment is prevention. The most effective way to reduce all of
these infectious diseases is to improve the standard of living and hygiene for
local residents - to provide safe, clean water; plentiful, healthy food; proper
housing and basic medical care. This is exactly how the incidence of TB and
other infectious diseases was dramatically reduced in the US and Europe.
The treatment for malaria is well known and simple: treated mosquito nets that
protect villages; clean, safe, non-stagnant water; and the inexpensive, highly
efficient drugs that effectively fight the disease.
Why don't African Countries have clean water systems?
Fiala: You could've asked that question 100 years ago in the US and Europe.
Sewage and water systems rely on economic development. We have these things in
the West because we know they're absolutely essential, so we've invested money
and energy in them.
Many African nations don't have the money to develop this infrastructure and
modernize the villages. The money they have is being re-routed into AIDS. These
countries are being pressured by international AIDS organizations to take money
out of rural development and put it into AIDS education, condom distribution,
abstinence campaigns and toxic AIDS pharmaceuticals.
We're told that there are nearly 30 million African AIDS patients. This is an
enormous number of people. How are these cases counted?
Fiala: The United Nations AIDS organization (UNAIDS) and the WHO use various
computer modeling programs to come up with their numbers.
Rodney Richards: When you read about the millions of HIV-infected in Africa, you
may notice that the word “estimated” precedes the number in the official
publications.
What does “estimated” mean?
Richards: All WHO/UNAIDS reports of HIV-infection in Africa are "estimates"
based on HIV tests performed on blood samples taken at pregnancy clinics. These
global reports are created jointly by the WHO and UNAIDS.
Why is blood taken from pregnancy clinics?
Richards: In countries with little infrastructure, medical care is very limited,
and is generally reserved for the most vulnerable segment of the population,
such as infants and pregnant women. Even in the poorest countries, there are
pregnancy clinics serving expectant mothers and women who've just given birth.
Pregnant women regularly line up at these clinics for a check-up that includes a
blood screening for syphilis. Syphilis infection is common in many African
countries, and must be treated before a baby's birth, or the child could die or
be severely damaged.
Once a year, UNAIDS researchers collect leftover blood samples from these
clinics, and test them with a single HIV-antibody test called the Elisa. The
resulting number of HIV-positive results is fed into an epidemiological computer
modeling program (Epi-model) at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. The Epi-model
program then extrapolates the HIV-positive test results onto the entire
population - young and old; men, women and children. When we hear about the
number of people infected with HIV, it's this number that's being reported.
How do reported numbers of HIV-infection correspond to actual number of people
tested?
Richards: The WHO/UNAIDS tells us that there are currently 30 million
HIV-positive Africans, yet less than one in a thousand of these people have ever
been tested. In South Africa, the WHO/UNAIDS reports 5 million people are
infected with HIV, but this number is based on only 4,000 actual HIV-positive
test results from pregnant women.
But even these positive test results are hardly indicative of HIV-infection. The
HIV-antibody tests used in these surveys are known to come up positive based on
cross-reactions with antibodies produced from malaria, TB and parasitic
infection - all common conditions in Africa. The test manufacturers themselves
warn that pregnancy is a known cause of false positives.
Fiala: Testing pregnant women for HIV-infection is a self-fulfilling prophecy,
but pregnant women are the only people regularly tested for HIV-infection in
sub-Saharan Africa.
We're told that 28 million people worldwide and 22 million Africans have died of
AIDS. How are AIDS deaths counted in Africa?
Richards: AIDS deaths are also estimates. The number of deaths is projected from
the Epi-model estimate of HIV-infections. It is assumed that if a certain number
of people are HIV-infected, then a certain number will die of AIDS. This
assumption is based on what researchers know historically about disease
progression in AIDS patients, primarily from studies done on HIV-positive IV
drug abusers and male homosexuals in the US and Europe.
Are these numbers accurate?
Richards: No, the numbers have been greatly inflated. For example, the WHO/UNAIDS
says that there has been 2.2 million AIDS deaths in Uganda so far, but the
Ugandan Ministry of Health records a cumulative total of only 56,000 AIDS deaths
since the beginning of the epidemic. The WHO's report is 33 times higher than
the actual number of recorded, verified deaths.
As of the end of 2001, official government bodies in the developing world have
managed to account for only 7 percent of the cumulative AIDS deaths that the
WHO/UNAIDS claim have occurred. The Russian Federation can only account for only
3 percent of the UNAIDS estimate of AIDS deaths. India has 2 percent of the
UNAIDS estimate. China has only 1 percent.
