THE FAUCI FILES, 3( 78): Antiviral Iatroimmunopathogenesis of AIDS:

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

August 24, 2000

When controlling for the junk science bias that
permeates nearly all clinical drug research
studies (that is, any statement or claim that
is not directly proven by the study data),
one often finds that the data contradicts
the biased opinions and misinterpretations of
the researchers.

For example, when the Associated Press reports
this paragraph:

  "While new medicines have dramatically
   reduced the chances  of HIV patients developing
   AIDS, a new study indicates the percentage 
   who contract non-Hodgkins lymphoma has
   quadrupled since the drugs were  introduced
   six years ago."

One must identify and remove any claims that are
not proven by the study data, such as the
typical anecdotal claims of efficacy:

   "While new medicines have dramatically
    reduced the chances of HIV patients
    developing AIDS,"


Thus as we arrive at the ONLY findings of fact,
one can clearly see how different the facts
appear when the subjective window dressing
is stripped off, leaving the facts to stand
on their own merit:

    "a new study indicates the percentage 
     who contract non-Hodgkins lymphoma has
     quadrupled since the drugs were introduced
     six years ago."

Here are the exact statistics:

   "In 1994, 4 percent of the progression from HIV to 
    AIDS was due to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. By the
    end of the study, the  disease accounted
    for 16 percent of AIDS diagnoses."

And the ONLY factual data becomes:

Percentage of AIDS Patients with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

          Before HAART     After HAART
            (1994)        (after 1994)
                            
              4%               16%


Unfortunately, when science researchers become
"checkbook researchers", what emerges from the
milieu of rewards for bias with punishments
for non-bias is inescapable: a plunge in IQs;
"corporate memories"; cognitive disabilities;
impaired judgements and increased incidences
of anti-social behavior with manipulative
features. Thus high-minded concepts, such as "ethics",
become increasingly conspicuous by their
lack of meaning, which is based on what
they aren't rather than what they are.

In other words: Junk Science.


For example, how can the following statement
be considered valid when the subjective opinion
is supported by, at best, incomplete data:

   "Dr. Jens Lundgren, a professor at the University
    of Copenhagen who led the study, said he found
    an overall drop in the progression from HIV
    to AIDS of more than 90 percent, and the
    decline was sustained year after year."


What is Lundgren saying based on factual data?

Absolutely nothing! The 90% reduction in AIDS
progression has no true basis in this context
when one considers more plausible explanations
for a decreased incidence of symptomatic disease
(e.g. progression) that would have been expected
to decline for this time period at an even
higher rate than 90% !  Thus the totality of the
data forces opposite conclusions: the drug
interventions are keeping the morbidity and
mortality rate artificially higher rather
than lower.

Thus Occam's Razor offers the more likely
scenario that is not only consistent with the
epidemiological realities as applied to the
disease trajectory, but best explains how the
use of immunosuppressive drugs as the "treatment"
for diseases of immunosuppression has
favored a quadrupling of the lymphoma rate.

The data is perfectly consistent:

More Immunosuppressive drugs  = More Immunosuppression.

More immunosuppression = More Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Conclusion:

   Antiviral  Iatroimmunopathogenesis of AIDS



W. Fred Shaw, Editor
THE FAUCI FILES

---

AIDS Treatments Studied

By EMMA ROSS .c The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - While new medicines have dramatically
reduced the chances  of HIV patients developing AIDS, a new
study indicates the percentage  who contract non-Hodgkins
lymphoma has quadrupled since the drugs were  introduced six
years ago.

People infected with HIV are defined as having AIDS when
their immune  systems become so weak that they get one of 26
illnesses, including  non-Hodgkins lymphoma, as well as
pneumonia, brain infections and some  other cancers.

Experts have known that the effectiveness of the new
combination drug  therapy, called highly active
antiretrovirals, varies depending on which of the 26
AIDS-defining illnesses are involved. Some experts  have
reported suspicions the new therapy doesn't work as well for
non-Hodgkins lymphoma as for the other diseases.

"This paper is probably the most compelling data to date to
support  that suspicion," Dr. Mark Jacobson, a professor
and AIDS specialist at  the University of California-San
Francisco, said of the Danish study,  published this week in
the British medical journal The Lancet.

In defining whether an HIV sufferer has developed AIDS, the
U.S. Centers  for Disease Control also considers a drop in
the blood levels of CD4 T  cells - the immune system's key
infection fighters - to a level below  200 per cubic
millimeter of blood.

The highly active antiretrovirals were introduced in 1994 to
help  prevent HIV patients from progressing to AIDS. They
inhibit the ability  of HIV to reproduce itself in the
blood, keeping down the amount of the  virus in the body.

The cocktail has dramatically improved health and survival
in the United  States and Europe.

The Danish study of 7,300 European HIV patients found that
even if  patients' CD4 cell count dropped well below 200,
the new combination  therapy still protected them from
AIDS-defining illnesses.

Dr. Badara Samb, care adviser at UNAIDS, a joint program of
the United  Nations and the World Health Organization,
called that finding "encouraging."

Dr. Jens Lundgren, a professor at the University of
Copenhagen who led  the study, said he found an overall drop
in the progression from HIV to AIDS of more than 90
percent, and the decline was sustained year after year.

Lundgren also found that the number of HIV-positive people
developing  non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph
glands, has declined among  people taking the new drugs, but
not by as much as other diseases.

That means the cancer makes up a larger proportion of AIDS
diagnoses  than it did before. In 1994, 4 percent of the
progression from HIV to  AIDS was due to non-Hodgkins
lymphoma. By the end of the study, the  disease accounted
for 16 percent of AIDS diagnoses.

The study speculated that using the combination drug therapy
earlier in  the progression of HIV might prevent the cancer.

AP-NY-07-20-00 1902EDT

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