If I understand correctly, the number of people we're told have HIV and AIDS in
Africa is actually an inaccurate computer extrapolation based on test results
from non-specific, cross-reacting antibody tests given to pregnant women?
Fiala: That's correct.
And the number of AIDS deaths in Africa is a projection based on the previous
estimation, and is also greatly inflated?
Richards: That is also correct.
What does an AIDS diagnosis mean for an African with TB or malaria?
Fiala: In many African clinics, basic medical supplies like antibiotics are
extremely limited. A clinic may only have 10 bottles of antibiotics. AIDS
patients are frequently refused antibiotic treatment, because it's assumed that
they'll die, no matter what. Western doctors have made it clear that AIDS is a
fatal disease. Helping them is considered a waste of scarce resources.
What's the main AIDS organization in Uganda?
Fiala: TASO - The AIDS Support Organisation. They claim to be independent, but
they're heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry. They're currently
constructing buildings to prepare the ground for massive HIV testing, with this
non-specific, cross-reacting test, and to distribute toxic AIDS drugs.
In Africa, 50 percent of the population has no access to clean drinking water
and the vast majority lack even basic medical care. And the response from
multimillion dollar AIDS organization is to promote HIV testing, give out
condoms and to implement treatment with deadly AIDS drugs. These drugs are
similar or identical to chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment. They work
by stopping cell growth. They kill your body from the inside out.
Which AIDS drugs are being used in Africa?
Fiala: Boehringer, a pharmaceutical company, has been doing studies in Uganda
with a drug called Nevirapine. The FDA refused approval of Nevirapine in the US
for so-called mother to child transmission because it's ineffective and has
deadly side effects, but this is exactly how the drug is being used in Africa -
on pregnant women and unborn children.
In one drug trial, 17 percent of patients taking Nevirapine developed liver
problems. A US health care worker taking Nevirapine had to have a liver
transplant to save his life as a result of drug toxicity. Five women in South
Africa died and dozens developed severe liver problems in a combination AIDS
drug trial that included Nevirapine.
The manufacturer's warning label for Nevirapine itself states that patients
taking the drug have experienced: “Severe, life-threatening and in some cases
fatal hepatotoxicity [liver damage],” and “severe, life-threatening skin
reactions, including fatal cases.”
These are the most toxic drugs known to medicine, and they're being applied to
the most vulnerable part of the population - pregnant mothers, unborn children
and newborns - all based on a faulty test, or no test at all, while their actual
food, shelter and water needs continue to be ignored.
What would actually help Africans is infrastructure development: proper
sanitation, safe water, basic medical care and plentiful, nutritive food. This
is simple, clear and logical. What's astounding is that the UN is recommending
just the opposite.
In 1999 the UNAIDS commission gave its official recommendations to a meeting of
finance ministers representing various African countries. The UN's exact
recommendations to African nations: to redirect billions of dollars from health,
infrastructure and rural development into AIDS - condoms, safe sex lectures and
deadly pharmaceuticals. This is not what these already suffering people need to
be healthy and successful. This is exactly how to propagate death, disease and
poverty.
Afterword:
If the AIDS story in Africa feels like a parody of a bureaucratic blunder, take
note: In April of this year, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced
a new HIV testing strategy for the United States. Rather than relying on
voluntary HIV-testing, federal officials are urging the testing of all pregnant
women in the US, and are implementing measures to make HIV-testing a routine
part of hospital visits. The CDC is promoting a rapid HIV-test for use in all
federally funded clinics, as well as homeless shelters, prisons and substance
abuse treatment centers.
The HIV-antibody tests are known to cross-react with antibodies produced during
pregnancy, drug abuse and nearly 70 other common conditions, and no HIV test is
FDA approved to diagnose HIV infection. The standard medical treatment for HIV
infection is a combination of the most toxic drugs ever manufactured.
“The AIDS Debate” series has explored the scientific and sociological process
that formed HIV theory, and the ramifications of a speculative theory enforced
upon a trusting, uninformed public.
We must ask ourselves, are we doing the best we can for sick people? Is the best
we can offer impoverished Africans AZT and Nevirapine? Is the best we can do for
drug-addicted mothers is force more drugs into their system? And what about
people unlucky enough to register HIV positive on these scientifically
unvalidated tests. Do they deserve to be told that they have a fatal illness?
“As to diseases, make a habit of two things-to help, or at least to do no harm."
As for human beings, one thing's for sure. We can always do better.